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The Women鈥檚 Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) had a ready niche for smart young ladies with hospitality skills. So, despite her preference for the Equipment branch, by dint of coming from her parents鈥� home at the George Hotel on call-up in January 1942, Peggy found herself classified as a 鈥榖atwoman鈥� bound for No 3 Principal Reception Centre (PRC) at the Grand Hotel in Bournemouth. First came basic training in Morecambe. Most of the Bournemouth hotels had been requisitioned by the RAF for the duration and the PRC was used largely as a transit and deployment centre for airmen arriving from and returning to Canada. It was the job of Peggy and her colleagues to act as receptionists, welcome the airmen and allocate them to their quarters. She admired the Canadians. They were friendly and entertaining 鈥� only too pleased to help her celebrate her 21st birthday 鈥� but it distressed her to see the condition of some being repatriated. 鈥淭hose who had been burned were terribly disfigured,鈥� she recalls, 鈥渁nd we were strictly warned not to react to them or stare.鈥� With D-day looming, space had to be found for Allied troops concentrated on the south coast, so Peggy was temporarily deployed to Gloucester, before returning later to meet the new wave of homebound Canadians. What she found onerous, especially when she came home on leave, was the stern instruction not to talk about the work she did and where. 鈥楥areless talk costs lives鈥� was the poster prominently displayed on every hoarding. Several of her friends married Canadians and went to live in Canada when the War ended. Peggy hadn鈥檛 so far to travel: she came home and married Roger.

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