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#RAFLincolnshire
> Station and Base Photos
RAF Bardney
RAF Binbrook
RAF Bottesford
RAF Coleby Grange
RAFC Cranwell
RAF East Kirkby
RAF Elsham Wolds
RAF Donna Nook
RAF Faldingworth
RAF Fulbeck
RAF Goxhill
RAF Grimsby / Waltham
RAF Hibaldstow
RAF Ingham
RAF Kelstern
RAF Kirton in Lindsey
RAF Metheringham
RAF North Killingholme
RAF Sandtoft
RAF Scampton
RAF Sturgate
RAF Stenigot
RAF Swinderby
RAF Theddlethorpe
RAF Wellingore
RAF Wigsley
> Unit and Formation Memorials
Updated: 7 Nov 11
This is a picture taken at RAF Metheringham in March 1946, of LACW Joan Hatchett, standing in the centre of the back row with short sleeves & tie. She was called up in 1943 and served until Oct 1946 at various bases including Scampton, Sandtoft & Metheringham where she was demobbed.
She spent her time as a silver service waitress in the Officers' Mess and became very proficient at it. Even in wartime the officers had a proper waitress for their food and she became very fond of them and was highly regarded as a good worker.
Her memories of all of the camps centred around how cold the Nissan
huts were when they had to sleep there in the winter but how much fun
the
dances were when lots of people got together for a "knees-up".
She also mentioned putting on quite a lot of weight as the military rations
seemed far more generous than the civilian ones in London where her family
were. Her wartime memories didn't pick out individual camps so I cannot
pass on a Metheringham memory but she never spoke ill of it. She sadly
passed away in 2001.
Having previously worked in a shoe shop she became very good at waitressing
and for the rest of her life could easily manage 7 or 8 plates in her
hands & arms. When our family queried if she could manage she always
said "Don't worry, I was a waitress during the war" & this
became a family catch-phrase whenever anyone asked if you could manage
a task of any sort, not even involving crockery!
These recollections were provided by Joan's son, Malcolm Fish. The
photographs appear with his kind permission.
Metheringham Airfield Visitor Centre
Friend of Metheringham Airfield
RAF Metheringham on ControlTowers.co.uk
RAF Metheringham memories on the Wartime Memories Project
Buy the
local map:
1:25
000 (detail)
1:50
000 (area)
aerial photo of RAF Metheringham
oblique airfield photograph (2001)
Aviation
Heritage Lincolnshire
(Tourism)
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