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This story is taken from an interview with Isibel McSoutar at the Ballymena Servicemen’s Association, and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interviewer was Matt Morrow, and the transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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I was a cook. I can remember it. When I had to go in Scotland where I lived in Fife, in Kirkaldy, I went for a Medical and was asked a lot of questions and all. After I’d been medically examined and all the rest of it, they asked us questions. I had to go and sit before a WAAF officer. She was sitting here, and I was there facing her. And she said “Well, girl, what would you like to do?” I said “I’d love to be a cook”. She actually jumped off her chair. She says “What? Say that again, girl. I’ve got thousands on my hands, but you’re the very first that says to me she wants to be a cook. They all want office jobs. And I have to determine, we need cooks. You’ve got to go as a cook. Are you sure?” and I says “Yes”.
You see, my mother died just before my 15th birthday, so I had to leave schooling then. And my sister was 3 years younger, so my father didn’t want anybody else in. So I did everything until I was called up. You see, I had to go into some of the Services. In Scotland it’s different from here. And I chose the Air Force, you see? So I went to Kirkaldy to get this interview in the December, and I was away early, I think it was the first week in January. Oh, my father said “They’ll not take you. They’ll not take you.”

“Are you sure?”
“I’d just love to be a cook”.
I had to get training. I can remember the first thing. You had to queue up in the Airman’s Mess. Before you’re seeded into your proper job. And the tea was in huge urns. Tinned milk in it, sweet milk. And from that day to this, I couldn’t take my tea with any milk or sugar. I take very weak tea. My mother goes “Is that just hot water you’re drinking?”
I got into the kitchen, it was the Airman’s Mess at that time. I could get as much fresh milk as I wanted. I couldn’t take it. If I have coffee, I have to have milk and half a spoon of sugar in it. And I still take my tea like that, yet.

I cooked for different ones, you see? But at first the Airmen, I was cooking for them. It wasn’t anything special, really.
We cooked all sorts of things. In the Airman’s mess. You got good food, you got plenty of it. They had lots of civilians who came in and did vegetables and things for you. I can remember up in Dalachey, up in the north of Scotland. I was on night duty. The boys that came in for to do the vegetables and all. Somebody must have taken it out and scared the cats. They had 70 big Scottish cookers. It wasn’t like you have now. All big fire ducts. And I caught one coming through. And I screamed. You can imagine me scared by a cat. I says, “well, why I’m like that is, when I was a baby, we lived at a place named Anstrum which is a fishing village in Fife. There was an upstairs house, with a big long stairs to come down. And I had been an infant in a pram on the street, and my mother went up to get something. When she came down there was a big cat lying on top of me, and I was screaming the head off me, and my face was all scratched. Ever since that day, and I’m allergic now. I couldnay look, I couldn’t touch it. I couldn’t touch it at all. A dog, I can touch a dog, but not a cat. And that stayed with me. Isn’t it? And that stayed with me all the time.

When you thought of the stuff you had there, and the folks at home had very little, you know? Working in the Airman’s mess, maybe a few hundred, you know? You cooked your porridge in the big boilers, you could stand up in, and you drained it and of course you had big spits, you know?
And of course, the English put syrup in it to make it sweet.
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Scotland, your porridge not so good. I could just think, I could just see myself running up in that, Syrup in, and stirring it up. And they say, “What was wrong. You’re not taking the porridge?”
Oh, I said, that’s poison. I couldnay take it in that. Scots porridge, Scots people always put the salt in. You put a little salt in when you’re cooking it. I couldnay take it any other way.

It was really wonderful, I think. To me, I’d have said it was wonderful. It was amazing. We had plenty. When we worked in an Officers Mess all the time, they got extra things they wouldn’t have got in the Airman’s mess, because they were paying for that. The officers were paying for their stuff. 2 dinners every day to make for them. I had to make a menu for a month, and I had to make out. They had their breakfast, you see, and then they had their lunch. Which was a full meal. And then at nightime again, we had the same. I had to make everything. I had to arrange, when I think about it now I don’t know how I did it. It was no bother at all.

Well, it all depends on what size of kitchen you were into. The airman’s mess, there would have been a lot of us. There were maybe about 8 altogether on a shift. When you were cooking for quite a lot. But when you came to work in the Sergeants’ Mess, it wasn’t so bad. You hadn’t as many to cook for. In the Sergeants’ Mess, that was maybe just 100. And then in the Officers Mess, at Saracen where I was until I was demobbed, you had a wee bit maybe more than that.

I had 2 helpers doing the beds, and one did the cleaning around the beds. I had to organise it all. And then we had 2 cooks. One who helped me with the early shift, and he came on from 6 til 2. Then one that come in from 2 til 7. But I was there all the time. You didn’t get the same time off. I did night duty too. At Saracen I didn’t have to do that, but some of the stations I was at you had to work all night.

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