The women of the WAAF, Yorkshire memorial

2011

WAAF Yorkshire casualties memorial

This memorial at the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington is dedicated to ‘Members of the Women’s Auxilliary Air Force who died in service in Yorkshire during WWII.’ It lists the names of 24 women, based at airfields including nearby Marston Moor, Acaster Malbis and Riccall. (Larger image)

Included in the list are:

ACW2 Marguerite H Hudson was killed in the air raid on Driffield on 15 August 1940. She was 19 years old, and the first WAAF to be killed in the war.

ACW2 Jean Scargill was working as a driver and was killed when her truck was hit by a Halifax bomber at Marston Moor, on 8 July 1943. She was 20 years old.

LACW Nellie Griffiths, aged 35, was killed in the crash of Albermarle V1762 near Sherburn in Elmet on 21 Oct 1944.

Thanks to Rich Allenby for the additional information.

(Note on acronyms: ACW2 = Aircraftwoman 2nd Class, LACW = Leading Aircraftwoman)

Memories of a member of the WAAF, at Marston Moor

Catherine Horne served with the WAAF from 1942 to 1946. Her memories are worth reading in full via the link below, as are the many memories recorded in this BBC archive. But the following lines need quoting, in particular.

I was posted to the Sergeants Mess [I had opted to be a cook] at a place called Marston Moor. I wasn’t there long when the first 1000 bomber raid took place. I can remember being recalled to help cook the meals for the returning air crew. This was the first time I saw men cry.

Catherine Horne, WW2 People’s War, BBC archive

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

Thank you for adding a comment. Please note that comments are moderated, but should appear within 24 hours.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.