Roche, Audrey Sylvia (Oral history)

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Accepted Non-commercial Use

Permitted use for these purposes:
Personal use for non-commercial research and private study and other uses under the UK’s exceptions to copyright and those exceptions to copyright in place where the user is located.
Use on websites that are primarily information-led, research-oriented and not behind a paywall.
Use on personal social media accounts, provided the individuals are not promoting themselves commercially.
Non-Commercial educational use for the purpose of teaching and instruction, including internal training.
Downloading audio-visual for non-commercial offline listening or viewing.
Free exhibitions held in venues, which do not charge an entry fee.

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Accepted Non-commercial Use

Permitted use for these purposes:
Personal use for non-commercial research and private study and other uses under the UK’s exceptions to copyright and those exceptions to copyright in place where the user is located.
Use on websites that are primarily information-led, research-oriented and not behind a paywall.
Use on personal social media accounts, provided the individuals are not promoting themselves commercially.
Non-Commercial educational use for the purpose of teaching and instruction, including internal training.
Downloading audio-visual for non-commercial offline listening or viewing.
Free exhibitions held in venues, which do not charge an entry fee.

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Description

Object description

British wren served as lorry driver with Women's Royal Naval Service at HMS St Vincent, Gosport, GB, 1940-1941; officer served as cypher officer with HMS Westcliffe, Southend-on-Sea, GB, 1941-1942; served aboard HMS Medway in Mediterranean, 6/1942, including sinking off Port Said, Egypt, 30/6/1942

Content description

REEL 1 Background in GB and Australia, 1918-1940: family education; reaction in Australia to outbreak of Second World War, 3/9/1939; return to GB, 1940; volunteering for Women's Royal Naval Service, 1940. Recollections of period as driver with Women's Royal Naval Service at HMS St Vincent, Gosport, GB, 1940-1941: duties as lorry driver; air raids, 1940-1941; main targets for German Air Force in Portsmouth area; air raid shelters; attitude towards bombing; morale during bombing; helping bombed out families; civilian attitude towards Germans; offer of commission, 1941. REEL 2 Continues: Recollections of posting as cypher officer with Women's Royal Naval Service at HMS Westcliffe, Southend-on-Sea, GB, 1941-1942: assembling of East Coast convoys at Southend-on-Sea; attitude towards period at HMS Westcliffe; duties; memories of Commander 'Fox'; memories of director of Women's Royal Naval Service, Dame Vera Laughton Mathews; volunteering for overseas service. Aspects of voyage from GB to Middle East via South Africa, 1942: stop over in South Africa; story of extra life boats that almost sank; story of accidental ramming and sinking of American merchant vessel. Recollections of period aboard HMS Medway, 1st Submarine Flotilla in Mediterranean, 6/1942 including sinking off Port Said, Egypt, 30/6/1942: role of ship as submarine depot ship. REEL 3 Continues: other Women's Royal Naval Service personnel on board ship; accommodation in sick bay; duties; torpedoing of ship by German submarine U-372, 30/6/1942; waiting to abandon ship; story of officer minder throwing her shoes overboard; waiting to get on board destroyer HMS Zulu; giving life belt to drowning Leading Seaman Leslie Crossman and her Mention in Despatches as a result; reaching rescue ship, HMS Zulu; story of seeing Captain Philip Ruck-Keene naked. REEL 4 Continues: number of crew lost during sinking; seamen that could not swim; landing of survivors at Haifa, Palestine; delayed reaction to sinking of HMS Medway. Aspects of life in GB during Second World War: question of women's safety during blackout; attitude towards American servicemen; German V2 Rocket that landed at Dovercourt/Harwich area, 9/1944

Object Details

Category: Sound
Related period: 1990 to the present day (production), Second World War (content), Second World War (association)
Creator: IWM (Production company)
Wood, Conrad (Recorder)
Roche, Audrey Sylvia (Interviewee/Speaker)
Production date: 1993-03-29
Dimensions: whole: Duration 120, Number Of Items 4
Catalogue number: 13126

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Roche, Audrey Sylvia (Oral history)

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