During the war, I was in Oxford with the WRNS (The Women’s Royal Navy Service).
I joined in 1943 because I liked the uniform, a double-breasted jacket and skirt, with shirt and tie! It attracted posh girls with names like Philippa and Henrietta. But I didn’t like it at first because we had to get up at 5.30am to scrub floors… I nearly decided to come home but in the end my pride stopped me.
I was a humble WREN, the only WREN, working in the Inter-services Topographical Department, a joint British Army and Navy organisation responsible for supplying topographic intelligence for all combined operations and in particular, for preparing reports in advance of military operations. After having cycled from Tring to Oxford, I had to make the tea and wash up. After the invasion, I did a lot of messing about that you couldn’t really call work, including knitting.
On 8 May 1945 I remember going into Oxford where it was quite fun. I remember Churchill saying something like ‘We can have a lot of time rejoicing but we’ve a lot of hard work yet to do’. My boss, Major Andrews, said ‘You have magic in your fingers’, and after the war he got me a job on the Economist, drafting charts and maps as the war continued on the Malay peninsula.
Shared by Grace Hodge
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