About the contributor

I volunteered for the WAAF when I was 18 yrs. old and received my initial training at Innsworth Lane, Gloucester. I wanted to be a Wireless Operator as I knew the morse code from my Girl Guide days, but I was persuaded to be a Clerk/General Duties as I had had clerical experience and there was a waiting time for the Wireless Course of several weeks. After the initial training, to my great disapppointment,I was posted to the permanent staff on the same camp.
There I had a boring job in the Documents Section which was collecting the five documents for each recruit, from the various sections, collating them and posting them to stations all over the U.K where the recruit was going. There were hundreds of girls arriving daily at the camp-some conscripts but mostly volunteers of all ages up to 45 yrs. old. They carried their little cardboard boxes which contained the civilian issue gas mask and one small suitcase and looking already tired and bewildered at what was to become of them. Whilst there, I was entered for the clerical trade test and I passed with high marks so was upgraded from ACW 2 to LACW, bypassing the ACW 1 grade.Pay parade was fortnightly and the beginning rate was seven shillings a week, so I received then eighteen shillings each pay day. It was a bitterly cold winter, the huts were freezing and the water in the ablution huts was hardly ever hot. I heard that there were better stations to be on, so when I saw a notice in the Daily Routine Orders for volunteers for Psychological Duties, I applied having no idea what the work would involve, and didn't really know what the word meant. I was the only one of my friends who was called to the Orderly Room the following January (1942) to be told that I was posted to Cambridge University for a course. The others, I think, had been persauded by the Sargeant to cancel their applications as they were more favoured than I was.
There were eduational and intelligence tests given to us to assess our suitability, so some girls were failed and sent back to their previous station. About thirty of us were put on a course at Downing College and were billeted in a large empty house at Newnham, called Owlstone Croft, which had previously been a Nurses Home. It wasn't ready for us really and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves with no-one to supervise us and no rules of any kind. There followed a three month course under Professor F.C. Bartlett on Intelligence and Aptitude Testing, Statistics, Psychology and Electrical Maintenance of equipment which included an understanding of the cathode ray tube. We were being trained as teams of testers for selecting Aircrew trainees from the thousands of young boys who were volunteering all the time. They could apply at 17 and a quarter and were called up for testing, as civilians, a few months later.. On our course was Janet Attlee and we were subsequently posted together to RAF Cardington. We were all promoted to Corporal and regraded as Clerks/Personnel Selection (Aircrew). We had been told that our work was secret and not to talk to anyone about it as our tests had once already found their way to the enemy who was copying our selection methods which were much more sophisticated and successful than their own. The aircrew training wastage had been greatly reduced since these tests had been developed and so all had to be scrapped and new ones, which included electrical apparatus, had to be made, when the enemy got hold of them.
At that time there were eight Selection Boards round the country, based on RAF camps mostly, with four or five interviewing panels at each. Janet Attlee, Margaret Thompson and I were, at first, specialists in Wireless Operating/Air Gunner tests. Not long afterwards we were instructed to give all the tests, including the educational tests. We marked them all and passed the results to the Interviewing Panels which consisted of high-ranking officers, some holding honorary rank who has served in the First World War. Sometimes we sat in on the interviews, when testing was finished, and each panel had their own style of judging. The boy was told then and there if he was accepted and if he was recommended for a commission, or not. They were kind, charming men who had great regard for the welfare of us girls and often asked us if there was anything they could do for us to make our lives more comfortable. Janet was the eldest daughter of Clement Attlee and I heard a lot about her family. We were good friends, played sports together and went into Bedford, when off duty, to the cinema or coffee shops, and cycled and walked round the countryside. She once invited me to spend a weekend with her family at Stanmore but I did not accept as I was too shy to meet with the Deputy Prime Minister.
We had 100 or more candidates who arrived on trains throughout the day. Quite a few were Air Corps cadets who came with their leaders. They stayed on camp for two nights, and if sccessful had a medical as well and then went back home to await call-up. We also selected the Fleet Air Arm Pilots and the glider pilots for the Army. It was quite a sight the days we had squads of soldiers, some in kilts, marching through the camp to our Unit, through the sea of airforce blue, putting on their best to impress us. Needless to say, we tested many Dutch and Polish airmen and our own air aces who had done tours of duty over Germany, had medals, and were remustering to Pilot after serving as Air Gunners or Navigators. There were language problems with some groups but some interviewing officers did not take our tests too seriously so weren't worried about the accuracy of the results.
Late in 1943 I was posted to Air Ministry in London to work in the Flying Training Research Section which was in Princes House, Kingsway. The WAAF hostel was a block of flats - Fountain Court in Buckingham Palace Road. There were then air raids evey night and we had to get out of bed, put slacks and tunic on over our pyjamas and go downstairs and sit in the ground floor corridor as we had no shelters. We heard guns and bombs and incendiaries falling all around us but no-one was hurt even when the church next door was burned to the ground. It was shocking to see the heaps of rubble next morning on our way to work and to see how close it had been sometimes. The statistical work which I was on was directed by a Canadian Professor Myers, a small civilian team, and about four of us WAAF's to help them. It involved statistical analysis of all the data relating to aircrew testing and training in all its stages including the final results from the overseas training schools in Canada, the USA and Rhodesia. There were no calculators in those days so the mathematics was all done in our heads but I remember enjoying every moment of it. I was there about a year and loved being in London to enjoy free theatre tickets, forces canteens and the dances they held. Everyone seemed to be in uniform- the city had become one huge garrison and all had become brothers in arms, which included forces of many European and Commonwealth countries.