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A veteran interview with

Paddy Sproule

Paddy Sproule provides an excellent interview about her time the FANY. It was time well spent, in September 1943.

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About Paddy Sproule

Born in Farnborough Hampshire, with relatives in the army and air force, Paddy was keen to enlist in the services. Told with much humour and affection, she recalls her time in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) from age seventeen in 1942.

She began her two-week training to be an orderly at Overthorpe Hall in Banbury but was then asked to sign the Official Secrets Act. When asked about her hobbies she mentioned crossword puzzles and was sent to Grendon Underwood to work in the cipher office. Paddy volunteered to go to North Africa where she worked on Operation Monkey, coding and decoding messages from Italy to be sent to London about the Italian armistice.

At Massingham in Algiers, a training centre for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) she decoded sometimes unclear wireless messages, working until they were deciphered. She recalls her satisfaction in making codes understandable, gaining writer’s cramp in the process, and tells anecdotes of her comradery with the other women working there. She returned to London where she worked as a coder on S.O.E Operation Periwig with Leo Marks at the Baker Street headquarters.

Paddy arrived in Bombay on V.E Day. She witnessed servicemen returning from Burma and malnourished prisoners returning from the Siam railways, and laid on a reception for them as the war came to an end.

Credits

Interviewed by:
Martyn Cox
Reviewed by:
Vicky Barnes

Copyright:
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Home | Veterans | Paddy Sproule

A veteran interview with

Paddy Sproule

Paddy-Sproule-Still

Paddy Sproule provides an excellent interview about her time the FANY. It was time well spent, in September 1943.

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Cite this interview:

MLA Style:
Sproule, Paddy. A Veteran Interview with Paddy Sproule. Interview by Martyn Cox. Legasee, n.d. https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/paddy-sproule/. Accessed 17 May. 2025.
APA Style:
Sproule, P. (n.d.). A Veteran Interview with Paddy Sproule [Interview by Martyn Cox]. Legasee. Retrieved May 17, 2025, from https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/paddy-sproule/
Chicago Style:
Sproule, Paddy. n.d.. A Veteran Interview with Paddy Sproule. Interview by Martyn Cox. Legasee. Accessed May 17, 2025. https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/paddy-sproule/
Harvard Style:
Sproule, P. (n.d.). A Veteran Interview with Paddy Sproule. [Interviewed by Martyn Cox]. Legasee. Available at https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/paddy-sproule/ (Accessed: 17 May 2025)
Vancouver Style:
Sproule, P. A Veteran Interview with Paddy Sproule [Internet]. Interview by M. Cox. Legasee; n.d. [cited 2025 May 17]. Available from: https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/paddy-sproule/
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