In the summer of 1944 Kathleen Oates - a Wren assigned to the Women's Royal Naval Service during the Second World War - was transferred to the Isle of Man. During her time on the island, she wrote dozens of letters to home which provide a unique commentary on the operations at Ronaldsway and what life was like on the Isle of Man 80 years ago. Her daughter, CHRISTINE SMITH, pores through her mother’s letters as part of a series of columns based on Kathleen Oates’s writing...

80 years ago, Kathleen and her family were preparing for what would be the last Christmas of the Second World War. However, their letters understandably showed no sign that they dared hope that this would be so. The Allies were encountering fierce resistance as they moved closer towards the borders of Germany, and Burma and Singapore were still under Japanese control, with much of the Pacific area yet to be liberated.

Kathleen wrote a Christmas letter to the family in Leicester as she was spending the festive season at Ronaldsway and would not reach home until December 28. She started her letter on a cheerful, appreciative note from the Castletown canteen, where she was with fellow Wren Jane. ‘I can see the sea – pale grey, with the white tipped waves breaking on the rocks. It’s so lovely – I think I’ll have to bring it with me when I come on leave! This canteen makes lovely all-milk coffee, and they have excellent doughnuts plus a lovely fire – so I’m quite happy here! Jane and I are both writing letters – We’ve already had two lots of coffee and doughnuts!’

A letter from a Wren friend, Gladys, still in Liverpool, where Kathleen had been posted prior to the Isle of Man, may have encouraged this contented mood. She wrote to say that she had finally married her fiancé Bob, and included Liverpool news together with a description of her wedding. She complained about working conditions, describing her current officer as a ‘tartar’, with petty rules and discipline, such as when she was pulled out of washing up duty because of a Make and Mend session, then told she had disobeyed orders by not finishing washing the cups. Liverpool working conditions were so bad that two Wrens had deserted and gone home and another was contemplating this. Kathleen was doing well on the Isle of Man!

In her letter home, Kathleen’s thoughts then turned to Christmas celebrations – both at Ronaldsway and at home. ‘Jane said she spent last night decorating the cabin – they’ve got a Christmas tree and we’re all buying something to put on it, costing no more than 1/6d – and then we’ll all have a Christmas present! This same idea is being carried out for all the Wrens on the camp too. They’ve got a terrific tree in the Rec room on which we’re all putting a present costing the same, and then all having one from the tree. It will be nice to see everyone in civvies. Lots of the girls are wearing evening dress for the dance on Christmas day.’

A later addition to her letter, describing her new surroundings, made it clear that she had successfully moved temporarily to Castletown camp, to be with her friends over the season. ‘The girls have decorated the cabin and it looks very nice - with plenty of Christmas cards about – several sprigs of holly, and they’ve strung cotton wool blobs on cotton thread to look like snow – this is suspended all round. Last night, all the lights fused and we had to go to bed by candlelight – very effective, though not very convenient!’ She clearly hoped that the move would be permanent: ‘The food is very good on this camp – in fact I’m quite enjoying being here. I have a feeling that I shall eventually move to Castletown as that’s where all the watchkeepers are.’

In her letter home the previous week, Kathleen had anticipated no night flying duties until both plotters (i.e. herself and Cynthia) were back together on the base. This turned out not to be the case. ‘I’m working quite hard this week because Cynthia is away. Instead of doing all day, I’m in every morning – off every afternoon – and on every evening for night flying. This is rather a nuisance, especially just before Christmas when they’re all Christmas dances etc, at the canteens. However, I’m not grumbling too much!’

The Ronaldsway festivities did not prevent a note of nostalgia for home traditions creeping into her letter. ‘I’ll think about you sat with the settee drawn up to the fire, listening to the radio’, and asked them to leave some of the Christmas cards up for her to see..

In fact, the family had resolved not to have a full Christmas celebration until Kathleen’s return on December 28: sister Dorothy would celebrate December 25 with Aunts and Uncles in Yorkshire, and parents Chris and Elsie and Granny would have a very quiet day together.

They all wrote separately to Kathleen, assuring her that Christmas would only start properly when she arrived, and sending something to open on Christmas Day. In his note to Kathleen, Pops remembered his time on the Isle of Man, forever linked to a previous war: ‘happy carefree days – the last holiday I spent there was spoiled by having to rush home in August 1914 – war with Germany – history repeating itself‘. Dorothy added a word about Kathleen’s requested present of a 1945 diary. It seemed that these were difficult to come by: ‘I have searched for a diary and the only one I could find had very little space to write it on and it was £1 so I didn’t consider it worth the money. Mr Lambert, a man who always used to write up his diary, says he has been using a plain one for a long time and it was he who gave me the idea of the enclosed book – I hope you will find it useful’.

Kathleen would not work the entire Christmas season: ‘All flying stops from Saturday lunchtime till Tuesday lunchtime [i.e. December 23 to 26] – so we get three days’ holiday.’

1944’s celebrations would be tinged with sadness, however. Kathleen wrote of the sinking of HMS Kite, a ship she had visited as a Wren in Liverpool. Although this had happened earlier in the year, she had just been sent a cutting reporting this. ‘I could have wept when I read it. She was the special ship that we used to have coffee on, and there were some very nice boys aboard. It said survivors were picked up – but I don’t suppose they were all lucky.’ It is interesting to note that no actual statistics were given in the cutting she received, as these turned out to be tragic. Of almost 220 ratings and officers on board, only 9 or 10 survived being picked up from the freezing waters around Greenland and returned to Britain. Had Kathleen and many others known how few were ‘lucky’ to survive this decimation, general morale would have been greatly affected.

And she continued with more sad news on December 21. ‘This morning has been very hectic: everything was going fine until I picked up the phone and received a message from the bombing range saying that the first plane to take off had blown up midair and fallen into the sea – no survivors. I’m always the first to receive such messages, as they are phoned straight through to Operations. One of the girls on the W/T [wireless transmitter] set was pally with the pilot – she had to go off Watch – there was general commotion all round! No more Barracuda flips for me, thank you! What an awful Christmas for these boys’ parents! I knew the pilot by sight – he was only just 19.’

As after other accidents, jollity and celebrations would continue apace on the Ronaldsway base; only those directly affected by the loss of the airmen would mourn them over Christmas.

Kathleen would not write home again for another fortnight, when she had returned from Christmas leave.