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How old were you when you joined the service?

I joined the army at age 18 and was in it for seven years until I was 25. 

Why did you decide to join the army?

I always envisioned myself in the army, even as a younger girl.  My brother was in the Territorials, maybe that had something to do with inspiring me. At age 18, I joined up and I loved it.  My mother said “Don’t come back here crying if you don’t like it.” I never went crying back; I went back laughing. 

 

Tell me about some of your early military career.

I remember that we had three weeks of really intensive training and after that I was posted up to London.  Of course, at that time there were no bombs.  I was not in London for very long before I was posted to a place near Redding.  I was there for quite some time.  I remember I enjoyed it.  Now back then you had to do what you were told.  Everyone had responsibilities and you just did what you had to.  You enjoyed things as best as you could and you didn’t kick against the traces.  I volunteered for a job, I did the best I could, and I enjoyed it. 

When the War first broke out did you have any idea of the scale and size of the war?

No.  All I knew was that the war had broken out and it was France and us in England.  Then France capitulated and we were more or less on our own.  We had to take that in stride and didn’t grumble.  I think a lot of people were annoyed at France.  You never knew what France was going to do, and I don’t look on France now as a colleague because you could never trust them. When the war broke out over there we sort of all got together and said the Germans are not going to come here and that was it. 

What did you do in the army?

I did clerical work.  First of all I learned how to fill out what we called 103 forms. They were more or less histories of personnel.  I was in that office for some time and was gradually given more responsibilities to keep the records accurate for the people in the army.  I was assigned to the medical core records and learned what people did and where they went. I was in London for quite some time doing that and then after awhile we moved up to Oxford. 

Where you in London when the city was being bombed by the German Luftwaffe?

Oh, yes.  By the time that I was in London the bombing had concentrated there. Beforehand it had seemed like they were bombing the whole country, even my hometown. But at this point it seems like it was more directed at London and most often at night.  If you heard the siren go off, you went into shelter, no doubt about it. But if you didn’t hear them you carried on as normal. But when the bombing was on, you went to a shelter. I remember when I first went up to London that I was in an all female unit. We were boarded in a building on the second floor. But we were not allowed to sleep there.  We had to go up the road and go down into an air raid shelter, which housed people from almost all branches of the armed forces.  The beds were set up permanently.  They were three tiered beds and I was lucky that I got the top tier.  Once the air raids sirens had gone off you would just listen for the bang. If it was loud it was somewhere near. If it wasn’t loud then you would wonder where it had hit. You would never know until later.  I was lucky.  My family was in the Midlands, which was fairly small and none of them were killed or injured during the bombings. 

What was the mood in London during the days of the bombings?

For the most part everyone carried on as normal.  When the air raid sirens would go off everyone would vanish into the air raid shelters and as soon as the all clear signal came everyone would go out and carry on as normal.

 

 





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