In the summer of 1944, Wren Kathleen Oates was stationed on the Isle of Man, writing dozens of letters home about life and operations at Ronaldsway. Eighty years later, her daughter, Christine Smith, explores these letters in a series of columns based on Kathleen’s wartime experiences.
Unsurprisingly, Wren Kathleen Oates’ letters in early April 1945 had a contented note, for the end of the war in Europe was at last in sight, with pretty tangible evidence. ‘Plans for celebrating “V” Day are coming more and more to the fore it seems. I noticed in the paper that they’ve been testing the flood lighting at Buckingham Palace.’ Indeed, on April 7, her father had commented excitedly, ‘Things are going so fast in Germany that you just can’t keep up with the changing situation. Maybe by the time you receive this we shall be in Bremen. The Yanks will soon be joining in with the Russians – it really is fantastic - it’s just any day now, Kathleen, for the finish.’
And yet, Ronaldsway continued to train pilots for the Pacific war. Kathleen’s April 7 letter started from the Control Tower: ‘Flying doesn’t start till 10 o’clock and the Operation Officer has so far, decided to stay away this morning. I can manage quite easily without him, though, as we shan’t be busy.’ Her attitude was less relaxed the next day, when she went to Sunday chapel with Jane. ‘There were only 11 in the congregation and the preacher was a lay man so we didn’t enjoy it very much. I was more concerned about the planes that I could hear flying – Divisions had been cancelled and I wasn’t at all certain whether I should have been on duty or not. So when I heard a couple of planes take off, you can imagine how I felt. However, everything was okay.’
The social life at the Base continued unabated: one of the Janes turned 23, which was celebrated with the ‘usual outing’ in the evening – supper at the C.K.R. [any Manx reader suggestions for where/what this was would be appreciated] followed by the cinema. An upcoming wedding was also very much top of mind. ‘One of the girls is marrying a Catholic and changing her religion from C of E to Catholic. She’s having instruction from the priest and disagrees with most of it. Her fiancé is on the Isle of Wight and she’s having to make all the arrangements and believe me, we hear about it every time she’s in the cabin! We often have very heated discussions on religion as we have two Catholics in the cabin, both from Liverpool, besides other denominations. I’m the only one who doesn’t seem to have any firm belief either one way or the other.’
Of course, a wedding meant a shopping trip to Douglas: ‘We bought a present for Susan, the girl in the cabin who is getting married on Wednesday. We all gave two 2/6d, so we had 30 shillings all together. It was terribly difficult finding anything, but in the end we decided on serving spoons in a case.’ Given the shortages of clothing in stores, Kathleen looked out for other purchasing possibilities: ‘I saw a length of dress material – lovely turquoise linen. I’d quite made up my mind to buy it and then the assistant said that temporarily, they weren’t accepting chits as they were so short of material – so that was that!’. She contented herself with ‘some gay braid to stitch on our cabin curtains’.
Kathleen continued to make the most of her bicycle to get away from the Base and enjoy the island, and on Monday 9th, explored woods near Port Soderick, after which ‘I returned to the cabin and had a bath in the usual brown water. Tonight, I shan’t be able to go out as we have a compulsory make and mend but it should be quite interesting as someone from the College is coming to lecture on Manx customs.’ The letter continued Tuesday, reporting that ‘the lecture last night was very interesting – the Manx cat originally came from Java – that was one fact which I learned.’
Another excursion took place in the evening, when nothing else had been planned. ‘On Wednesday night [April 11], Jane and I went to Port Saint Mary, cycling along the coast road. The sun had gone down and there was a cool, sharp breeze blowing. The tide was quite high and the sea fairly rough. We stopped halfway and sat on the wall for a rest and I wandered down onto the beach. There were a few little fishing boats in Port Saint Mary – the nets were hanging over the harbour wall to dry. We got back to camp about 9:30 – we couldn’t be any later as we hadn’t taken any lamps with us – and they are quite keen here on that point. Several of the Naval personnel have been fined for riding cycles without lights’.
Despite frequent exercise, Kathleen lamented putting on weight. ‘Even one of the Subbys remarked that I’m not the “slim little girl” who came back after sick-leave! - Incidentally, he’s the one I hate working with because he ‘flaps’ so. He’s expecting to be rated up to Lieutenant any time now - and is very ‘ring’ conscious, as they say! He occasionally loses his temper – then I’m rude in return - and when he cools down, he comes and apologises.’
Her letter finished with an account from Dora, a Wren friend at HMS Irwell, Kathleen’s final Liverpool posting before the Isle of Man. The King and Queen had been to visit their old place of work, Gladstone Docks. Dora saw them, but ‘wasn’t in the parade as it meant standing for two hours. The Queen spoke to one of the girls whom I knew there – a messenger. Dora said that she was so excited that she didn’t know what to call her, and called her ‘Ma’am’ – as one would a Wren officer.’