223731 Henrietta "Ettie" Stephenson Womens Auxiliary Air Force from:Nelson, Lancashire My Grandmother, Henrietta Stephenson taught service men how to swim for which she won an award. She also "worked with photographs" and "prayed for the safe return of all pilots". I couldn't really understand her job. That is all she spoke of to her Grandchildren 30 years after the war.
I have since learned from my father that she was a photographic interpreter. When I asked my father where she was stationed he said "All personnel involved were located where there were reconnaissance planes and at one time this was Harwell, Didcot, Berkshire. My father was sent to live with many different families while his Mum served in the WAAF. There was so much secrecy. My father snuck away from those billeting him in the Blackburn area to visit his Mum. It sounds like he got a bit of a scolding and a traumatic experience. He had gone all the way on bike to see her! When he was on his way home towns and villages that had stood as he travelled through on his way to visit his Mum has been very badly bombed! He was only eleven. This would be in 1940. I think the town he referred to was Haslingden.
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