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Margaret Boon — A Wren in the the Naval Postal Service.

This story was submitted to the Peoples War Site by Peter Nicholas of Link into Learning, Cornwall County Council. It was recorded on behalf of Mrs. Boon by the Stroke Association, St. Blazey, Cornwall and Link into Learning. It has been added to the Peoples War site with Mrs. Bond’s permission and she fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

When war was declared, I was living with my parents at 44 Bellclose Road, West Drayton. My father became an ambulance driver and he worked hard during the air raids. When he was not working he was Fire Watching. I also went Fire Watching but my Father managed to get me out of it. I worked as a typist at the nearby Horlicks Factory.
Our home was close to what is now Heathrow Airport, there were a lot of airfields around our area to protect London and air raids were frequent. On one occasion some of the houses at the bottom of our road were hit and destroyed. One day the air raid sirens went off and Mother, our dog and I rushed off to the Anderson Shelter in the Garden. Bombs began to explode nearby and Mother drew the curtain over the shelter entrance. The curtain did not make any difference as debris and bits from the explosions flew into the shelter. We were not hurt and afterwards Mother and I used to laugh about it.
In 1942 I joined the Wrens. I was sent to Scotland and spent two years in the Clyde area where I trained in Postal Work. This was vital work in helping those away from home to keep in touch with their families and friends. Although we were never told formally, sometimes we knew if a ship had been lost. After training I was sent to London and I worked in a Post Office there for a short period of two weeks. Although there was bombing, I wasn’t afraid. I had a job to do and got on with it. In 1944 I was posted to Ceylon, what is now Sri Lanka.
I sailed to Ceylon with twenty other Wrens on the SS Strathmore. We sailed from Liverpool in a convoy that was only the second to pass through the Mediterranean after Operation Torch. On the way the ship was attacked by enemy Stuka bombers and this was a frightening experience.
Once in Ceylon I was based at Trincomalee on the East Coast of the island. There I spent two years at the naval base at Yard Cove, where most of my time was spent letter sorting. The mail that we dealt was that for the sailors on ships.
In our spare time in Ceylon we went swimming in the cove. In 1946 I returned to England where I was demobbed.