As a cook I once ended up on the floor, covered in custard?

MONICA EDWARDS (nee Lang)
WOMENS’S AUXILLARY AIR FORCE

Monica was born in Horden, Co, Durham, the eldest of seven. Her father was a miner, and sadly died of silicosis. After leaving school she did various domestic and factory jobs.

I volunteered in 1941 when I was 19 and was sent to Bridgenorth for training. I can remember being very cold in the little shorts we had to wear. It was terrible ~ there was a lot of ‘square-bashing’. After selection I was sent to Conningsby and Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire, then we all went to Bourne, near Cambridge for a year. I wanted to drive or be a balloon operator, but ended up as a cook for the whole the time. I was a LACW (Leading Aircraft Woman) with no ‘stripes’. My number was 2094991 and my nickname was ‘Pip’ ~ my friends were ‘Squeak’ and ‘Wilfred’ ~ we names ourselves after the comedy trio.

I had a bit of training to be a cook. There were huge boilers and huge mixers. I remember making stews and we had ‘tons’ of vegetables. I was once making custard and was helping carry it from the preparation room when I slipped on the floor and was covered. The Sergeant, a horrid man, shouted “Get up” but I started to laugh and fortunately so did he. There were parties to celebrate VE and VJ Days. We had to prepare the food for these and I remember making vast amo8nts of sausage rolls.

We lived in long huts with a horrid smelly stove in the middle and rows of beds. Sometimes we got the bus out of camp into Lincoln or Cambridge. I remember one occasion when we had come off night duty and had just seen a lamb being born and we fell asleep outside and were all burnt by the sun. We didn’t have many long ‘leaves’ ~ only once did I have a ‘48 hour leave’ to go home for my sister’s birthday party. We used to go to Church, followed by a drink in The Black Swan (which we called The Mucky Duck) and have a sing-song around the piano. There were dances and parties and people coming to entertain.

I was once standing on a corner waiting for the bus into Lincoln and an ‘L’ driver in a jeep came round the corner and pinned me to the wall and took the skin off my face. I was unconscious for a couple of days. I worked in all the Messes and knew a lot of the pilots and sometimes they didn’t come back. I remember one got married and a week later he died. I spent the last months at Alnwick then we all had to go to Birminghm to be de-mobbed.

Monica married her husband after the War. He was a joiner and they lived in Newton Aycliffe, then retired to Gainford to be near her family. She is a devout ‘Church goer’.

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