大象传媒

This story has been contributed to the People's War by the 大象传媒 Learning Centre, Gloucester, on behalf of Pat Trigg and Doreen Clifton with their permission.

The Girls Training Corps began in November 1943 and we all met up at the village memorial hall in Minsterworth with some of the stalwarts from the village like the vicar Mr Fuist and Mrs William Viner-Ellis and Mrs Venables.

It seemed to be to complement the Army Training Corps and the Air Cadets because they came around about the same time. We were both 16 and this was training for young people who were not old enough to go into the Forces.

Doreen: I was still at school, Ribston Hall in Gloucester
Pat: I was working in a delicatessen in Northgate Street, Gloucester.

It was the first time we two had met because we came from opposite ends of a very long village - and we have been best friends ever since. The Girls Training Corps was one of the first joint ventures between Minsterworth and Westbury parish.

Our parents encouraged us to go but it took some time to get off the ground. Later on we got a uniform 鈥� forage cap, navy blue battle blouse, skirt, black tie, black stockings and black shoes. We had to order it all from headquarters.

The first meeting was all about formalities, where they were going to bank the money, but I couldn鈥檛 imagine we would have any money as no one had much in those days. The subs were tuppence a week and instructions came from headquarters and there were set things you had to do like drill, craft sessions where we made things to sell for funds, but each thing had to be made to a strict specification, and we did drama too.

Associating with other units was quite a thing 鈥� there were units in Cheltenham, Gloucester, Stroud and Cinderford 鈥� and you were expected to do quite a lot for the local community. One year we took toys we鈥檇 made to an orphanage near Tewkesbury, it had once been Barbara Cartland鈥檚 home we were told, and another time during the latter part of the war we had the children from the orphanage back to the village hall for a party.

The last lady in charge of out unit was a Mrs Robinson, she was a teacher at Widden and she could do anything like crafts and country dancing 鈥� we won an award for that. She was lovely, and like one of us. The others were a bit military and severe!

You had to do your bit for the war effort. There were people who came to help pick potatoes in the village and we were expected to put on socials and such-like.

There was a Mr Ayland in Westbury who took us everywhere in his bus, we called him Uncle Freddie. Whenever he took us out he鈥檇 say: 鈥淭oilets coming up girls, anybody needing them?鈥� And he鈥檇 get out and go in the gents and come out and say 鈥淗alf in there, and half in there鈥� and he鈥檇 stand in the middle and say 鈥淵ou鈥檙e quite all right girls, I鈥檓 here.鈥�

He ran a local bus service from Westbury and used to pick up people鈥檚 shopping, even bring fish and chips round on a Saturday. He was a wonderful chap.

On our record cards we got marks for drill, first aid, nursing, and home planning. We were taught first aid by a lovely nurse called Miss Harvey who used to ride round Gloucester on her bicycle. She was a charmer.

Our first national birthday party was at the Albert Hall. We saw the Queen, she was Princess Elizabeth, then, with a hat on like Carmen Miranda.

What did we gain by being in the GTC? Top was confidence - to be able to do things such as reading a piece in church at one of our special parades, also to be able to stand up and give a vote of thanks for something someone had done for us, and to converse with people who at that time would have been 'above our station' - headquarters staff from both London and Gloucestershire, the Army officers who took our drill exams, and dear old Colonel Lloyd-Baker, a regular visitor and a lovely gentleman.

Next we learned reliability - being able to organise a dance or whatever to raise funds, from writing the first letter to the band asking for dates acceptable to them (no telephone or email then!) right through to the thank-you letters and adding up the balance sheets. It was better than a business school. We also learned to be reliable for other people. Several times we took the unit our of uniform to London for a weekend - Friday evening to Sunday. We never lost anyone thought perhaps a few escaped down the wrong escalator but they were soon found, as they had been told what to do if lost - stand still and wait, it worked.

Apart from these two things there was the comradeship of the GTC and we visited a lot of places that we would never have otherwise gone. We have great memories.

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