WW2 women on the boats some fresh movie footage from ITN

[Laurence Hogg]

I have not seen this before, can anyone recognise the steerer's or boats, nice shots inside too, you could smell the bacon!!

 

http://www.itnsource.com/en/shotlist/BHC_RTV/1944/06/05/BGX409160093/?s

[Ray T]

SLATE INFORMATION: Lady Bargers Start Work on Canal Front ENGLAND: EXT LV two girls walking towards barge with suitcases to take up work. SV girls climbing onto barge.

 

I've never heard of a "Lady Barger" before, is this a term now lost in folk lore?

 

Could one of the ladies be Margaret Cornish?

 

BTW thanks for posting these.

Edited January 6, 2015 by Ray T

[Tony Dunkley]

SLATE INFORMATION: Lady Bargers Start Work on Canal Front ENGLAND: EXT LV two girls walking towards barge with suitcases to take up work. SV girls climbing onto barge.

 

I've never heard of a "Lady Barger" before, is this a term now lost in folk lore?

 

BTW thanks for posting these.

Lord Bargers wife, presumably.

[alan_fincher]

I can't say I immediately recognise any of these women from any of the previous pictures or footage I have seen.

 

I don't think it is one of the training pairs, as I don't think Kit Gayford or Daphne French are in there.

 

I'm struggling to pick out much detail, due to the low quality, but assuming the same pair throughout, then it can be clearly seen that the butty is No 383, which is "Vela".

 

One of the GUCCCo manning lists that has been published in the past for 14th September 1944 shows "Vela" paired with No 33 "Deimos", and the steerer is indeed a "Trainee", a Miss Strachan, (no forename or even initial is given).

 

I would say it is therefore possible that the lady demonstrating the starting of an engine, etc could be Miss Strachan, but I have no idea who she is, I'm afraid.

 

There are posters on here occasionally who have studied the Trainees extensively, and I'm very much suspecting they will know more.

Could one of the ladies be Margaret Cornish?

I don't think any look like the published pictures of Margaret Cornish, and if the butty is Vela, it is not one I recall as being mentioned in her book (although my memory is not good enough to say it definitely is not).

[zenataomm]

Lord Bargers wife, presumably.

 

[Derek R.]

I am tempted with the thought that one may be Olga Kevelos, but I don't think she was a blonde.

Another aspect of Olga:

http://blog.needsupply.com/2013/02/24/lady-we-love-olga-kevelos/

[Athy]

I am tempted with the thought that one may be Olga Kevelos, but I don't think she was a blonde.

Another aspect of Olga:

http://blog.needsupply.com/2013/02/24/lady-we-love-olga-kevelos/

Wow, hers was a well spent life. I had never heard of her until now.

[alan_fincher]

Bumping this in the hope it gets seen by one of our occasional posters that has researched the wartime "Trinees"/

 

Anybody know who "Miss Strachan" was, please?

[BuckbyLocks]

I hadn't seen this one before either, but I can identify most if not all of the women. It is a very posed film as the Trainer shown is Eily (Kit) Gayford and she did not train this particular team. Skipper is 'the Blonde Bombshell', Betty Snelling, and the 'trainee' raising a paddle and opening the gates by crossing them is Monica Martin, (also known as Frankie). The third crew member is almost certainly Mary Whitley. Betty Snelling was a bank clerk and returned to the bank following a boating accident in which she broke her leg. Nora Strachan presumably took over the pair after this accident. I know little about Nora, but she was around the cut for quite a long time, starting early in 43.

[BuckbyLocks]

Further to mine above, I have now had the chance to look at this clip in rather better quality and although I am still not certain about the third crew member being Mary Whitley, (a war widow) she is known to have been working with Betty and Monica in June 1944. I haven't got a September 44 manning list to hand, but when Nora Strachan took over Deimos and Vela, Monica is listed as the skipper of another pair.

[alan_fincher]

..................and the 'trainee' raising a paddle and opening the gates by crossing them is Monica Martin, (also known as Frankie).

 

Is this the one also referred to as Frankie Campbell Martin, then?

 

I have to say that even before current eyesight problems I'm struggling to recognise even Kit Gayford, (but then photos I have seen of her look quite different from each other).

 

 

[BuckbyLocks]

Yes, Alan. Still working on Frankie C M, but it appears as if she was really just Monica M. Various press reports refer to her with others who are easily identified and I have several personal correspondences which confirm it.

 

Sorry about the glasses - a pair of my vfs are still in the Basin at the top of the Thirteen from my televised immersion but there is no doubt about the Trainer being Kit. I agree she looks different in nearly all of her photos, but I have seen more of them than you and her nose is very recognisable.

[alan_fincher]

Sorry about the glasses - a pair of my vfs are still in the Basin at the top of the Thirteen from my televised immersion but there is no doubt about the Trainer being Kit. I agree she looks different in nearly all of her photos, but I have seen more of them than you and her nose is very recognisable.

 

Yes, I had already looked at it again, and (even with only one working eye!), could see what you mean about the nose.

 

So this appears to be a very rigged bit of film about someone training a crew she probably didn't train, then?

 

It seems to focus mostly on the "blonde bombshell" - I assume she was considered to be of the greatest photographic interest?

[Derek R.]

Glasses; one pair in the top lock of Farmers Bridge; one pair somewhere in the Cherwell; one pair in the basin at Cassio (along with a pocket calculator and slipstone); but the last pair rescued from beneath the air cleaner tucked at the back of the engine after a run from Cornwall to Wenlock.

[BuckbyLocks]

So this appears to be a very rigged bit of film about someone training a crew she probably didn't train, then?

 

It seems to focus mostly on the "blonde bombshell" - I assume she was considered to be of the greatest photographic interest?

Not sure who trained Betty, but this isn't a training run. All of the better known films were made about the same time in 44 as a result of the Ministry takeover of the Training Scheme and they all feature already trained women posing as trainees. Kit did train Frankie but she then worked with a large number of crews before getting a pair of her own. Betty's future husband was a photographer I believe.

 

Audrey Harper seems to have been the most photographed Trainee. I have only seen a handful of pictures of the blonde bombshell, and several hundred of Audrey who appears on many magazine covers and adverts for vacuum cleaners, etc.

[BuckbyLocks]

Having looked again at this film, I see the first butty they climb on is 'Serpens' which I have not previously identified as a Trainee boat. It is given as being in the hands of G T Jones in the Sept 44 list, with Aldgate. Monica Martin had the Atlas and Capella in that list, even if she is shown as Miss C Martin.

[FadeToScarlet]

Sort of off-topic, but you're obviously well-researched and read in the trainees. I'm very interested in the short-lived Northern scheme, as my boat was one of those in the scheme, organised by Molly Traill shortly before her parting of ways with the ministry of war transport (IIRC). There's apparently a reasonable amount of stuff at Kew in the archives, but I was wondering if you knew anything else about it?

[BuckbyLocks]

Sort of off-topic, but you're obviously well-researched and read in the trainees. I'm very interested in the short-lived Northern scheme, as my boat was one of those in the scheme, organised by Molly Traill shortly before her parting of ways with the ministry of war transport (IIRC). There's apparently a reasonable amount of stuff at Kew in the archives, but I was wondering if you knew anything else about it?

Apart from knowing that Ash and Willow were involved, I can't add very much to what I have already told you. If there is stuff at Kew I must have missed it! I am still researching though so will let you know if anything else does turn up.