Women and War
In addition to these case studies, women are also featured in the counterpoint theme to this one, Women for Peace. Women also appear elsewhere under various themes: Marion S. Simpson under The Hamilton Connection, Constance Malleson and Jane Abbott under Civilians Caught up In War, and Vera Brittain under Life at the Front.
There are five photographs of nurses in Alexandria and Palestine in 1918 belonging to W. Bailey included in the theme The First World War in the Middle East. As our case studies demonstrate, while men were away at war, women took up the jobs at home formerly done by men. A poster from the United War Work Campaign illustrates this shift in responsibilities, as does a photograph of female employees of Cockshutt Plow Co., included below, showing the women confidently wearing their work overalls.
This is all oral family history.
I was born in Rawalpindi, Pakistan (then India) on October 14, 1944. My mother was a nurse in the British Armed Forces. My father had been seconded to the Indian Army. My mother was an army brat, daughter of an RSM in the British Sappers and Miners (Engineers). All together, she spent about 40 years on the Burma-China border. Being there from a very young age, she was fluent in all the languages and dialects of the region. While they were both posted to Rangoon in Burma, they heard the announcement that there was no possibility of the Japanese invading Burma. Twenty-four hours later, my father had dissappeared with the army and my mother was running through the jungle with her mother and my three step-sisters. After flying across the Himilayas with what became the squadron that was immortalised in the 'Terry and the Pirates' stories, my mother and her family landed in India. Other than he was in the army, she had no idea where my father was.
After establishing a house, organizing schooling for my step-sisters and getting servants which took several months, my mother and a good friend of hers, also a British Army nurse, went looking for something to do. They noticed an advertisement in the papers asking for people fluent in the local languages. Her friend became a translater at HQ.
My mother being fluent in all the languages and dialects, with absolutely no discernable accent was assigned to a different task.
At that time, General Wavell was marching through the jungles of Burma with no protected flanks and no land based supply lines. Supplies were flown in and parachuted to Wavell and his forces. In order to maintain an army under these conditions, it was necessary to determine which areas were favourable to Britian.
My mother would be parachuted into Burma and told at what grid marks on the map she would be picked up in several days. In the mean time, her job was to walk from landing spot to pick-up spot, pretending to be a native or British national, running from the Japanese forces. In between, she found out if the native peoples were pro Japanese or pro British. She was an adjunct to the Chindits.
After many months, one of her reports floated across my father's desk. He frowned on having his wife parachuted into enemy territory and wandering around the jungle.
My mother and her friend, who became my god-mother, went back to being nurses for the remainder of the war in the Far East.
Some people read about adventure. Others live it. My mother and father lived it.
Sometimes women do more important things in war so I'm not surprised that now we starting to honor their feat. They did the hardest work on the war 39-45. I'm proud to study as a nurse today. History never lies, but there are too many hidden pictures. Some of them makes me feel proud of my nation. I'm from Britain.
This is most interesting. Is it the story of Terry Spalding-Martin's own family?
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