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JENNY FAWCETT (nee HUNT)
WRAF

Jenny was born on the moors near Barningham, but moved at the age of five to Wyse Hill, Startforth where here father worked on the farm for Mr Anderson. She had two sisters and a brother. After school she worked very briefly at the glove factory, she didn’t like it ~ particularly the smell ~ then went to work at Shepherd’s department.

I was called up and hated leaving home, particularly as I went on 21 December and my 21st birthday was coming up on 1 January ~ so I didn’t get any cards until my first ‘leave’. I left Darlington Station and travelled to Melcham to enrol and then to Morecambe for six weeks ‘square bashing’, followed by training in cooking ~ of which I hadn’t done much.

I moved around a lot, starting off in Towyn in Wales, then Aclinton and then Middleton St. George where I worked for the Canadian Royal Air Force along with our troops. I was issued with the WRAF blue uniform and white overalls for cooking and I worked in the Sergeant’ Mess at first and was then promoted to the Officers’ Mess. It was everyday cooking and we started by having to do vegetables and washing up, but generally all mixed in. The floors were tiled and the surfaces were wooden and we had dishwashers and sterilizers, but washed the pans by hand, with no rubber gloves in those days! I can remember burning the porridge and being told that “Everybody burns something before becoming a cook”. I got the tip of my finger in the mincing machine and had to go to the Medical Officer.

There were special things to prepare for parties and I didn’t like having to cook lobsters alive. I also didn’t like the cockroaches, which we called ‘black clocks, under the table where they prepared the vegetables and up the pipes. We had to have someone come and ‘deal’ with them. I remember the pilots tapping on the kitchen door during at night when they returned and we would make them a cup of tea. Some carried little teddies and such, as mascots. When she had leave she would ‘hitch’ a lift in the back of the ration wagon travelling to the camp at Bowes. It would drop me off across the fields from home and would pick me up in Barnard Castle on the way back.

We lived just outside Middleton St. George in huts ~ there were about 20 ~ with separate ‘ablutions’. She would walk or read during time off. They sometimes went to dances, especially to Piercebridge, and would catch the last bus back or get a taxi. I ended up a Corporal and have a letter asking me to return to help with a function, but decided against it. I was glad to come home in 1946.

Since then Jenny went to work at Miss Bruce’s baby shop, near the corner butchers. She met her husband locally and stayed at home to bring up her family. Since then she has worked at Carricks, The Lily Laundry and The Luxton Laundry.

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