Auxiliary Territorial Service
Rebekah Angove was born on 17 August 1925 in the hamlet of Trebehor in Cornwall, England. She grew up in a large family, being one of ten children. As the Second World War broke out, she watched two of her sisters and three of her brothers enlist for service. Living on the coast of England she watched German planes attack Allied ships as the war raged on. She slept in the same bed as her sister at night and recalls her sister shaking with nerves when she would hear the plane engines overhead. Rebekah was more optimistic, telling her sister, “They’ll get shot down, we have Spitfires.”
In early 1943, at just 17 years old, she longed to join the military. Her mother had been concerned that Rebekah’s rebellious nature would get her in trouble and was not easily convinced to give her daughter parental consent to join. She had been dubbed ‘Rebbie the Rebel’ by her family. Rebekah was close with her grandmother, who pleaded with her mother on her behalf. Eventually, the pair convinced her to provide parental consent for enlistment.
Rebekah was accepted for service with the Auxiliary Territorial Service and trained as a nurse’s aide. One of her first encounters with a Canadian soldier was at a hospital in Birmingham, where she recalled reading him letters from home as he sat and listened from his wheelchair. While she saw many terrible injuries during her service, the soldiers kept things light. One soldier even carried a water pistol, which he tormented the hospital staff with.
Rebekah was later posted to Cairo, Egypt, toward the end of the war. She recalled taking a train about 200 kilometers from Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea to Cairo. As a nurse, she was attached to the Royal Corps of Signals. With her unit, she performed a myriad of basic nursing duties. The men especially enjoyed the foot care received from the nurses. She would wash their feet in a bowl of antiseptic before placing their feet on her lap. She would cut their toenails, treat their calluses, and any other cuts or injuries that required treatment.
It was not all work when it came to serving in Egypt. In Rebekah’s free time, she was able to visit the pyramids, go on camel rides, and attend service clubs. Eighty years after her service, she still claimed that enlisting was “the best thing I could ever have done.” At a service club in Egypt, she met Nicholas Clark, an air gunner with the South African Air Force. He would eventually become her husband when they married in Egypt in 1946. She was fortunate that despite serving overseas, she never felt that she was in any immense danger. By the time she was serving in Africa, the German advance into Egypt had been halted, and the German Forces had been driven out of North Africa.
Her anxious mother had insisted that all her children write a letter home each week to make sure they were okay. One of her brothers had an especially dangerous job as a Royal Marine Commando, serving in sabotage missions throughout Europe. He was wounded on one occasion, but the French Resistance saved him and got him back to England. All of Rebekah’s siblings survived the war and were able to return home. When they finally gathered to celebrate, her mother provided champagne for a party. At last, her mother could stop worrying.
Rebekah and Nicholas started their married life in South Africa. All three of their children were born in Pretoria, South Africa, where they lived for over thirty years. Not happy with the apartheid system in South Africa, they moved to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), which they felt was a more suitable place to raise their children. Her youngest son met a Canadian while attending university. This resulted in a visit to Canada for their wedding. Subsequently, they were sponsored and moved to Canada in 1981. In Canada, she served for 40 years as a volunteer with the Saanich Peninsula Hospital Auxiliary, which made her an honorary member.
As of 2025 Rebekah resides at Broadmead Veterans Memorial Lodge in British Columbia.
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