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After deciding she couldn't possibly stay at
university but just had to join in the war Gill
decides to join the WRNS...
Having joined at the bottom as a humble ‘wren’
Gill had to knuckle down and do all the jobs that
recruits have to do, whatever the service. Scrubbing
floors was really a new experience.
Having come from a privileged world Gill recalls
that there was a lot of snobbery among the recruits
and a lot of sorting out social standings
Having joined the Navy Gill was coming upon aspects
of everyday social life that she had never encountered
before. There was still a very great social gap
between ‘us’ and ‘them’
depending on where you came from, where you lived
and what you or your family did.
No longer wishing to share her cabin with strange
smells Gill manages to get a move.
Diary entry for 6th February 1942 Having completed
recruit training Gill is told of her first posting
Gill arrives at her first real job..she’s
in the war at last….and gets introduced
to decoding for the first time
Happy now in her work there are encounters people
like ‘old Jim’ which have left lasting
impressions to this day
Although there was a war on there were always
men who needed looking after…like your boss,
for instance, with his missing fly buttons
Out of the blue there’s a suggestion that
she might like to be recommended for a commission
Six months after she joined there were still
those odd social practices that continued to surprise
Gill. During here sheltered upbringing she had
never thought it possible that girls might dance
together…wasn’t that what you were
supposed to do only with a man….and then
only after you’d been properly introduced
to him?
Moving on to the end of 1943 Gill takes home
leave but is roped in to help with her mother’s
work in the Women’s Voluntary Service taking
comforts to the soldiers in the anti aircraft
positions.
Leave perhaps proved more exciting than her own
war work for she takes part in the capture of
a shot down German flier. As he parachutes to
earth they move in with their WVS tea van and
nab him.
It’s was inevitable that, sooner or later,
Gill was going to encounter more stressful occasions…the
memory of burned pilot Johnny is still as fresh
in her memory today as it was in October 1943
Having accepted the chance to go for a commission
she headed of to the Royal Naval College at Greenwich
a place redolent of the Royal Navy’s magnificent
history throughout the ages of British sea power..but
it was the food she remembered…and there
was a war on.
On not being very good at giving out drill instructions
but being better at choosing the uniform for a
new commissioned officer in the WRNS
Commissioned at last..now a 3rd Officer she looks
forward to new responsibilities
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