Description
Object description
A ts memoir (25pp, written October 2008) of her time spent in the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) during the Second World War, living in Rochester, Kent, working in the Guildhall surveyor's department, but leaving with her mother to go to Hull to join her father, a Royal Navy Engineer Officer reparing HMS JERSEY, joining the WRNS in June, aged 20, working in the Signals Office of Flag Officer, Humber, Hull (HMS BEAVER), her duties, off duty time, her uniform, posting to Chatham to be near her mother who had returned home to Kent, appointment to the office of the Commodore of Chatham Barracks (HMS PEMBROKE) (January 1941), working as a writer (clerk), playing hockey agains the crew of HMS EURYALUS, a parachute mine exploding near her quarters, being recommended for a commission and time at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, passing out as a Third Officer, appointed to Wren HQ Officers' Appointments, organising Wrens' entry to RNC Greenwich for their OTC, and then their postings, her posting to the Naval staff at RAF Bomber Command near High Wycombe, the better living conditions, her secretarial duties, seeing AVM 'Bomber' Harris in the Ops room, based in a bunker in a wood, promotion to 2nd Officer, volunteering to go to India, flying in a Liberator with others via Lisbon, and Tripoli, to Cairo (August 1943), not having parachutes or life rafts as the mail bags took up space, flying on in a Sunderland to India, ending in Old Delhi, the weather and conditions, working in a small combined operations planning team aimed at the Arakan coast of Burma, the group being absorbed into the new SEAC and moving to New Delhi, working as Assistant Secretary to an Admiral who was liaison between Delhi and the C-in-C Eastern Fleet, having to stop Orde Wingate taking one her Wrens on the second Chindit expedition, with throughout anecdotes including getting lost in woods and being thought of as a spy when she asked for directions to the base, seeing the 'quit India' campaign, leave, dinner at the Viceroy's House, time in Trincomalee, Ceylon, hearing of VE Day but no celebrations as the Far East war was still raging, sailing to the UK in the liner CANTON with repatriated ex-prisoners of war, and her leaving the service in 1946. Together with appendices including: a photocopy of a photograph of her in uniform of a Third Officer, WRNS; a photocopy of her certificate of service; a photocopy of a letter thanking her for her service and letting her keep her rank (November 1945); her WRNS S.450 Certificate of service (the first in her maiden name of Bird, the last two under her first married name Scott); and photocopies of a letter she had written to Professor Hugh Trevor-Roper (January 1991), and his reply, on the subject of her flight in a Liberator in 1943 and the crash which killed General Sikorski.
Content description
A ts memoir (25pp, written October 2008) of her time spent in the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) during the Second World War, living in Rochester, Kent, working in the Guildhall surveyor's department, but leaving with her mother to go to Hull to join her father, a Royal Navy Engineer Officer reparing HMS JERSEY, joining the WRNS in June, aged 20, working in the Signals Office of Flag Officer, Humber, Hull (HMS BEAVER), her duties, off duty time, her uniform, posting to Chatham to be near her mother who had returned home to Kent, appointment to the office of the Commodore of Chatham Barracks (HMS PEMBROKE) (January 1941), working as a writer (clerk), playing hockey agains the crew of HMS EURYALUS, a parachute mine exploding near her quarters, being recommended for a commission and time at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, passing out as a Third Officer, appointed to Wren HQ Officers' Appointments, organising Wrens' entry to RNC Greenwich for their OTC, and then their postings, her posting to the Naval staff at RAF Bomber Command near High Wycombe, the better living conditions, her secretarial duties, seeing AVM 'Bomber' Harris in the Ops room, based in a bunker in a wood, promotion to 2nd Officer, volunteering to go to India, flying in a Liberator with others via Lisbon, and Tripoli, to Cairo (August 1943), not having parachutes or life rafts as the mail bags took up space, flying on in a Sunderland to India, ending in Old Delhi, the weather and conditions, working in a small combined operations planning team aimed at the Arakan coast of Burma, the group being absorbed into the new SEAC and moving to New Delhi, working as Assistant Secretary to an Admiral who was liaison between Delhi and the C-in-C Eastern Fleet, having to stop Orde Wingate taking one her Wrens on the second Chindit expedition, with throughout anecdotes including getting lost in woods and being thought of as a spy when she asked for directions to the base, seeing the 'quit India' campaign, leave, dinner at the Viceroy's House, time in Trincomalee, Ceylon, hearing of VE Day but no celebrations as the Far East war was still raging, sailing to the UK in the liner CANTON with repatriated ex-prisoners of war, and her leaving the service in 1946. Together with appendices including: a photocopy of a photograph of her in uniform of a Third Officer, WRNS; a photocopy of her certificate of service; a photocopy of a letter thanking her for her service and letting her keep her rank (November 1945); her WRNS S.450 Certificate of service (the first in her maiden name of Bird, the last two under her first married name Scott); and photocopies of a letter she had written to Professor Hugh Trevor-Roper (January 1991), and his reply, on the subject of her flight in a Liberator in 1943 and the crash which killed General Sikorski.
History note
Cataloguer EP