To record the ‘Home Front’ memories of local men and women from WW2
Mackay Country
Home Front Oral History Project
Women in Wartime
Ina Mackay (nee Macleod) from Colbackie was a Corporal in RAF WAF. Ina was a driver based in Wick. She drove officers to Colbackie Registrars at Rhitongue as a result of the plane crash on Ben Loyal.
circa 1940 – Peggy Stewart from Australia IN WAAF Uniform – Peggy was a cousin of Mary Macleod, Kinlochbervie
Edna Millar (nee Barraclough) of Kinlochbervie – in WAAF uniform circa 1940
Ann Hutchinson, Jennifer Barr's sister, in WREN uniform
Princes Margaret Rose Orthopaedic Hospital, Edinburgh
Memories from a Nurse who worked there between 1940 and 1943. Minnie Jean Macleod (nee MacDonald) of Kinlochbervie was a patient for a year
“We had one day off a month and were paid the princely sum of £19 a year. During each three months on Night Duty, we had no nights off, but once a week we were allowed a ‘late evening’; we were wakened at 4pm and had to be on duty at 10pm. On my second Night Duty, my boyfriend, now my husband, was coming home on leave. I had not seen him for a year. He stood outside the Caledonian Hotel waiting for me from 5pm to 8pm … the maid did not call me at 4pm.”
David Munro, John Mackay, Celia Mackay and Minnie McLeod.
(ED33A97)
'The Three Musketeers': Mary Mackay (Kinlochbervie) and two friends from the ATS
Minnie McDonald (married name McLeod) and Mrs Jean Clouston, Shopkeeper.
Mary Mackay - 1940
Memories of a Medical Student in Glasgow
“They were so short of men you see, all these jobs had been male jobs before the war. The whole attitude is different now; women do every sort of job now, but in these days you never saw a female conductress on a tram or bus. they were all men!
Things changed so much. None of my friends mothers’ ever worked but some of them who had younger parents – their mothers’ had to go and take a job. But they were allowed to take jobs in shops locally, doing jobs where the men had been called up. It was a complete change socially and it never went back.
The change came so quickly and suddenly but was irreversible. A lot of the men didn’t come back of course, but even then, the women had had a taste of work. The things the women were doing! They were working as engineers and all sorts of things. It slid back a wee bit but it never went back, from after the war a lot of women were employed - your mum wasn’t at home to make your dinner every day. It opened all new doors for women really. And at even University there is this change - when I went to University a very small proportion of women got places in medicine. And they increased the number during the war.”
Nursing During the War
Memories from A Trainee Nurse in Perth
“I had quite nice fun with some of the soldiers! Taking us to the pictures, which we couldn’t afford with what we were getting – twenty-seven and fourpence a month. There was a barracks in Perth.
I hadn’t much money, so I didn’t have an awful lot. We were in uniform most of the time, and when you had your nights off - well, I never wore trousers then, it was always skirts.
Of course, patients were always giving us coupons. We were never short of coupons. Some of the old men – they used to say, “Oh, I’ll give you some coupons.”
We used to feel so guilty, and said, “No, no, no,” but they insisted. So, we were never short of coupons. Again, you didn’t use an awful lot of clothes, except when you were off on holiday and we just wore what we had. We always had one or two skirts and a few blouses and jumpers.
I used to knit, of course, then. Jumpers and cardigans.”
Durness - Andrew Mackay, Madge Campbell (local nurse), Mackay Morrison (ED35A33)
“If we had an excess of soldiers coming in, sometimes we would put up extra beds and that, and if we were busy of course, they’d ask for volunteers and we were all very keen to go and do it,”
Wartime Dances & Fashions
“Oh, eightsome reels and waltzes and strip-the-willows. We had a variety of dances. Very seldom, they used to have a Lancers and Quadrilles, but we were the young ones - it was the old ones that used to do that.
And, of course, they used to have quite a good band from the barracks. They used to go up and play in the nurses’ home.
All the dances were very well-supervised. The Matron sitting there in her long evening dress. It was good fun. We never had evening dresses. It was just the Matron and one or two of the Sisters. She was a very stately person, and carried herself … We were frightened to death of her.”
Ardmore circa 1940 – Hugh Ross and his sisters.
Winnie Fraser (Achlyness) and Lena McLeod, both nee Campbell – circa 1940
