by Vicky Unwin
Today we had to take squad drill personally, and my goodness it was dreadful, but I managed to get through some of the commands all right. On Monday the Director selects certain girls to take it – heaven help us!
I may be able to get some leave, as a notice has gone on the board asking us to give dates of our last leaves, but nothing is guaranteed. Tonight is guest night, and we have to be very proper and behave well – tons of courses – all very good. I am getting enormous!
A raid last night – nothing much but we repaired to the shelters. We went up to the top of the chapel dome and got a marvellous view. I took some photos! Hope they come out. It is very sultry and Thursday looks like rain – hope it clears up by the weekend.
Lots of love
Sheila
❖❖❖
Sheila was hoping to get sent back to Scotland as the ‘nicest people are up North’ and indeed she ends up in Methil, near Fife. At first she thinks she will like it ‘very much’. She has her own room in the Victoria hotel, Lundin Links, overlooking the sea, and it is ‘marvellously bright and airy’. She likes the officer in charge, and Mrs Boyd, Chief Officer, is on hand to welcome her. An added bonus is that they have a more relaxed attitude to ‘discipline’ and civilian clothing is allowed, except at meals, ‘so I think I’ll be wanting some more clothes please … Definitely, a frock, slacks, navy swimming suit, a cotton frock.’ She is wary, however, of ordering up too much stuff, plus an extra suitcase, until her probation is over in case she moves elsewhere.
But this turns out to be a false hope; she is soon complaining that she ‘loathes’ Miss Jameson, the Wren in charge, ‘and I think she loathes me’. Moreover, they do very little cyphering and no teleprinting, which is a ‘great disappointment … in fact I told them so yesterday so we should see whether I stay here or not’. The officers are all ‘rather old and RNR [Royal Naval Reserve] and not very interesting’.
The letters written between June and November are missing, but by 9 November she is writing:
Things aren’t going at all well here – we are all getting on each other’s nerves and I hate the sight of several of us. Cowser goes tomorrow I am sorry to say she is a dear and we shall miss her very much.
I went to a dance in Leven but didn’t enjoy it very much. I find I’m getting extraordinarily particular who I go out with – and there’s not even a Bert to tell one’s troubles to! I heard from Bert this week; he has sailed now poor old boy. I think he was very depressed about it all, and had a feeling it would be his last trip as he is quite old for our seas. None of his records, which I packed, broke though!
This is all rather depressed – I’m sorry. Somehow one always grumbles, but really, anything would be nice after Methil, I feel. I have just written to Michael Carter [a POW] and feel rather ashamed at grousing when I think of what they must be putting up with.
Heaps of love
Sheila
I have been trying to work out who Bert is: I think she must have met him during the missing letter period. He re-appears in Alexandria and again in Beirut and seems to have been a great source of comfort to her, and very kind. It would be amusing to know exactly how ‘old’ he was as refers to him constantly as ‘old Bert’, but I expect he was barely 40!
With friends at Lundin Links: Sheila and (left to right) Alice West, Chief Officer Boyd, Kay Way, Madge Cowser, Diana Fletcher and Vicar the dog.
Contrary to her letters, life does not seem to have been too bad: there are sherry parties, hockey matches and long walks on the beach, and she bought a gramophone with her birthday money. ‘I’ve always wanted one and I’m very pleased with it. It is a Decca.’ It certainly cheers her up – ‘it is a great boon ... I have a wonderful new recording of Night and Day which I’m afraid we play day in and day out – but it is grand’. She was in fact rather musical and later took singing lessons in Alexandria.
It was at Methil she met a number of Wrens who were to make the journey to the Middle East with her and who were to become her great friends: Kay Way, Mary Dugdale, Sybil Hoole and Diana Fletcher.
In June she wrote that she had not yet received confirmation of her appointment to Third Officer, but in September she celebrated her 21st birthday in some style, with a large dinner party for at least twenty-four (from Commanders, Lieutenant Commanders, and their wives, downwards), as counted on the signed menu. Bert was also there; his RSVP reads:
21st Birthday dinner menu.
Sheila parachuting.
To our Gert
Wishing her very many happy returns of the day on her 21st birthday from
The Three Berts
The menu was signed by all and is stuck in her scrapbook.
We know Sheila had been promoted by then as the formal RSVPs refer to her as 3rd Officer Mills.
Never short of admirers, there seem to have been a number of Polish officers stationed nearby, and one of them, Edward, promised to take her to the parachute tower to make a jump. ‘I’ve always wanted to do it, but don’t know if I will be brave enough.’ Well she was – as there is photographic evidence to prove it! Again in her scrapbook is pasted a note from him ‘I can only hope – your admirer’.
November and December are dark days for the Royal Navy: first the Ark Royal and the Barham are torpedoed off Malta by U-boats in November; then in the Far East the Repulse and the Prince of Wales are also sunk, while the Queen Elizabeth and the Valiant are sunk in Alexandria harbour. The theatre of war has also shifted very firmly to North Africa and the Middle East.
So it is hardly surprising that in early December she writes an excited letter to her mother:
Lundin Links
10.12.41
My dear Mama –
I’m terribly sorry to have been so long in writing. Honestly there has been such a lot to do one way and another I haven’t had a moment for writing to anyone. However, thank you for your letter. I hope Daddy got the cigs. I thought I’d better register them.
Well things are on the move I think at last. Chief Officer came over the other day and I asked her about going abroad, and she seemed most agreeable, but said as I was young, I’d better get my parents to write a consent addressed (No. Alice says doesn’t have to be addressed to anyone) saying you are agreeable to my serving abroad, and it will be attached to my papers. She says I’d probably be sent in the beginning of the year in March maybe. Piddocke then spoke to her and she told her that whether I go abroad or not I’ll be the next one to leave Methil after Kay goes abroad in January. This is all very thrilling, and I take to it well …
We had a grand party last night, one of the officers from an HMT [Her Majesty’s Trawler] came ashore and asked me for tea, and so I took Alice with me. Also in the party were the C/O and No 1 off one of the A/A escort ships. Very nice. Then the doctor from the ship arrived, and a sub.5 from the trawler, so we had a good party. They all came back to dinner (we managed it somehow!) and then they left about 9.30. It’s a pity they won’t be here for the dance tomorrow. I am in the soup well and proper because I’d really expected Paul to be here for it, and also asked the HMT man mentioned above as I thought they would be here too; so the others asked 3 Air Arm people from Donibristle, now neither of my possibilities will be coming, I can see, so I’ll have to go with Lieut. Porteous and his party (all the duds of Methil Base) as he’s been asking us to go for about a month now. But he assures me he’ll have a young army Lieut. from Kincraig for me, so I hope it will be OK. I don’t feel very keen about the dance really. But know I must go!
… I’ve just had my hair done and look rather queer – for the dance tomorrow. My watches have been changed so I’m not going on till 7 tonight. Oh no, I forgot I’ve got to go on at 5, what a nuisance! However, Mary and I are going for a walk this afternoon.
I’ve got quite a good selection of gramophone records now and the C/O of the A/A ship says he’ll lend me some of his if I’m careful. Hope he remembers!
Must stop now and go out.
Heaps of love
Sheila
Lundin Links. Fife
17/12/41
My dear Mama –
Thank you for your letter – I’m sorry you are so much against my going abroad because I feel I want to go very much, though less so now than I did a week ago, because Jaap is home and I have been hearing from him what it would be like – however it will be necessary for me to have a letter to forward to Rosyth whether to go or not, and I can always withdraw my application – so I do hope you or Daddy will give me one!
I had such a lovely surprise on Monday because Jaap phoned up to say he’d arrived home and could we meet – so of course we could, on Tuesday luckily, as it was my day off. So I went up to Edinburgh (meeting Jaap on the train by some extraordinary coincidence) and we had tea, went to a flick, then to dinner at the Aperitif and on to the Dequises, where we danced. He is still a great dear, though he doesn’t look so well, he weights 200 lbs (help that’s 16 stone, tho’ he doesn’t look fat – but of course is very tall 6ft 3”). He is coming over here on Friday and spending the night at Lundin Links hotel – we are invited to a party here, so I hope to get Jaap an invitation too. Then we shall go up to Edinburgh on Saturday and I shall probably come down south [i.e. home for Christmas] on Sunday – I don’t think I shall go to London as travelling would be terrible. Jaap is going down south whenever his luggage arrives – maybe we’ll even be honoured with his presence for Xmas – but I’ve not broached the subject yet – as I believe he has arranged to stay with relations in London. However, if he did come, would you object, and would it make a lot of extra work?
I am very upset because Mary Dugdale has been transferred to Greenock – all of a sudden, and I have lost my best friend once more! We have had such fun – especially with one of the Poles called Nicholas who often takes us out. He came to the dance with me, and we had a grand party of farewell. She didn’t want to go one bit – in fact she was most upset about it. We used to have such fun – long long walks together and we had the same taste in all things, music, dancing, etc. It is all very sad. Sybil and I were walking on the beach on Sunday when we discovered a duck all oil lying on the sand, so of course we brought him in, rubbed him down, and kept him warm until we though he was better. He was saturated in oil, but I think we managed to get most of it off – we set him free yesterday.
If I get a moment when I am home, I want to meet Joy who is still at Scarborough. I don’t think she will be coming to Fife after all and I would so much like to see her.
Well, no more tonight.
Hope you are feeling better.
Much love
Sheila
So ends 1941, Jaap back on the scene, Paul away at sea on the Sheffield, and Sheila’s parents objecting to her going abroad. Her relationship with her mother has remained prickly despite the flow of letters. Here is a typical explosion in response to her mother listening to bridge-table gossip and accusing Sheila of not knowing what she is entitled to:
You make me very cross when you say that the Johnsons are very quick on the uptake, as if I were not. The Navy does not give an allowance for plain clothes ever, and it’s just hard luck. One can’t break King’s regulations, you know.
Sheila did not join the WRNS to serve out the war in Scotland – she was yearning for adventure and was determined to go abroad given the opportunity, whether mother agreed or not.
Notes
2 While language such as this might seem shocking today, it must be remembered that it was common parlance at the time.
3 The Sheffield had been involved in the shelling of Genoa, and operations against Vichy convoys and supporting air reinforcements in Malta. She played a large part in shadowing the Bismarck, which was eventually sunk in May 1941.
4 The lack of camera explains why there are so few photographs in the first few months of service.
5 Sub was the abbreviation for Sub-Lieutenant, the equivalent of 3rd Officer; many subs were RNVR (Royal Navy Volunteer Reserves) like my father.
1942
‘Work, sleep … and a
little pleasure thrown in’
1942 was a critical year for the Allies. Japan had joined the Axis and the US had responded to Pearl Harbour by declaring war on Germany, supporting the British and Russian armies against the relentless Nazi advances throughout Europe: they were besieging Leningrad and had advanced as far as Moscow. The Germans were putting in place their plans for the ‘final solution’ and the gas chambers had been in use in Auschwitz since September 1941 – indeed my Czech family were all to be exterminated there in that year.
In early 1942 ‘invincible’ Singapore surrendered to the Japanese and so began the building of the Burma railway, one of the cruellest POW events of the war; 90,000 Asian forced labourers and around 13,000 Allied prisoners were beaten and starved to death in its construction. I visited the war cemetery in Kanchanaburi in August 2014, and paid tribute to those brave souls.
In North Africa, Tobruk fell in February and the Afrika Korps began their advance towards Cairo and Alexandria, with the intention of taking Egypt and cutting off the British forces with a pincer movement, to join their victorious troops in Greece and Italy.
For Sheila, stuck in Scotland, the war is about to become interesting at last. Her parents’ objections to her going abroad have obviously cut no ice with the Navy. She was, after all, 21. Practical to the last, even if a bit scatty – she still remembers to sort out her fur coat and finances, not forgetting the superstitious exchange of coinage for the scissors (something I still do if I give knives to people). She had no idea then that she was to be leaving England for the best part of four years:
L. Links
29.1.41
Dear Mama,
Did you get my wire yesterday? Because you didn’t ring – anyway this is what I wanted to say to you … I have to go to London this weekend in connection with overseas service, have to travel back on Monday night and will probably have to call in at Durham to collect my trunk. Where will you and Daddy be? Because if I go I’ll be sent off almost immediately and don’t want to miss you.
It couldn’t have come at a more awkward time – with NO notice at all and Mrs R. J. on leave.
Now, you are not to fret – whatever happens it will be for the best. I have to go to HQ to report and also order my tropical kit from Austin Reed …
Please don’t worry about this, I haven’t gone yet – But if you can manage to be at home on Tuesday (and I know what a bother it is) it would be marvellous. There’s no time for me to stop on the way as I MUST be back here by Wednesday or Thursday. I hate having to write this in such a hurry, and without a lot of careful thought, but there’s nothing else for it as when I’ll get a moment today I can’t say …
By the way, this is most confidential – almost secret so please don’t tell everyone, though I know it will be very hard to keep it to yourself. I have told Daddy and Rosemary – and will try and get in touch with you as soon as possible.
With very much love, Mummy,
Sheila
Lundin Links / [destination scribbled out]
12/2/42
My dear Mama –
… I am now ‘en route’ together with Mary Dugdale and Sybil Hoole – it was a terrible rush getting off, but I think I’ve got everything.
Now listen, Mary is probably coming to join me in a month or so, and I have asked her to write to you before she goes in case you would like to send any letters out by hand, and also my wee watch which is at the menders, and which I have asked to be forwarded to you. I’m afraid I’ve no idea what was wrong with it or how much it will cost, so I’m afraid that will be an outstanding debt, which I’m sorry about. But apart from that I can think of nothing.
Friday has been such a rush. I rose at 7.15 to take divisions for the last time – and have been doing things up to the last moment. I packed off 2 suitcases and golf bag and sent them by rail so they will be arriving in due course. My fur coat I’ve had sent to Draffens and I’ve told them to surrender it to no one e
xcept you and me.
As I told Daddy last night, if I am not able to take any spare cash I have away with me, I will send on a money order to him and he is allowed to send £2 on any one day to me – by money order is best, I think, or perhaps postal order, I’m not sure which. Also, I have my post office book with me, together with my savings stamp book and 2 certificates which I will send by registered post. Oh, it is all such a rush!
Mary Dugdale came down yesterday … and we had a very merry evening. Everyone has been sweet to me, and I am terribly sorry to have to leave them.
This must only be a short note, as I must scribble 2 more whilst on the track to Bert and Paul …
Heaps of love
Sheila
Please send me 1/4d for the scissors. They are in one of the cases and I do apologise for not sending them before. S.
In the Bank
13/2/42
Dear Mama,
I am sending my P.O. savings book, 2 certificates, and 3 2/6 stamps, all by registered post – also a Book token, because I won’t have time to change it, I’m afraid. Please change it for anything you think would be nice, it’s for 12/6d and I can read it when I return (or them, as the case may be!) Am having a lot of bother re extra cash, but am surmounting the difficulties by travellers cheques, which are being prepared now – there’s no time for any other method. No cash shortage though – everything grand.