Description
Object description
British clerk served with Women's' Auxiliary Air Force in GB, 1942-1946
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Edinburgh, 1923-1942: family background and social circumstances; education; Girl Guides activities; secretarial training at business school, 1938-1939; work as secretary for law firm, 1939-1942; reactions to outbreak of war, 3/9/1939; communal air raid shelter; blackout; clothes and food rationing; German air raids and view of bombing of Glasgow; effects of casualties; question of following progress of war; question of call up and volunteering for Women's' Auxiliary Air Force, 1942. Reception on joining Women's' Auxiliary Air Force at Bridgenorth, 7/1942-8/1942: train journey; kitting out. Basic training with WAAF at Morecambe, 8/1942: billets and attitude of owner; drill; gas mask training; question of PT; food rations; question kit inspections.
REEL 2 Continues: question of homesickness; relationship with instructors and officers. Period in adjutant's officer, RAF Coastal Command Station, Macmerry, 8/1942-10/1942: billet; shorthand and typing duties. Period at Headquarters, 17 Group, RAF at Palmerston Place, Edinburgh, 1942: reaction to posting; confusion over posting. Periods at HQ, 27 Group, RAF, at Cirencester and Southrop, 1942-1945: duties working for RAF officer in general office; leave passes; postal duties; return to duties working for RAF officer in general office; visit from Queen Elizabeth; daily routine; attending RAF dances; role as duty clerk; relationship with ORs, NCOs and officers; recreations; secondment to work in Court Martial Dept, RAF, Ruislip including duties and billet; move to Southrop. Period at East Fortune, 1945-1946: question of VE day, 8/5/1945; work for medical officer; accommodation.
REEL 3 Period at Pitraevie Castle, Dunfermline, 1946: story of meeting futures husband Corporal Bob Nelson; minimal duties; attitude to demobilisation; weekend visits to Edinburgh; demobilisation. Post-war career: return to live in Edinburgh; work as secretary for BBC; marriage, 30/8/1947; move to Consett; question of working after marriage; enjoyment of service with WAAF.