description
Object description
British clerk served with Women's Army Auxiliary Corps and Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps in GB and General Base Depot, Etaples and Reinforcement Camp at Camiers, France, 1917-1919
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of enlistment and training with Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in GB, 1917: background to enlistment; parent's reaction to enlistment; medical examination; training at Farnborough; uniform issued; instances of homesickness amongst recruits. Recollections of period as clerk with Women's Army Auxiliary Corps and Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps with General Base Depot at Etaples, France, 1917-1918: journey to Etaples; reception on arrival and reaction to being able to mix with men; accommodation; Women's Army Auxiliary Corps personnel at depot; attitude of commanding officer and male personnel towards female personnel; pay; rations; spending leave on coast; 21st Birthday celebrations; use of YWCA facilities; concert parties; story of missing roll call; attitude of French girls towards Women's Army Auxiliary Corps; German air raids on depot; story of loss of milk during German air raid; watching aerial combats.
REEL 2 Continues: memories of Etaples Mutiny, 9/1917; nature of clerical work; conditions during winter, 1917-1918. Aspects of period as clerk with Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps at Reinforcement Camp at Camiers, France, 1918-1919: transfer to camp at Camiers, late 1918; story of state of accommodation at Dannes on arrival and decision to stay at Camiers; incident in latrines at Dannes; Armistice Day, 11/11/1918; visit to trenches, 1919; demobilisation, 1919; attitude towards service with Women's Army Auxiliary Corps; leave.
