Wings Over Wick
1939 - 1945
Women At War

Mrs Helen Rowan (LACW Tate when in WAAF), Wallsend, Tyne & Wear
I was in the WAAF during the war and Wick was my first posting. I was 18 at the time I went on a Wireless Operating Course at Blackpool when I joined up in May 1944. After six months I was posted to Wick. Imagine from Blackpool straight to Wick, but my opinion changed after I got there, as I found it one of the best postings I  ever had. The people in Wick were very kind to us, as a lot of them worked on camp.

I don't know if Wick is still a dry town (not allowed to sell alcohol at all) so we did most of our socialising on camp and the locals were allowed to come in.  Four of us were billeted in 2 bedroomed houses on camp, just like council houses.  There were a few of them and we used to eat in the mess house.

We used to work shifts on Signals in the Operations Room using Morse code and we had to listen out for any calls from aircraft. I have a Grandson (11) and Granddaughter (6) who think I'm magic because I can do Morse code!