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There was a continual problem on Operational Sqdns of WAAF’s getting pregnant. One can certainly empthise with the situation of those days and from time to time girls would come into my office A4D which in WAAF terms means pregnant.
It was strangely ironical that I had to sit and counsel and listen to these girls. They all knew far more about the facts of life than I did. But each WAAF officer had to interview the A$D girls in her section – and I had 100 girls in Signals section.
Teleprinters – Radio Telephonists in flying Control – Code and Cypher girls and all the Admin typists, etc.
The girls were all so different in their attitude and reaction to A4D.
One said to me that she and her boyfriend had been wanting to marry for a long time but her parents had objected. Now he was missing and believed killed and she was pregnant. “It’s all I have left and I want this baby more than anything else.”
Always, one listened to their story and tried to discover the name of the father of the child – sometimes they had
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no idea who the father was, “could have been anyone” a Corporal said to me once.
A girl in my teleprinter section got herself pregnant to a civilian employee who was fortyish and married. She concealed it by leaving her coat open. I suspected he condition and made arrangements for her to see the M.O. (Medical Officer). We could not process these girls without a medical certificate and in this girl’s case she was totally “unco-operative”. Each time I made an appointment, she pleaded her monthly condition as a reason she could not have an internal examination.
The inevitable happened. Their was a great commotion one night in a sleeping hut and when I arrived in my pyjamas the girl had had a baby in her hut. This made the RAF responsible for all costs etc which maybe was what she was aiming for.
We got the ambulance and she was taken to hospital. A week later I had to take her, the baby, whom she had named Anne, and her accompanying WAAF Sgt to the train in Lincoln en route for her home.
She asked if she could go to the toilet, so she, together with the WAAF Sgt went off to find the “Ladies”. I was left nursing the week-old baby girl who was a little darling.
At this moment an Oz officer from 460 F/Lt Arrowsmith from W.A. walked onto the platform and when he saw me nursing the baby, he did a double-flip and came over.
I told him what was happening
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The train was already at the station and no sign of the girl or the Sgt. So he went looking for them and eventually brought them back.
The girl had tried to run off with the WAAF Sgt in hot pursuit.
Meanwhile I was holding the baby… Anyway with Doug Arrowsmith’s help we got the girl, the baby and the WAAF Sgt safely into a carriage and the door shut.
I often wonder what happened to that little unwanted girl called Anne.
