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This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from Tiverton Museum of Mid Devon Life on behalf of Joyce Bryant.

My brother Fred Hagley passed his exams and medical to go into the Marines in 1944. He had two Identity Cards (I don’t know why) and three weeks before he was due to go in the Marines he received a letter to say he had to go to Wales as a Bevin Boy. It upset him terribly.
I joined the WAAFs (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force) six weeks before, so our Mum and Dad lost both of us in two months of each other. I do know that Fred didn’t like it in the mines, but he stuck it until one day he was very ill and was sent home for six to eight weeks, after which he went back to the pits and did his time as a Bevin Boy. I didn’t enjoy it very much. It made me realise how much Tiverton meant to me. I hated Tiverton before I joined up.
I did not know what it was like to have a late pass, that is staying out until midnight. When I had one I didn’t know what to do. My friend and I went to the NAAFI canteen on the camp and stayed there until eleven o’clock, then we went back to the billet and went to bed. After that we went out to the village dances. It was a good life.

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