大象传媒

My mother, Joan Merritt nee Rose was in the Waaf during the war. She was based at Tangmere, in West Sussex, and later, MiddleWallop, in Hampshire.

She met my father, Tom Merritt, also at Tangmere,and they married in 1948. It was meant that they should meet: not only did they have a mutual friend at Tangmere, but my mother came to live in Midhurst,West Sussex (my father's home town) when her father, a Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Navy was posted to the town. My Grandfather, Albert Rose was sent to Midhurst to take charge of an air field used by the Fleet Air Arm, at Selham, near Midhurst. (The field belonged to Lord Cowdray, and is now a polo field).

Having been told about my mother by a mutual friend, my father knocked on her door (a few yards from his home)and said: "My dog would like to go for a walk".

My mother was in the Operations room at Tangmere, where she plotted planes leaving the country on bombing raids; returning from a raid or any other airbourne activity. She was later a DF teller. She was given this role because she had done Geometry at school (not as common then as it is now) and therefore knew how to read angles off a map.

My father's first job was on dummy airfields, created with lifesize model planes to deceive the enemy. However, when a site was bombed and several people killed he asked to move as he felt he was a 'sitting target'. Ultimately, the dummy airfields were scrapped as the Germans 'got wise to them'. Later, he worked in administration at Tangmere. He was successful in his job, and was consequently offered a commission. He declined it, however, as his title would have been 'Flying Officer' and as he wasn't actually a pilot, he would have felt a fraud. His strength of feeling on this subject was due to the fact that he was denied the opportunity to be a pilot due to a physical disability. Despite enjoying his time in the airforce, he never quite got over the disappointment. Ironically, his disability probably saved his life!

My parents had a good social life in the airforce, where parties were often held in the hangers. The dance at that time was the 'jitterbug' a forerunner of 'rock n' roll'. On one occasion she danced with a Naval Officer in full dress uniform: everyone cleared the floor to watch them, and they won first prize.