大象传媒

Gwendoline Alice Jones D.o.B. 3 May 1922

My older brother Denis was a Flying Officer (Lancaster Bombers) in the RAF and my older sister Dorothy was in the ATS and I was anxious to make my own contribution to the war effort. I was working as a civil servant in the Inland Revenue and my boss required a replacement before he would allow me to enlist and so there was a delay of several months before I joined up in July 1943, when I was 21.

I enlisted at Guilford 9th July 1943 in the A.T.S. as a volunteer, and did three weeks鈥� basic training at Queens Camp, Guilford. I was then posted to Douglas, Isle of Man, to train as a special Wireless Operator, Royal Corps of Signals, for four months. Our billet was a row of hotels on the sea front next to an Italian Prisoner of War Camp. The local population was very welcoming.

I was then posted to 2 Company, 1 Command Signals, Queen Ethelburga鈥檚 School, Harrogate, Yorkshire, in December 1943, as a Special Wireless Operator, B111. I subsequently passed further tests and qualified as SBO B11. We worked in shifts to cover 24 hours a day in a cycle of four days. The shifts lasted between 7 and 9 hours during which we listened and recorded transmissions often through static and interference. On one occasion during our break I well remember being given a cold baked bean sandwich. The wireless station was in an isolated place out on the moors and we tended to lose touch with the real world. It was hard work and living in a barrack room for part of the time, especially in the winter when it was bitterly cold was not easy. We took it in turns to light the barrack room stove and the accepted method was to kick it and say 鈥淟ight, you swine鈥� - sometimes it worked! I found adjusting to barrack room life quite easy, as one of five children I did not worry about lack of privacy. The food was plain and but adequate. We had to keep our knife, fork and spoon with us at all times and were responsible for washing them ourselves. I remember once coming home from night duty sleeping with my head resting on my fork. There was a huge camaraderie among the girls which I have never subsequently encountered in any other situation.

During my time in Harrogate my sister in the A.T.S. got married just prior to the invasion when all leave was cancelled. I was at that time living in a barrack room with 27 other girls, one of whom was an unfortunate Lance Corporal who was supposed to keep us in order. Wearing a borrowed suit of civilian clothes I crept out of the barrack room and out of the camp through a hole in the boundary where I heard what I thought was one of the guard dogs patrolling the boundary. It wasn鈥檛, but whatever it was, it gave me the fright of my life. Anyway, past the Guardroom and to Harrogate and home to London for the wedding, then reverse the journey to creep quietly back to my bunk bed where everyone else was sleeping peacefully. The hapless L/C had missed me but had been told that I was over in the school having a bath 鈥� a very long one.

The job ended with V E Day (7 May 1945). I was posted to London and did nothing much at the War Office. I think the Army was rather desperate to know what to do with us. After a while I was posted to Catterick Camp for further training as a Wireless Operator, i.e. sending as well as receiving.

We then had to re-enlist either: for cookhouse work, probably as an orderly (!) , or office work
or as a switch board operator.
I was going back to office work when de-mobbed, so chose S.B.O.
I was posted to Devon, somewhere near Newton Abbot for training (with plenty of cider) then posted to Tilbury and billeted at Grays. Whilst there, I was offered a stripe with a view to staying in the Army and taking a commission, but I wanted to get back to my life in the real world and refused. I was demobilised on 1st October 1946.

I still have my AB64 and A.T.S. Release Book.

I found it very difficult to settle back into civilian life, particularly to work office hours. Simple things like having to decide what clothes to wear after three and a half years of wearing a uniform was difficult. It was hard to communicate with such a varied group of people in the office and to turn back into an individual.

On reading through this, it seems very trivial in comparison with the experiences of the men on active service who fought and all too often died for their country. We did the best we could, however, and hopefully made some contribution towards ultimate victory.

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