In the Second World War, Violet Clarke served in The Auxiliary Territorial Service. She was from farming stock in Norfolk and didn’t want to become a Land Girl so joined the ATS. The ATS was the forerunner to the Women’s Royal Army Corps. She provides some lovely detail about her time in Mertsham which was a holding point for tanks and armoured vehicles being stored for D-Day - she recalls a young Princess Elizabeth. As a Salvationist, she got wind of an opportunity to join the band and subsequently became a Trombonist based at Norfolk House in London. Again some more lovely detail provided. We secured this interview thanks to the good people at the Royal British Legion Industry village in Aylesbury Kent.

At only seventeen years of age Pat joined the WRAC and was soon posted to Shoeburyness as an Experimental Assistant in Gunnery. Pat discusses the high level of classification she experienced whilst working as an EAG and how on her arrival she had to be cleared with the secret atomic at the highest grade of security. She goes on to further describe how all aspects of her life had to be investigated in order for her, and other soldiers, to engage in the top secret work at this posting. Pat reflects fondly on this time period and speaks passionately about her role as an optical measurer. After a few years Pat married and was forced to leave the army as there were no opportunities for marital couples to be posted together. When asked to reflect on her time with the WRAC Pat was grateful for the skills and experiences she was able to take with her from her time in the military, however, struggles to view herself as a veteran due to the glass ceiling that restricted opportunities for women in the army.

Marge Arbury was born in Cobham and at 19 years old she joined up to serve her country.  She completed three weeks of initial training at a training camp in Guildford, where she found out she was very good at Morse code, and because of this was selected to be a wireless operator. She was sent to the Isle of Man to be a Y operator. When she arrived she was required to sign the Official Secrets Act, Marge recalls that one person was sent home, as she had a German grandmother so wouldn’t be eligible for the role. She remembers the six months on the Isle of Man, learning how to understand Morse code, getting her ready for her new role as a wireless operator. In October 1943, she was sent to Harrogate, Forestmore, where she started to decipher German enigma messages. Marge never expected that she would be a spy when she first joined up, she thought she would be driving lorries! Her role as a wireless operator involved going through transmissions trying to find hidden Morse code messages.  She was responsible for covering messages coming out of Yugoslavia, from the German Army, Navy, and the Gestapo. All of the messages were passed on by motorbike to Station X, also known as Bletchley park. Whilst stationed in Harrogate, due to the secrecy of the role, people thought she wasn’t contributing anything, and townspeople didn’t treat her well. This couldn’t be further from the actual truth and the important work she was working. Marge stayed with the Y service until the very end of the war and was eventually demobbed in October 1946.