Women in Wartime

The following story was compiled by my mother and her memories of her time working on the railway!
"Railway Goods - The Unsung War Work"
During the second world war, not all women, who were directed into war work, wore uniform or seemed to be acknowledged as being in service.

The employment was tied, that is we were not allowed to leave other than to go into one of the armed services or the land army.

May I explain further, in 1941 we, as a group of young women who had become 17½ years old, were directed to become the staff at Rotherham Masboro’ goods yard, taking the place of the young men who had been or were to be called up, hence we were taught our respective jobs in various departments often by men nearing retirement age, and I must say they were very tolerant.

They taught us the idiosyncransies of railway jargon, such as Hot boxes, Demurrage and how and why wagons broke down and what to do about them.

The first office we trained in was Correspondence office where all incoming mail was sorted and registered with suitable reference, and passed forward for attention. When suitably dealt with was either sent out by post, again registered in the post book, or sent out by Internal Mail envelope.

The Accounts department was mostly run by two maiden ladies and two elder men, who were the epitome of detail and very good teachers, bearing in mind, we were seated at high desks and stools with big hand-written ledgers to add up correctly, no adding machines and remembering this was in £.s.d. Old Money!

Another more complex department was the Delivery office. The staff there were often men, who dealt with the Dray men, or Roundsmen , who , with Horse and Dray did the collection or delivery of Goods being transported by railway wagons, round the town and certain areas ,they operated from an area called The Shed . The Stables for the horses was located at the far end of the Goods Yard.

In the shipping department we were directed by the chief shipper called Sid Foster, who had to know where all Government traffic was to be directed, to the correct tranship point, only communicated to us, who typed Goverment invoices (5 copies) on ancient typewriters (Underwoods) by symbols. Such knowledge was never written down and had to be memorised.
It was not until the possibility if invasion was talked about did we realise that we had access, in memory to much to much classified information, within our daily routine.

Another thing to remember was that all lighting of the offices was by gas-light (not very bright) considering the delicate nature of gas mantles.

Also we were all detailed to belong to the Home Guard, ( please don’t laugh)
we duly assembled for instruction on how to handle a rifle,!!!
My experience was, I sprained my wrist, so was transferred to the Signals section to learn Morse code etc.

The service entailed long hours within the departments dealing with Government traffic and we were responsible to the Army Railway Transport Officer to who we had to report at the end of each day.

The heating in the main offices was by coal fires, and in the smaller offices was by small Jumbo stoves. Certainly a cool reception on Monday mornings until the fires made their presence felt.

The fact that railway offices had been male dominated, we found that there were no Ladies toilet or washing facilities within the Goods area. The nearest was under the tunnel , up the Passenger platform to the end where the Ladies Waiting Room was, this was a matter of 150 yards, in all weathers.
There were no Canteen facilities, so we all had to ensure we had adequate food ( rather difficult on rations) and certainly not a deal of tea-breaks.

There were no canteen facilities, so we all had to ensure we had adequate food, (rather difficult on rations) and certainly not a deal of tea breaks.

When the was ended, our job was then to teach the returning young men our jobs, which proved non too easy for them to accept and in due course those who married or wished to leave were made redundant. Some of course stayed in the service with the then L.M.S ( London, Scottish & Midland) railway company and were deployed suitably.

Regrettably, many young men whom we had relived did not return and were sadly missed.

All’s well that ends well and of the original nine of us who worked there, seven have been and are in continuous correspondence over the years, regrettably one died last year from Multiple sclerosis. It is to be commended that we have had an enduring friendship for over sixty years.

Mrs E D Phillips
Spring Gardens
Tewkesbury
Gloucestershire.

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