Forty Years On

Here I am in July 1940, when I was posted as a new recruit to RAF Station, Houghton Green, a Balloon Centre near Warrington.

Promotion came along very quickly, and I was senior WAAF member of the Sergeants’ Mess long before that fateful day, 24th August 1942, when W/O 1 Theo. L. Barrett was attached from RCAF HQ to help take over the station and reorganise it as an RCAF Repatriation Depot. He was the first Canadian to arrive, but was soon followed by more and more.

Ted (lower left) with three RCAF friends, Whimpy, Blondie, and Mort, taken at New Brighton, on their first weekend in Lancashire

It didn’t take us long to get interested in each other, and soon we were spending every available minute together. Ted’s third weekend in Lancashire was spent at my home in Bolton, where these snaps were taken.

Emily

Ted

‘Papa’

‘Lovely Mother’

Sister Ethel with her husband Andrew

and their two jolly kiddies, Judith and Kathleen

September 15th was the fatal day when No. 9 Balloon Centre ceased to exist, and ‘R’ Depot, RCAF was born. Most of the RAF and WAAF had already departed to new stations, and I began to wonder how much longer I should remain. While there were still any WAAF on the station, however, I must remain to look after them, and so it happened that I was still reigning on the night of October 10th, when the new Sergeants’ Mess held its first party.

Dan, an old and valued friend of mine, was invited, and Ted gallantly put him up for the night and generally looked after him. Between them both I had a marvellous time at the party.

Emily and Dan

Emily and Ted

The following afternoon we waved goodbye to Dan, after taking these snaps, then Ted and I took a bus to our favourite rendezvous in Lymm, Cheshire. In this lovely spot Ted proposed to me, and I accepted. He hadn’t then bought the ring, so we postponed the announcement for a few days.

It didn’t take him long to scout the shops in Warrington, however, and three days later he triumphantly produced a solitaire diamond. Another bus ride to Lymm, to the sacred spot, where the ring was put on with due ceremony.

It wasn’t long before we found ourselves in print.

Wings Abroad – London, Wednesday, October 28, 1942

The following day we both took a day off to go home and break the news to the family. They were delighted, as they had grown more and more fond of Ted on each visit home. Plans for the wedding were discussed, the date fixed for Boxing Day, and the engagement was announced in the local paper. The news spread to Canada and was announced by Ted’s sister, Marge.

Bolton Evening News, Friday, October 16, 1942

The Ottawa Citizen

Wings Abroad – London, Wednesday, November 4, 1942

My reign at Houghton Green had now come to an end, as all the WAAF had gone, and on October 17th I said ‘Goodbye’ to the old camp and went on my way to No. 8. Balloon Centre, at Fazakerley, Liverpool. It was an extremely lucky posting, as it was less than twenty miles away, and our days off each week could still be spent at home together, in addition to most evenings, as I soon made friends with my new Station Warrant Officer, and arranged for Ted to have a more-or-less permanent bed at Fazakerley, and an early breakfast before going back to Warrington.

But there was still lots of work to be done making all arrangements for the wedding, particularly as ‘Lovely Mother’ had once again to go into hospital, and couldn’t help us. Ted decided to make the square three-tier cake himself, and a search began for such war-time rarities as currants, raisins, candied peel, almonds, eggs, white flour and icing sugar. We were lucky in everything, and the completed cake was really wonderful (and it included a bottle of brandy), wonder of wonders!

We found that Boxing Day wasn’t exactly the best day to have chosen. We had great difficulty in finding a room for the reception, but at last found a good place in a quaint old inn directly opposite the Church. All arrangements were made, and invitations were sent out to our friends in England and Canada. (We only wish some of the latter could have been present.)

Clothing coupons were my next problem, as my Service allowance of ten for a year had gone long ago. Again I was very lucky – friends rallied round with contributions from their own ration, and sympathetic shop-keepers accepted Ted’s Service coupons for obviously civilian garments. The result was a really super trousseau.

At last everything was ready, and the great day arrived. We were married in the lovely old Church at Deane, where I had attended since childhood. Part of the church dates back to the fourteenth century, and there has been a church on this site since the eleventh century.

Deane Church, Bolton

The day dawned cold, but bright and clear, and the path from the old lych-gate to the church door was lined with friends and interested sightseers. The beautifully-decorated church was filled with friends and relatives, RCAF and WAAF. The service and the singing were really lovely. Ted’s wedding ring was blessed with mine, and I quietly placed it on his finger after the ceremony of putting on mine.

Of the three ushers (the Sergeants in the first snap) Whimpy was missing, as he sailed for Canada the week before. The other two, however, carried off their duties most efficiently.

After signing the register, we led the guests across the road to the reception in the Queen Anne Hotel, where a lovely meal awaited us.

The party was in full swing when we left at 7 p.m. to change for the first stage of our long journey to Torquay, a beauty spot in the south of England, where we had planned to spend our fourteen days’ leave. Our first stop was Manchester, from where we made an early start the following morning.

Bolton Evening News, Monday, December 28, 1942

Journal and Guardian

In the wedding group are: Andrew Ross, my brother-in-law, Paul Barrett, who had managed his leave to be best man. (Brother Bill, unfortunately, couldn’t make it.) Next is my sister Ethel, standing behind her elder daughter, Judith Ann. On the other side is mother, father, and Peggy Hall, one of my best friends. My dress was ivory satin brocade, with a bouquet of orchids and white carnations. Judith’s dress was blue taffeta, and Peggy’s ivory taffeta, trimmed with the blue. The head-dresses and muffs were made to match.

A cable was received from Ted’s sister, Marge, and dozens of greetings telegrams from friends in England, in addition to lots of lovely wedding cards. Ted’s wedding gift to me was a gold cross and chain, and I bought him a gold wedding ring. The bridesmaids’ presents were a necklace for Peggy, and a bracelet for Judith. We had to buy a large steamer trunk to hold all our wedding presents – a lovely collection, in spite of war-time difficulties.

Gifts from relations

Gifts from friends

Gifts from old friends of Mother’s

Gifts from Service friends

While we were enjoying our honeymoon, mother and other helpers were busy cutting the remaining cake and sending it off to our absent friends. We saved the top tier, of course, for the first christening!

This is the lovely hotel in Devon where we spent ten glorious days. It was warm and sunny on the South Coast, far different from the rain and cold of Lancashire in Winter.

For some weeks before the wedding we had been searching for furnished rooms near enough to both our camps to enable us to live out together. At last we found a nice little place in Liverpool, and both obtained the necessary permission to live out of camp on return to duty.

Friends and relatives rallied around with food and rationed goods, so that we shouldn’t return to an empty larder. The hotel wanted only one week’s ration card from each of us, so the other was sent off to our landlady in Liverpool, to buy in still more goods for us. In fact, everything was going according to plan and we looked forward to setting up ‘home’ on our return.

Once again we found ourselves in the news, but Wings Abroad little knew what a true prophet it was.

Wings Abroad – London, Wednesday, January 13, 1943

We had planned to spend a couple of days in London before returning home, but the Air Force thought otherwise, and this telegram sent us hurrying back on the first available train, on a long journey through the night.

We soon discovered that the reason for my recall was for posting to RAF Station, Iksley, a fighter station in the south, about three hundred miles away. All our dreams of setting up home together faded right away, and we had to reconcile ourselves to the fact that there was still a war on, and that we were part of it.

Ted travelled to London with me, where we spent a night, and met his friends, before I continued my lonely journey, still further south, to the New Forest. He had hoped to introduce me as his ‘glamorous bride’, not his ‘tough old Flight Sergeant’, as he always called me when in uniform, but he had to make the best of it.

Ten days only had passed before I was called home, as Mother was dangerously ill again, but as she herself said when a little better, ‘It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good’ because, for the nine days I was home, Ted obtained permission to live out with me, and travelled the sixteen miles cheerfully night and morning. Best of all, before my leave was up, the posting which Ted had tried to organise when in London came through, and so with Mother well on the way to recovery, we both travelled south together, to our respective stations.

Then started a series of perfect weekends, every week from Saturday afternoon till Monday morning we spent together, sometimes in London, sometimes in Cranleigh, but mostly in the little old thatched cottage quite near to my camp at Iksley.

Our wonderful weekends together continued till the 1st June, when Ted was posted to Yorkshire, but not before we first had nine days’ leave together at home. This time the parting was very sorrowful, as we had visions of seeing each other only every three months, when on leave.

I had been back in camp barely a week, however, before I began to have hopes that our prayers were at last to be answered, and that I was going to have a baby – perhaps the son we longed for. My hopes were confirmed when I saw a specialist at Bournemouth on the 24th June, and I was able to break the good news to Ted the following evening when I met him in London for forty-eight hours.

Then events moved very quickly. I returned to camp to find that I had been posted to a Training Depot at Melksham. My station tried to stop it, because of my pending discharge, but Records wouldn’t play and on the 3rd July I departed from Iksley, feeling like nothing on earth, and unbelievably ill. Fortunately, my new officers were very kind and insisted that I took things easy while waiting for authority for my discharge.

I grew more sick than ever and lost weight rapidly, so on the 16th July I was sent home on sick leave, pending discharge. I handed in my uniform without any regrets, though I can honestly say I really enjoyed the three years of service I had seen in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force.

But now my real career was starting, the fulfilment of every woman’s hopes.

Rest, warmth, and well cooked food soon put me on my feet again, and by the 31st July, when my discharge became official, I was as fit as a fiddle again.

Ted now took a great pride in addressing his letters to Mrs. T.L. instead of F/Sgt. Barrett, though I told him he had done me out of becoming a Warrant Officer, and being equal in rank to him.

Ted’s posting to Yorkshire now came into its own. As it was only the next county to Lancashire, Ted could get home every day off (once per fortnight). I don’t know who was most thrilled about the baby, mother, Ted, or myself. I only knew that he/she filled all our thoughts, and mother and I vied with each other on how many pretty new things we could have ready to show Ted on each visit.

The days and weeks sped by very quickly, until it was Christmas and our wedding anniversary. Ted got eight days’ leave, and we had a grand time, giving and attending parties. Though turkeys and spirits were almost non-existent this year, we managed to get both, and were able to celebrate in almost pre-war style. We were very thrilled when we sent off our first combined Christmas cards.