VERA LADDS

Surname

Ladds

Forename

Vera

Date of recording

May, June 2024

Year of birth

1921

Place of Birth

Birmingham

Occupation

Fathers occupation

Present Address

Halesworth

Location Interview

Halesworth

Interviewer

Summary

Colin Fletcher

Duration

192​ Mins

No of tracks: 12

This recording consists of 12 tracks.  
Track 1 (12:25 mins)   Born in Birmingham, 19.02.1921. Family moved to Nottingham then Cambridge her ‘real home’. Vera’s birth, a difficult home delivery, mother only 19 years old. Brothers Michael and Derek. Problematic family relationships. Vera’s beloved, generous and kind grandmother. How Granny looked after neighbours and uncle. Granny’s egg custard philanthropy for all! Relationship with her mother. Grandmother’s influence. Father in World War One at 14 years of age. World War One trenches. Family dynamics. Latrines in the trenches. Mystery of parents’ wedding and lack of wedding photos. Granny’s housework – her daughter and daughter-in-law. Granny’s gardening.
 Track 2  (15 mins 12 secs)
Derek the favourite brother. Every school holiday with Granny via Red Line Buses. Move to Nottingham, 10 years old. New bungalow in Wollaton Park. Lord Middleton of Wollaton Hall. Lovely primary school. Deer in the park and in the playground. Vera Head Girl. Passes 11-plus. Scholarship winner. Grammar school in Nottinghamshire. County High School in Cambridge. School fees. Staying in France, 1935. Bi-lingual. Vera’s life in France. Friendship with ‘Susie’ and her French family. Cousin Tim and Susie – an Anglo-French romance. Lovers separated by Second World War. Love story and eventual marriage. A Frenchwoman in Coventry. Chain smoking. The 1936 abdication of King Edward the Eighth. Father a civil servant; his work preparing for evacuation of towns. Learning to drive before the war. Driving test in Watford after war.
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Track 3 (17 mins  33 secs)
Abdication Crisis. Attitude of British press. Her father knew about it. Vera’s attitude to the crisis. Hitler. Parents’ attitude. Vera’s religious upbringing. Church-going and her crush on a choir boy! Her religious faith. Story of Tony her airman boyfriend who became ‘missing’ in World War Two. Ludlow. Vera’s prayers are answered. Pen-pals with John, a Desert Rat. Developing relationship with John. Being a teenager in Cambridge before the war. Cinema. Film categories and ‘getting in’. Sex in films. Vera’s attitude. Sexual temptation with airman. Her strong attitudes about sex out of marriage. An ‘evil world’.
TRack 4 (17mins 15secs)
GP’s before birth of the NHS. Childhood illnesses – double pneumonia, measles, chicken-pox. Primary school – Mrs Waters, large classes, times tables, learning by rote, maths, algebra. Adult education - pig curing, sausages and brawn, cooking, tailoring, dress-making. Learning German and Italian. St Albans College – Miss Robinson. Vera catering for her Daughter Julia’s 21st birthday party. Primary school. Childhood toys – her scooter and fairy cycle. Vera an avid reader in childhood. The public library. Audio books now. Dorothy Curtis, local writer. Mothers’ Union. 1930’s radio powered by an accumulator battery. Love of psalms.
Track 5 (11 minutes 45 secs)
Leaving school. Career choices. Nursing or teaching. Vera’s serious exam fears and anxiety. Career advice from mother. Clerical work at Chivers Jams. Touch typing at Lloyds Bank. Keen to join up in RAF in 1939 but parents against it. Parental control until 21 years old. Family tension. Vera asserts her independence and joins WAAF’s. Joining up – vaccinations, lectures. Appeal of radar; selected for training. RAF Yatesbury, Wiltshire. Radar Operator training. First posting – Scarlet Point, Isle of Man. Poor conditions on station at first – excess alcohol, poor food. Improvements. Civilian billets. Bombing at Rye and Isle of Wight.  
Track 6 (14 mins31 secs)
Castletown, Isle of Man. Hitching lifts. Picked up by van driver. ‘St Ivel’ black market butter. Making toast on electric wall heater. Stationed near Birmingham – visiting Granny. On duty; 6pm-midnight watch. Pancakes while on duty. Vera’s ‘wonderful’ new independence. Other WAAF’s opened her eyes. Class differences amongst WAAF’s. Difficulty making friends in WAAF’s. One very good friend. Role of Radar Operator. Tracking aircraft. Identification of ‘friend or foe’. Emergency landings of bombers. Vera’s radar screen ‘saturated’ during bombing of Liverpool. Concentration. Tiredness after night duty. Befriending Mr Quantro, Speaker of Manx Parliament, and his wife, Methodists. Smoking and drinking. ‘Adopted’ by Quantro family. ‘Tinwald’. Vera’s lowly rank but mixing with famous, powerful people – Herbert Morrison and the Queen Mother’s sister. Ramsey timber business. German POW’s. Sir Joseph Quantro.
Track 7 (19mins 48 secs)
A change in the war. Male radar operators sent abroad, females retrained and called ‘mechs mates’. Vera joined up 1941, moved from Isle of Man 1943. A big change in bombing. Vera retrained for ‘GEE’, new radar system; a navigational aid for Lancaster bombers. How ‘GEE’ worked. Concentration required. Intense demands on radar operators. Tiring work. Her feelings of responsibility. Effects on her eyes. Nerves held up. D-Day – 110% effort needed. How ‘GEE’ identified safe corridor for RAF bombers. Vera’s flying trip in a Lancaster. Unaware of consequences of bombing raids. Possible RAF career. WAAFs enjoyed wartime dances. American servicemen. Vera’s wartime boyfriends. A short engagement. Vera writes letters to a soldier, John Osman. Their wartime relationship. His home in Minehead.
Track 8 (13 mins 21 secs)
RAF Clee Hill, Shropshire. War ends. Ludlow. Thanksgiving service then ‘Into the pub.’ ‘Airmail’ magazine. Alf Jenkins. Vera’s article. Her contact with Clee Hill. Article published in book. Demobbed November 1945 from Swanage. Left RAF to care for mother and mother’s new baby. Childbirth in 1940’s. Big change in Vera’s life. Her duty. How her life in RAF opened her eyes about her life in her family. Meeting Tony – a holiday romance at beginning of war. Friends with Tony. He trains as navigator in Canada. Meeting Tony again after war. Stirling bombers. Tony missing in action. Vera’s prayers for him. Tony safe, a POW. Vera writes to him. Her excitement at reunion.
Track 9 (23 mins 40 secs)
Caring for mother and baby brother after the war. Mother house-proud. Meeting Tony, old boyfriend, again. Relationship with mother. Realising the truth about her childhood. Being demobbed. A civil servant. A better social life in the RAF. Poor social life as civilian in Cambridge.  ‘Blind date’. Meeting future husband, Pilot Officer Ronald Ladds. Low spirits and weight loss. Marriage. Ron’s teaching engineering course at Watford. Courtship. Sexual relations between RAF airmen and WAAF’s during the war – her strong views on it. Origins of her strong religious faith. Sunday school. Early relationship with Ron. Very much in love. Vera’s sixth proposal. Their wedding and rationing. Clothing coupons. ‘Undies’ and ‘Passion Killers’. No wedding dress. Married in a cream suit. Grantchester – courting and getting married there. Rupert Brooke. Jeffrey and Mary Archer. Renting rooms after marriage. Her work looking after children.
Track 10  (21 mins 58 secs)
1949 brilliant summer. Renting a bungalow in Hatch End. Birth of Sandra. Sharing house with lodger. Dressmaking. Lack of self-confidence. Job offers. Gas cooker. Baking cakes. Need for building licence from Watford Council. A newly built semi-detached. Very happy there for 56 years. Sandra and Julia born in Watford maternity unit. Staying home to look after daughters. Headmaster’s secretary in Boreham Wood. Ron’s career. Ron’s training at Hatfield College. Machine shop engineering. Hertfordshire changes from 2-tier to 3-tier education. Ron in a Middle School. Ron teaching at Bushey. Ron’s pension, War Service Pension and retirement. The move to Halesworth. Holidays at Southwold. Their need for a bungalow. The White Hart, Halesworth. Ron’s jewellery-making. Silver-smithing. Family wedding rings. The move. No looking back. A new life. Widowhood.
Track 11  (11 mins 53 secs)
Vera’s reflections:
Pre-war entertainment at home. Early radio. Accumulators. Radio Luxembourg. Package holidays. Miracle of flight. Reflection – People not so happy these days. Vera’s second-hand bicycle. Saving up for things in the past. Opportunities for women these days. Changes – Relationships between men and women. Women’s lives today. Mothers staying home. Latch-key children. Parents disciplining their children. Attitudes to the police. Motherhood. Her grandmother. Relationship with her brother. Relationship with her grandmother. Story of a childhood fireworks accident.
Track 12  (13 mins 33secs)
Vera’s reflections:
Changes in social attitudes. Black people. Gays and lesbians. Attitudes to sexual relationships these days. Sex before marriage. Babies out of wedlock. The RAF solution – post men abroad. Possessions were looked after in the past. Mending things. Sewing, knitting and darning. Women’s new outfits for Easter and Whitsun in the past. Vera and Ron’s honeymoon. No spare money. Lewis’s store in Birmingham. Self-discipline. Values to pass on. Credit cards. Tribute to Vera. Relationship with daughters.