A 98-year-old woman who lied about her age to join the RAF as a teenager looked back on her time in the Second World War.
Margaret was a member of the Royal British Legion and RAF Association but the Swindon branches of both clubs have disappeared from the town and she now wonders if she’s the only Second World War veteran left in the area.
Born in Princes Street as the last of six children, she spent her childhood living above a shop in Emlyn Square as her father drove steam engines for the nearby railway works.
The pensioner, who did not want to disclose her surname or address, remembered GWR staff handing out Advers opposite the entrance to the Bristol Street underpass and taking a penny in payment while their faces were covered in smoke and coal from their day jobs.
After attending College Street girls school with her two sisters while three brothers studied at Sanford Street, she remembers hearing a radio broadcast about news of the war breaking out during one peaceful Sunday morning.
She was enlisted in the war effort at 13 and placed in the number 10 workshop of the GWR Works to French press carriage doors.
Margaret said: “I hated it! When I was 16, I could not stand it in that place any longer, so I said to my dad that I would like to get into the air force.”
Without his wife’s knowledge, Margaret’s father forged documents that allowed his daughter to legally join the RAF. At the time, one of her brothers was serving in Burma with the Royal Artillery.
Margaret added: “When mum found out, she was very angry, saying ‘I already have one member of my family going into the forces and you are not going’ – but I did go.
“When I had my first leave, she was the proudest mum in Swindon, she took me all around my uniform and showed me off to everyone.
“They never found out about my age – a lot of people had lied about it to serve during the war.”
For much of her five years of service, which began in December 1942, she was based with 38 Group at RAF Netheravon along with a colleague who she claims worked at the Evening Advertiser.
After leaving at the end of one night watch shift, she saw paratroopers from the Sixth Airborne Divison setting off in their gliders for D-Day.
Margaret then moved to Fighter Command HQ and other stations around the country, working in maintenance and signals while rising to the rank of Corporal.
Her first job after being demobbed in 1947 was at Wroughton Airfield, in the same building where she had carried out RAF duties. She met her husband Dave, an airframe fitter from Purton Stoke, and they married in 1948.
A 25-year career in the Post Office followed, working in the telegram service until it closed in 1982. A photo from a vintage edition of the Adver shows her handing over the last telegram to a delivery boy.
In July 1998, she appeared in the Adver again after being asked to represent the year 1942 as part of an official tribute to 80 years of the Royal Air Force at the Royal International Air Tattoo in Fairford.
Her husband, daughter, and siblings are no longer with us, though Margaret enjoys looking back through memories and many photographs from her eventful life.
She added: “I’m still here and I’m not giving up. I want to reach at least 104!”
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