Description
Object description
British civilian secretary in London, GB, 9/1939-3/1943; land girl with Women's Land Army at Manor Farm, Wyton, GB, 3/1943-11/1944; secretary with Foreign Office in London, GB, 1944-1947 including attending Potsdam Conference in Germany, 7/1945-8/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Hackney, London, GB, 1922-1939: family; education; family origins; living conditions; initial employment; secretarial training; employment as secretary. Recollections of period as secretary in London, GB, 1939-1943: use of sticking paper on windows to stop flying glass; carrying gas masks; narrow escape from bombing; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; amusing story of training on stirrup pump at Air Raid Precautions centre; attitude to young male friends joining armed forces.
REEL 2 Continues: status of her job as a reserved occupation in jewellers shop; firewatching duties in Southampton Row; attitude towards air raids and use of air raid shelters; attitude towards V weapon attacks. Aspects of period as land girl with Women's Land Army at Manor Farm, Wyton, GB, 3/1943-11/1944: background to employment on farm; uniform worn; description of farm; pay and duties; working with horses; invaliding out of Women's Land Army. Recollections of period as secretary with Foreign Office in London, GB, 1944-1945: background to obtaining employment with Foreign Office; shift work; typing out decoded messages; degree of contact with Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden; attitude towards security; opinion of Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden.
REEL 3 Continues: all female secretarial staff; secretarial work; degree of security; prior recollections of Czech military personnel and Italian prisoners of war when serving as land girl; VE Day celebrations, 8/5/1945; social activities; contact with American servicemen; loss of male friends and relatives on active service; wartime attitude towards sexual relationships; continuing work with Foreign Office after end of war in Europe, 1945. Recollections of period as secretary with British Delegation during Potsdam Conference, Germany, 7/1945-8/1945: selection to delegation; devastation witnessed in Berlin; accommodation, security and messing in Babelsburg; change in prime minister after General Election, 7/1945; story of encounter with Field Marshal Harold Alexander; relations with Americans; reaction to photographs of German concentration camps.
REEL 4 Continues: story of visit to Berlin including Chancellery and Adolf Hitler's office; impressions of conditions in Berlin; degree of contact with Soviet personnel; watching 7th Armoured Div parade on arrival in Berlin, 7/1945; story of being mistaken for German women by British servicemen; socialising with Royal Navy officers including riding in Admiral Karl Doenitz's car on autobahn; reaction to Prime Minister Winston Churchill losing 1945 General Election; impressions of Prime Minister Clement Atlee and Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin; reasons for leaving Foreign Office, 1947; future husband's wartime service with Chindits in Burma Campaign. Recollections of period as civilian in Federation of Malaya during Malayan Emergency: reasons for move to Federration of Malaya.
REEL 5 Continues: husband's employment; story of being caught in insurgent ambush; sight of dead insurgent; degree of threat; attending Chinese New Year and wedding celebrations in local village; relations with Malays and Chinese people; relations with British military personnel and Gurkhas; attitude towards life during Emergency. Reflections on experiences during Second World War: story of planting roses in memory of husband in Tibetan Peace Garden adjacent to Imperial War Museum in London; attitude to wartime service; question of impact of Second World War on women's emancipation.
