On August 22, 1944, a rather skeptical young Wren assigned to the Women's Royal Naval Service during the Second World War was about to make her way to a post on the Isle of Man, not at all certain whether she wanted to be there. Kathleen Oates, aged 22, had applied for a transfer away from her Liverpool base, where an exciting start to her working life had deteriorated into a routine office job. The Isle of Man, where her parents and grandmother had holidayed, was hardly her idea of seeing the world. But she hadn’t foreseen that she would fall in love with the beauty of the island and couldn’t have imagined coming to appreciate life at the Ronaldsway airbase as much as she did.

She wrote dozens of letters to home during her posting, which provide a unique commentary on the operations at Ronaldsway, the atmosphere in Kathleen’s camp, and what life was like on the Isle of Man 80 years ago. Her daughter, CHRISTINE SMITH, pores through her mother’s letters for the first in a series of features based on Kathleen Oates’s writing...

Eighty years ago last week, Wren Kathleen Oates took the ferry over to Douglas and started her first letter home. It was a long letter because she wrote it over several days—and because she had a lot of first impressions to tell her family in Leicester: Granny, Mum, Pops, and younger sister Dorothy. She described the camp where she found herself, near Ronaldsway, and her first impressions of Castletown and Derby Haven.

Her status at the aerodrome was as a ‘plotter,’ but she wasn’t at all sure what this would entail—nor was her boss, it seemed. As she wrote this first letter, the Allied troops had fought through Normandy and were in the process of liberating Paris, but Kathleen’s work on the Isle of Man was geared to the Pacific War and the pilots needed there. The Wrens were a recent arrival at Ronaldsway, and the infrastructure of the camp was not fully set up.

On arrival at Douglas, Kathleen got a lift in a Naval car at the harbor to Ronaldsway, where she was stationed, so she could relax and take in her first impressions of the island. These were good: she found the countryside ‘beautiful’ and liked the look of Douglas—‘a charming little place with its quays, narrow, pretty streets.’

She gave a brief description of her first morning at the base:

‘I was awakened by a plane obviously flying very low. I was up at 7:10—popped down the “garden path” to the ablutions hut—then another little walk to the Mess. Breakfast wasn’t bad—porridge, tomato & bacon, and a little apple. There are planes flitting around all the while—one continuous burst.’

For the time being, Kathleen’s address was to be Mess 200, RNAS [Royal Naval Air Station], Ronaldsway, Castletown. There were three camps where Wrens were stationed: Ballasalla, Scarlett, and Castletown Camp, the main one where she first stayed. She found it all a bit rough and ready and so different from Liverpool’s big-city atmosphere, where she had previously been posted.

‘The airfield is right on the coast. Ronaldsway doesn’t seem to exist as a place—there are about five houses on the road and that’s all! The camp is miles away, in the wilds! As far as I can see, there’s a little village nearby. The camp is on the coast, though I haven’t seen the shore yet. It seems quite a small place—the Wrens live, eat, bathe in Nissen huts—seems to me it’s going to be one long camp—very different from what I’ve been used to. The place where we wash hasn’t even a door on it—and the wind howls round! I think they’ve sent me here for a “Commando” toughening up process. I believe it’s a training base…. The sailors are apparently living in the “field” next to us. We can see them wandering around to their Mess etc. They seem out of place in the country.’

Her fellow Wrens were friendly enough, however:

‘The girls here in the cabin are very happy. They’re all about 18-19—the usual noisy crowd! I’m not staying in [this] cabin—I’m only here temporarily. How I’m going to like it here, I can’t say… It’s definitely going to be a big change for me—as long as they don’t turn out too dull I think I’ll be OK….’

On August 24th, Kathleen reconnoitered Castletown, which she appeared to think offered promise:

‘About 5 mins’ walk away is a good-sized village, I suppose one would call it. I went out last night to look around. There’s a Castle which you can go around—one cinema, a few little shops, and 2 cafes which remain open until about 10 o’clock. You can get steak and chips there or egg and chips. There is a quaint little harbor—with one or two rowing boats in it! The streets are very narrow—and all the houses made of stone. The beach is pebbly at Castletown, though I believe that further down round the airfield it’s sandy and very nice for bathing.’

Kathleen also had her eye out for the food situation with regard to luxuries like eggs and butter and reported back on availability at the camp and in town:

‘I didn’t see any signs of excess butter [at breakfast] though there’s plenty of margarine….. There must be plenty of eggs around here because I had egg sandwiches in a canteen.’

As for her precise role as a ‘Plotter,’ Kathleen was finding out as the week progressed. She wasn’t in the same line of work as most of the other Wrens.

‘All the girls here seem to be Mechanics of some type of another—working on the airfield & in the hangars. I suppose if I’d wanted this, I should have joined the WAAF….’

A later addition to the letter announced:

‘I shall be working in the Control Tower on the airfield—once again, I’ve come to a place that is only just starting….. the Lieutenant Commander who will be over us is away for three weeks and no-one else really seems to know what I’m going to do. Another “plotting” Wren is due to arrive and there will be two Wren Officers.’

At Ronaldsway, things were fairly laid back for the moment—a good start.

‘At the moment, a Lieutenant seems to be in charge of me and he seems OK…. He seemed rather surprised that they’d send a Ship’s Plotter to a FAA station [Fleet Air Arm - the naval aviation branch of the Royal Navy]—so I’ll mention it to the Wren officer when she arrives and see what she thinks. He told me to bring my writing pad and to amuse myself when there’s nothing to do. When there’s practice flying, as there should be if weather permits, I’ve to chalk up some figures on a blackboard telling where the planes are—and so far that’s all!.... as far as I can tell, it will be several months before things get going. I believe the Wrens have only been here five weeks at the most, so you can tell that organisation is very slight yet!’

Even so, Kathleen viewed her Ronaldsway work as a pleasant interlude before she returned to a ‘proper’ post in the Navy. She hoped to take advantage of the slow start to her work to grasp at potential new experiences which Ronaldsway might offer, such as going up in a plane.

‘I asked Lieutenant Whiteaker [all names have been changed] yesterday if I could go up some time and he said “Oh, yes!” – so it sounds quite hopeful—though I think he’s the sort of person who says a thing and immediately forgets all about it.’

The final addition to this long letter came on Friday with a description of nearby Derby Haven:

‘I did a little more exploring last night. I walked in the opposite direction from Castletown to Derby Haven. You’ll see it on a map…. On the other side of the little peninsula called Long Ness. This is a tiny little place with one pub, a pillar box, and a very small harbour. Some of the houses and gardens look rather continental—at least the sort of thing one would expect to find in the Channel Isles. Some of the gardens have palm trees and I’ve noticed the fuchsia hedges you mentioned, Pops. Lots of the girls were bathing last night.’

Kathleen’s first letter has a clearly hopeful note:

‘It’s too early to say, but I think I’m going to like it.’

The Isle of Man had begun to work its unique magic.