Ex-WRAF buddies back in touch after 49 years!

This month’s STAR STORY comes from Joan Tyler in Bridlington in the UK, who after 49 years, has reconnected with an ex WRAF colleague. Joan, now 69, explains:

“Having been brought up in a children’s home, the only family I had then were my siblings. The oldest of four children, I and my brothers and sisters grew up at Killay House NCH in Swansea, South Wales.

For me, the time spent at Killay House was a happy one. I had come from a loveless and abusive home and so Killay House offered me new freedoms and marked the beginning of my future.

Upon leaving in 1957, just after my 18th Birthday I decided to make something of myself, so I joined the WRAF.

I was first posted to Compton Bassett in Wiltshire to do my ‘trade training’ and here the strangest thing happened.

I met a girl from Bridlington called Emily. Prior to joining the WRAF I used to work in a grocer’s shop with a young Yorkshire woman called Betty. She had moved all the way to South Wales to marry a boy from Swansea.

Shortly after arriving at Compton Basset, I was unpacking my things in the billet room when a girl came in asking if she could have the bed next to mine. Her name was Emily.

I said yes, then told her she looked just like one of my ex work mates in Swansea. She asked me if I worked in ‘Jones Brothers Grocers’ and when I said yes, Emily began jumping up and down saying that it was her sister Betty! Needless to say we became the best of friends.

When I finished my training at Compton Bassett – I trained as a telephonist - I went on to my permanent posting at RAF Horsham St. Faith in Norwich where I made yet more friends and had some wonderful times.

One incident I remember vividly involved a girl called Colleen, from Lancashire, who wanted to dye her hair blonde and asked me to do it for her.

Now, I had never even seen anyone dye their hair never mind do it for them, but I agreed to try. So there we were, about six of us, sitting on my bed with a tooth brush and a bottle of peroxide trying to dye this mop of hair blonde!

Thankfully it turned out OK which was a good job because we would have been in trouble with the officers if it had gone a funny colour and not matched our uniforms!

Those were such happy times! I spent two years in the RAF, from 1957 – 1959.

I met my husband Larry in July 1957 and we married in January 1959. He was an Airman from East Yorkshire and so I became a Yorkshire girl too. We have 5 children and 11 grandchildren and will be celebrating our Golden Wedding Anniversary in January.

Although so much time has passed, I have always wondered what became of the friends I made at Horsham St. Faith.

My daughter said I should try to find some of them on the internet, which is just what I did. I registered my details with Who-Remembers-Me and before long, I received an email from a lady called Annette, now in Australia.

She used to work in Air Traffic Control alongside some of my closest friends at that time, and I knew some of her friends.

We had a lovely long chat about old times and the friends we made. Although Annette and I didn’t share the same living quarters, we knew each other as acquaintances and it was great to catch up!

Thank you very much for bringing our yesteryears that little bit closer.”