Recording

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

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.