The Freedom Years

During Basic Engineering Training at HMS Daedalus, Lee on the Solent, Hampshire (Nov 1981) we were required to go on 'Exped' to Bathesda in North Wales. It was all part of the team building/endurance and character building hoops we had to jump through. Had I known about this earlier I could have postponed joining up so that MY 'exped' fell in one of the warmer months of the year. However, November was possibly better than January so hey ho. Our class went off along with a class of 'Tiffs' on a rickety Pussers Bus. We didn't know any of the 'Tiffs' (Artificers) so had plenty of time to get the usual banter going and make new friends. There were just two of us Wrens, my best fried Pam and I and we suffered the sexist jokes in good humour, insisting that no way would we be doing all the cooking and cleaning! Our home for the week was a 'cosy' little stone cottage. By 'cosy' I mean it had a roof, four walls and a fireplace. Downsta...

Sometime in November we would be asked for volunteers to work over the Christmas leave period - known as Christmas Retard. Obviously being a Royal Naval establishment they couldn't just shut it down and send everyone home so someone had to stay behind. Draw the short straw maybe? I always volunteered for retard duty because as I saw it, you got two holidays. While everyone else was at home enjoying themselves (and it was almost everyone) those of us left behind would be doing rounds and odd jobs, but basically having an easy time compared to normal duty. There were two watches, port and starboard one was on while the other was off. So if you worked it out well with a few mates you could have a pretty good time over Christmas, spending a lot of it in a local pub or camp bar. Once the rest of the camp came back, we would be allowed to go off on our holiday - so a win win situation really. One year in particular while at HMS Daedalus, I remember walking around the training blocks...

Back in July 1985 while working at HMS Daedalus Practical Aircraft Training Section (PATS) I was given the opportunity to do something that was extremely unusual for a Wren in those days. I was asked to travel up to Newcastle to escort the Fairey Swordfish that we had in our hangar as a display for all sorts of occasions like Air Day and Trafalgar Day. The Swordfish had been the first aircraft to fly from an aircraft carrier and they wanted to have ours plus a Sea Harrier on display on the flight deck of the soon to be HMS Ark Royal built by Swan Hunter in Wallsend. The ship was to spend five days at sea doing sea trials on her way down to be handed over to the Navy in Portsmouth. The fact that it wasn't actually a commissioned ship meant that we were allowed to sail on her. So Shirley and I set off by train to Newcastle to have some sea time. We were met at the station by a tilly (mini bus) and taken to a guest house in Whitley Bay (which is still there by the way) where we we...

I've never been one to let the fact that I don't know anyone or what to expect hold me back. One of the perks of being an only child I suppose, you have no choice but to go out there alone and my parents certainly weren't the mollycoddling type. So being on a bus full of total strangers from all corners of the UK didn't bother me much. I was the kid who went off and found an adoptive family to hang around with when on holiday rather than play on my own. These girls became my adoptive family on June 1st 1981 as we drove through HMS Dauntless main gate. Dreary. That's what it looked like to me. In desperate need of modernisation. At the time I was unaware that come the end of 1981 the camp would be decommissioned and basic training would be moved to Plymouth alongside the lads. I have searched for a photo of the camp online but can't find one anywhere that shows just how much it resembled a wartime camp. Around twelve single story wooden huts in 'H' shapes...

After completing all the necessary application procedures, including an aptitude test which surprisingly identified a hidden talent for technical things, my plan to join up as a MT Driver (because I would get to take my driving test)went out the window when the Chief Petty Officer decided the WRNS needed me as an Aircraft Engineering Mechanic - or WAEM as we were known. Have to admit it had a lovely ring to it when I went home to tell my parents and friends what I was going to be doing. "Hello, what do you do for a living?" "Oh I'm a Naval Aircraft Engineering Mechanic" See what I mean? Especially when you're a seventeen year old blonde girl! Then it all went pear shaped. I received a letter telling me I had passed the recruitment process for WAEM but unfortunately there were no places available at present and if in 6 months time I still wished to continue then I should contact the careers office. My world crashed. I was terribly disappointed. I'd expect...

The trouble with school is that you never fully appreciate it until you no longer have it. It was around this time that I realised I probably wasted a good few years of valuable time and education looking out of windows at the playing fields, thinking about boys and having fun with my friends. "Easily distracted" and "Doesn't realise her potential" were words frequently written on my reports. Oh well, what to do now? The option of going to art college was fading as another idea formed. No matter that I had spent the last two years building a portfolio of artwork, the new idea seemed much more exciting. It all started in the last few weeks before study leave. I found myself in the 'careers corner'. Definitely a corner, and also under the stairs to the first floor. Not exactly a place I'd spent much time, as I thought I knew where my future lay. To this day I do not know why I picked it up, it was one of those times when a book leaps out at you. 'R...