Pay Office and Codings

My mother cannot write now and is 89yrs., old. She was based at Windsor HMS President III, having left the BBC Manchester as a secretary at the beginning of the War. Her father, from sale, was not amused initially! As a job in the BBC was considered very secure in those days. She attended the Duke of Connaught's funeral at the rear of the Gun Carriage. Princess Anne was not the first to do this afterall. The Navy placed the Wrens behind the carriage because the men were at sea. The Duke of Connaught was laid to rest at Frogmore, Windsor Great Park. Mother was asked to move the Pay office from Eton College [fitted with showers by the Americans] to Dedworth Manor Country Park. The Army had to move out much to their disgust. King George was saluted regularly in Windsor.In London, she caught taxis during the Blitz, as she became claustrophobic in closed spaces due to the bombing.When I was 14 I caught her smoking during a thunder and lightning storm and this is why!I was puzzled why mother moved from here to HMS Eaglet, Salford and Liverpool? She could not afford to live in the South and she transferred to the docks there. One of the few women allowed near the sights that came off the ships from Africa etc.,. The naval ratings were made to stand out of bed to receive their pay, if possible. Bombed regularly, shrapnel flying past her head on occasions, she worked under a Commander Grove. I think she was bombed out in bristol once. One tin box left, her uniform and nothing else. She went to the Post Master to check her savings in a burnt out book.Attending a wedding in Wilmslow in the 80's, years later, she recognised the vicar as his brother! She will not go into too much detail even now, of the work she did, SS Politician gets a mention, sinking off the West Coast of Scotland and The Bank of England Clearing Houses based at trentham Gardens, Stoke-on-Trent. She became a teacher after the war, emergency trained instilling the naval discipline in her pupils! I joked with her one day that the army did everything in triplicate and she looked at me ruthfully and informed that the Navy did everything in quadruplet! This missive is for her, because without her courage as a single mother ,[in a day when it was not that fashionable]for most of my life,I would not be here telling you her memories of a time which simply put, humbles me. Burny.

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