NFS as a single parent 1940-1943

My husband and I were married in 1937 and lived in a rural area just outside Northampton town. Our first daughter was born in 1938 and our second in July 1940 when I was 23 years old. Eight weeks later my husband joined the RAF. After his training he was sent to North Africa. We did not see him again until after the war ended in 1945.

In the autumn of 1940, my mother came to live with us to get away from London bombing. My father was managing a NAFFI depot in Derbyshire. That winter he also came to live with me after recovering from pneumonia. His lungs had been damaged by gas in world war one. After a few weeks he went to a nearby aerodrome, Sywell, as a volunteer night watchman.

It was decided at that time that I should look for a job of some sort, mainly for necessary help with the housekeeping, especially as my mother could look after the children. As I was a trained telephone operator, I was able to get a post at the fire station working on the switchboard. Soon after this the Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) became the National Fire Service (NFS), when many more women were taken on and uniforms were issued. I was then recommended to go to Nottingham, where I was interviewed for officer rank. I was successful and went to the Ocean Hotel in Peacehaven to train. On my return I went back to the fire station, working the same five day week.

My children were in loving and capable hands and, though it was hard to leave them, I felt I was doing worthwhile work. From 9 to 5 each day I trained the new recruits to be ready for bombing raids and the consequences. I taught control room tasks, communications, the mobilising room, stirrup pump drill, first aid squad drill, etc.

Another women was being trained to take my place because I was offered another posting. This was to do the same work but at the main training station. Lord Furness had vacated his house, Keythorpe in Tugby, and lent it to the NFS for the duration of the war. When I was there the house was shared by about twenty men and fifteen women. Their courses lasted for two weeks for the men and one week for the women. As the new intake started on the same day of each two weeks, it meant that I had seven days at home every other week.

In the spring of 1943 my father died. He was only 63. My mother was so devastated that I could not leave her and I had to resign.

In the autumn of that year I went to work at Mettoy, an armaments factory in Northampton, as a night nurse. I worked five nights a week from 9 pm to 5 am with a wage of £5 a week. I did that until the end of the war.

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