Women’s Land Army & Auxiliary Territorial Service
Joan Gerrish was born on 9 August 1922 in England. At the age of 17, she was too young to join the military, so Joan instead joined The Women’s Land Army (WLA). When the Second World War broke out, it was necessary to produce more food at home. With many male agricultural workers joining the armed forces, women were needed to provide a new rural workforce. The WLA was the answer. When she was of age she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) in 1941. The ATS operated in various non-combatant capacities as the women’s branch of the British Army.
Joan and her family had a front row seat to one of the most intense air battles in history from their family home in Kent, England. Situated close to Royal Air Force base Biggin Hill, The Battle of Britain had landed on their doorstep. The battle was the result of the German Luftwaffe’s attempt to gain air superiority over Britain and took place from July to October 1940. She noticed the planes, “sounded like angry bees” as their engines roared. She watched the fighters dive and spin through the air, hearing the odd, “rat-tat-tat” of their guns. They were so fast that the planes were often difficult to identify. At night, she would stand outside with her father, a veteran of the First World War, and watch the spotlights pick up enemy aircraft. When anti-aircraft shells exploded, they would send shrapnel flying everywhere, including onto the tiles of Joan’s family home. Her mother would be driven hysterical when she saw the pair putting their lives in danger to watch the skies light up. Their local aerodrome was crucial to the protection of London and the Southeast. The squadrons based there claimed to have destroyed 1,400 enemy aircraft at the cost of 453 Biggin Hill based aircrew. Joan later witnessed some of the 1000 bomber raids in formation from her posting with the ATS.
When Joan enlisted in the ATS she wanted to become a driver, “my worst subject in school was math” she told them, yet they gave her a job that required trigonometry anyway. She was posted to a Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery, “the females did the command post, and the males did the big guns.” Joan vividly recalls a male instructor standing in front of the blackboard asking, “Private Gerrish, stand up and tell the class what I’ve just told you.” After a pause, he said, “I’m still waiting,” to which she responded, “I’m sorry, sir, but I didn’t understand.” He clenched his fist and raised it, stating, “Private Gerrish, if you take the piss out of me again, you are going to receive this right between your eyes.” Eight decades later, in 2024, Joan couldn’t imagine a woman being talked to like that, but at the time, she was “treated the same way the men were treated.”
Despite initial challenges with the mathematics required for anti-aircraft guns, Joan picked up the trade quickly. When asked if she was any good at her job, she humbly responded, “I presume so, I ended up a sergeant.”
During her service, she was generally well behaved, but one evening she did find herself in trouble. While off duty, she entered a pub and began talking with a man who was a telegraphist on a submarine. Trying to impress Joan, he offered to show her inside the sub. Her curiosity got the best of her. He toured her around the naval vessel before hearing a voice yell from above, “Come out right now with your hands up!” The two exited the submarine and found a member of the Royal Naval Constabulary with a rifle drawn. It was obvious to Joan that they had no official reason to be on the highly secretive vessel. Did they think she was an enemy spy? They swiftly checked her identity and loaded her into a vehicle to deliver her to her commanding officer for punishment. When she arrived, the major exclaimed, “Corporal Gerrish, what have you done?” She responded, “I’ve been arrested sir, for going on a submarine.” He threw his hands up in disbelief while she expressed how she really wanted to see the sub. Subsequently, he cancelled her passes for two weeks. It was a modest punishment considering that a demotion could have been carried out. Joan expressed that the sub tour was well worth two weeks of leave passes.
Joan’s work with the ATS took her all over the United Kingdom, as her battery was moved wherever they were needed. She recalls artillerymen testing their accuracy by firing at targets pulled behind allied aircraft on a very long cord during training exercises in Scotland. Fortunately, she never felt that she was in immense danger during the war.
When the war ended, Joan was confined to base and could not partake in any celebrations. Her commanding officer was not certain if the announcement was real or if the Germans had penetrated their communications system.
So many homes in England had been destroyed by the German bombing campaign during the war. Housing became difficult to procure and finances were strained by massive war debts, a shortage of goods, and the cost of rebuilding. A few years after the war, Joan was talking with a neighbour who had just returned home from touring the Commonwealth with the British Government. When she asked him which country looked to have the brightest future, he replied, “Without a doubt, Canada.” The following Sunday, Joan was having lunch with her family and expressed her discontent with their situation and her desire to move out of the country. The family agreed. Subsequently, they visited the Canadian Embassy in London. When they arrived, she found a huge crowd of like-minded individuals trying to escape the hardships of Britain. The process was not easy; they were required to undergo a physical examination, be interviewed, and asked where they had served, what they earned, what their health was like, and then had to show references and documents confirming all their answers. After their approval, Joan immigrated to Northern Ontario with her husband and infant son in 1957. Eventually, she moved just outside of Goose Bay, Labrador, where she lived for fifty years before moving to Nova Scotia. After 67 years in Canada, Joan proclaimed, “I love Canada… it’s free and we’ve got so much space.”
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