91热爆

This story was dictated to Elaine Barnwell, by her mother Ruth Barnwell.

I was 15 years old when war broke out on 3rd September 1939 and lived in Ipswich, Suffolk. I had left school when I was 14 years old and worked in 鈥淪lacks鈥� an up market tobacconist and sweetshop in the centre of Ipswich. I lived at home with my parents. In 1940 my mother decided that it was not safe in Ipswich, being near the coast, and that I should go to live with an aunt in Oxford. I moved in with my Aunt and got a job in the Co-Op Cowley branch.

My brother had a friend who had been conscripted and was assigned to H.M.S. Hood. I had always been friendly with him and wrote to him while he was away at war. In 1941, HMS Hood was attacked and went down and he was killed. After that I decided to volunteer as a WREN. I joined the WRENs and went to Mill Hill for 6 weeks training. During my initiation I met Renee Baker and we became the best of friends and were posted together throughout our time in the WRENs.

After training at Mill Hill, I was appointed as an officer鈥檚 steward in Helensborough, Dunbartonshire, Scotland. That post lasted 6 weeks and then I moved to a training camp, called HMS Quebec in Inveraray, Argyllshire. This was a training camp for combined operations for D-day. I was Officer鈥檚 Steward to Surgeon Captain Goodfellow and Captain Ardill of the base. My duties included tidying their rooms, cleaning their clothes, serving meals. At one point the Surgeon Captain鈥檚 jacket was old and the lining has worn out, so I sewed blackout material in to repair it 鈥� he was very happy about that. I still have the menus from the Captain鈥檚 dinner parties. I always ate in the Officer鈥檚 galley, so I was lucky enough to eat very well. I became very good friends with the galley cook, Betty Dalgeish and remained friends until she died.

We lived in large wooden huts accommodating approx. 20 wrens in bunk beds. There was a central fire with chimney in the centre of the room for warmth. We started duty at 8am, with a stand easy for 10 minutes in the morning and lunch for an hour at 1pm. We had an afternoon stand easy and then worked through until around 9pm. Every other afternoon we had off. On those afternoons off, we would walk to Furnace (5 miles) or Inveraray (3 miles). Sometimes we would be lucky and catch a ride with a milk lorry or a tractor, but most of the time we just walked and didn鈥檛 think anything of it! We had our own on-site hairdresser, WREN Jean Ashby and we paid half a crown to have our hair done.

My WREN friends and I got to know a widow shopkeeper, Mrs George, in Furnace who became something of a mother figure to all of us that knew her. She would have lunch, dinner and evening parties for us.

On New Year鈥檚 Eve 1943, I went to a party at Mrs George鈥檚 house and met Ronald Barnwell, a Wireman Sailor who had recently been assigned to the camp for training. He stayed for a few weeks and then went for further training in Portsmouth to get his Leading Rating Rank. He retuned to the camp a few months after that. He was sent to Bombay in 1944 and we maintained communication through letters.

In 1945 the married people on the camp left first. I stayed until 1946. Captain Ardill left in 1945 and a Marine Officer had taken over the camp. I then worked in the Ward Room.

In spring 1946, I left the WRENs and returned to Ipswich and became the manageress of 鈥淪lacks鈥� shop. In 1947 I married Ron Barnwell and moved to Wood Green London, where we lived with his parents. Ron went into business with his father as a plumber.

Ron and I are still happily married today 鈥� we have been married for 58 years and have three children and three grandchildren. We both celebrated our 80th birthdays with a flight on Concorde, which we are proud to say was piloted by our son, Andrew, during his career with British Airways, having previously been in the Royal Navy for 12 years. Our grandson, Nick, is currently serving as an officer in the Army.

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