A Kiwi WAAF in Britain

[Dave Homewood]

All the sources I have ever seen state that the only place outside of New Zealand that NZ WAAF's served overseas was in Fiji. However the Imperial War Museum has this photo which shows otherwise, so how many other WAAF's from New Zealand went to Britain during WWII?


The caption reads:
"A.C.W. June, a 21 year old New Zealand WAAF has become the first official 'post-mistresses' of the RAF at an RAF fighter station in the south of England."
© IWM (CH 8409)


www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205229730

[Dave Homewood]

And this from the AUCKLAND STAR, VOLUME LXXIV, 3 FEBRUARY 1943

R.A.F. POSTMISTRESS

Auckland Girl First To Be Appointed

FINDS WORK FASCINATING

Rec. 1.30 p.m. LONDON, Feb. 2.
An Auckland aircraftwoman, June Buddle, who is 21, has been appointed the first R.A.F. postmistress, says the Air Ministry news service. June is a clerk postal worker, which is a new W.A.A.F. category. She is in charge of a fighter station post office in the south of England. June's day begins at 6.30 a.m. when she goes to the civil post office to collect the mail. June has been a teleprinteress for two years and was chosen for the first R.A.F. post-office course and passed out two weeks ago.

"At first I thought a post office job would be dull after operational work, but I find it is fascinating," she said. June arrived in Britain with her mother in 1938 for a year's holiday with her English grandmother. She planned to return to Auckland in 1939, but joined the W.A.A.F. instead.

Her fiance is serving with the New Zealanders in North Africa and her only brother is in the Merchant Navy.

[Dave Homewood]

So that is really interesting, she joined the British WAAF but has seemingly gained permission to wear the New Zealand shoulder titles.

[Dave Homewood]

I guess no-one else found this interesting then.

[davidd]

No Dave, it IS interesting (to me at least) and throwing these items "out there" can bring us all extra knowledge and insight, and shows that some of our assumptions are just not right, or are based on oversimplified generalisations, or just plain misconceptions. Incidentally there were TWO normal overseas postings for the wartime NZ WAAF, Fiji and Norfolk Island, as anything further north was considered "unsuitable" for our fragile women, although originally even Fiji and Norfolk Is were thought to be too rigorous, but they were both finally included in the posting circuit to improve recruiting, which was apparently flagging at the time. Despite the overly rigorous nature of islands further to the north, the Australians sent female nurses to Bougainville in late 1944 (which caused a sensation there among Allied servicemen), and the RAF also sent WAAFs out to India in 1945, and one of their senior commanders in that theatre (Goddard I think) asked our Air Department if we had any advice on women serving in such trying tropical conditions! We didn't really have a clue of course, apart from what was then the conventional wisdom, and service in Norfolk (sub-tropical) hardly counted, but India was a world apart from Fiji! Of course British forces had been operating in India for hundreds of years and knew all about it perils, so why New Zealand was considered to have some unsuspected greater knowledge of the climate of the sub-continent must remain a minor mystery!

However another, but rather exclusive overseas area opened up to NZ WAAFs was the London HQ of the RNZAF, at Kingsway I think, where the climate might have been trying in an entirely different kind of way from that prevailing in India, but certainly was an exciting place to be at the time, and SOOOO different when compared with Wellington at the very same time! This was fairly late in the war, probably 1944/45, and may have only included a handful of vacancies, but it was a long way from home, so applicants for these plum postings were no doubt closely evaluated as to their maturity and "skill at arms" before the final choices were made. There exists a photograph of the RNZAF's London HQ staff immediately postwar (or was it one of the group sent overseas with the Victory draft that I am thinking of?), which shows about four WAAFs, all wearing their "Years of service" chevrons on their forearm sleeves. The interesting thing about the RNZAF (and WAAF) staff of the London HQ is that they were NOT attached to the RAF (as were all the other members of the RNZAF in that theatre), but were there as official members of the RNZAF, and worked in rooms provided by the Air Ministry (presumably rented by NZ Govt) and were paid directly by the NZ Govt. All members of RNZAF attached to the RAF were paid by the RAF at RAF rates, with the NZ Govt topping them up to RNZAF rates of pay (some kind of bulk transfer was arranged to facilitate this, and made the NZ component invisible, but all knew it was in there somewhere). The NZ WAAFs in London were probably typists, cypher officers, administrators, etc, concerned with signals, pay accounts, personal records and the like. I think they were a mix of officers and NCOs, but it seems that we will have to look further into these women who managed to secure these most highly desirable of all postings.

Also just remembered that there was a distinct difference between the uniforms of British and NZ WAAFs of the wartime era (something to do with the breast pockets of the BD blouses, or maybe the SD jackets, think that the NZ ones had dummy pockets, and British had real ones, but relying very much on memory here!)

David D

[Dave Homewood]

Interesting David. I am almost sure that the NZ Army also sent female nurses to the tropics, at least to New Caledonia. And of course they sent female nurses, Tuis and admin/typing staff to Egypt and Italy.

[smithy]

I found this really interesting. I just can't add anything as it's a million miles from what I have information on.

Great stuff though.

[errolmartyn]

Her correct and full name is June Annette BUDDLE.

Her father, D. H. S. Buddle died in 1934 and in mid 1937 June, along with her mother Sadie and older brother John, sailed for England.

She appears on a passenger list for the Rangitiki leaving England for New Zealand on 30 May 1946, but her name also has a handwritten line through it so it's uncertain if she actually sailed at that time.

She married Jozef Nalepa in New Zealand in 1948 and remarried George Ernest Allan here in 1952, after which the trail goes cold.

Errol

[camtech]

Married twice in one year?

[Dave Homewood]

Name corrected now.

[errolmartyn]

Feb 21, 2018 8:08:37 GMT 12 camtech said:

Married twice in one year?

Well spotted. First event date should have read 1948. Now corrected.

Errol

[Dave Homewood]

Here's another Kiwi was was a WAAF in Britain, and she had an important Dad.


Miss Nina Isitt, eldest daughter of Air Commodore and Mrs. L. M. Isitt, of Wellington, who has just arrived in England to join the W.A.A.F. Last November she became engaged to Pilot Officer F. A. Wood, only son of Mr. and Mrs. F. A. Wood, of Adelaide, South Australia.
EVENING POST, 5 DECEMBER 1942

[Dave Homewood]

And another Kiwi in the WAAF in the UK:

Miss Margaret Dodson, of Wellington, who is doing administrative work in the W.A.A.F.s in England. Her engagement was recently announced to Flying Officer Donald Skegg, R.A.F., of Hendon, London.

EVENING POST, VOLUME CXXXV, ISSUE 36, 12 FEBRUARY 1943

[davidd]

Notice that Miss Dodson wears the standard (British) WAAF Officer peaked cap; don't think the NZ WAAF officers had anything but the slouch (soft felt) hat or the so-called beret during the WW2 years. Note the slightly crumpled look of the crown of British WAAF officer caps, quite unlike the male equivalents.
David D

[Dave Homewood]

Yes I believe you are correct there. Our WAAF started with the beret but by late 1942 they had been issued with the brimmed hat because they found when caught in the rain the felt beret got very soggy as it soaked up the water. I don't think the UK WAAF hat above was ever introduced here.

[davidd]

Sorry Dave, but the ORIGINAL NZ WAAF headwear (officially known as Hat, WAAF, Section Ref. 22L/5 - this was the wide brim hat) was administratively introduced into WAAF service by ADO A70/41 dated 23/4/41, scale of issue was two per airwoman.

The WAAF beret (officially Beret, WAAF, Section Reference 22L/3) was introduced to the service by ADO A254/42 dated 26/8/42. Just why the Sect/Ref No. was lower than the original and earlier "hat" is not known for certain, but probably a result of the early planning of the WAAF uniform which envisaged that there would always be two hats, one "formal" and one "working" (as for male officers and airmen), but they had not decided on the exact type of hat to fill the "working" hat requirement. The original brimmed hat seems to have been based on the type of hat designed and mass-produced for high school girls in NZ. And the WAAF "Beret" was, of course, not a real beret, being made up from separate pieces of serge woollen cloth sewn together - true berets were basically one-piece and made from felted wool or fur.

The scale of issue for the beret as specified in ADO A261/42 of 4/9/42, was one per airwomen, and simultaneously the scale for the brimmed hat was reduced to one.

Incidentally prior to November 1942, NZ WAAF's did not wear the shoulder "Eagle" badge (always facing backwards) which marked them as non-commissioned personnel. This was because they were considered not to be members of the RNZAF proper, only "auxiliaries", although they wore certain RNZAF badges. In November 1942 the NZ WAAF was considered to be "embodied" into the RNZAF under Emergency Regulations passed by Parliament, and came under RNZAF discipline, and could now be issued Orders by male officers and NCOs. Previously all their orders were issued by the senior WAAFs (called Supervisors, they were not considered officers in the true sense). Most early WAAFs were not accommodated on stations, but lived at home or in lodgings, so could not normally be posted from their "home" station until proper on-station accommodation could be provided. The shoulder "Eagle" badge was introduced by ADO A382/42 of 20/11/42, and RNZAF NCO ranks were also introduced by this Order. The WAAF "Supervisors" at this point also became equivalent to RNZAF officers, and had a graduated rank structure for first time. WAAF Officers, like RNZAF officers, now held commissions and these were gazetted, and their appointments duly appeared in RNZAF lists.

David D

[Dave Homewood]

Oh yes, you are correct, of course. Sorry, I was completely mis-remembering the articles I read some months ago, like this one.

BERETS FOR W.A.A.F.'s

Smart, waterproof berets are being issued to members of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force; some are already being worn. From the inception of the auxiliary service until a short time ago, all members were issued with two blue-grey felt hats. These, however, after being worn constantly in all weathers, were found to be unsuitable as all-purpose headgear. One felt hat has now been withdrawn and a beret issued in its place. The new berets are made of blue-grey serge, similar to that used in the manufacture of airmen's uniforms, and carry the usual R.N.Z.A.F. brass badge, which is worn above the left eye with the beret pouched over the right ear.

EVENING POST, 12 SEPTEMBER 1942

[Dave Homewood]

Here is another Kiwi girl in the British WAAF.

“CLEAR AS CLARE”

AIR FORCE TRIBUTE TO W.A.A.F.

(United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) LONDON, Jan. 11

“Clear as Clare.” Perfect enunciation while giving radiotelephone instructions to pilots on fighter sweeps won this Royal Air Force tribute for the 23-year-old Greymouth girl, Clare Keating, a W.A.A.F., whose mother, also her sister Cecilia, reside at Sevenoaks.

Clare, with her mother and sister, went to London four and a half years ago. Clare, who is a singer, and her sister, who is a violinist, studied in London College of Music for two years, when Clare joined the W.A.A.F. Cecilia tours munition factories giving classical concerts. Clare is at present practising for a camp concert in which she will be the principal star.

WAIKATO TIMES, 12 JANUARY 1943

[errolmartyn]

Clare Marie Keating was born in Greymouth in 1920 and her sister sister Ceclia Darcelle Keating there in 1917
On 5 Jul 49 Clare married New Zealander William Ernest (Bill) Tacon, RAF.
A photo of the happy couple was published in The Tatler of 27 Jul 49
Sadly, Clare died in the RAF Hospital at Aylesbury on 14 Aug 56
Bill remarried Bernadine Louise Leamy in 1960.
Errol

[Dave Homewood]

Great stuff Errol. What a lovely looking girl. Such a shame to hear she died so young.