Lest We Forget: Behind each soldier was a hard working woman
By Gillian Slade on November 7, 2018.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com @MHNGillianSlade Working in a munitions plant that supplied bombs for the Second World War was an opportunity for a young girl to contribute to the war effort, and it introduced her to another world of experiences. “It was like an adventure,” said Medicine Hat resident Eleanor Watson — 89 when interviewed by The News in 2014 — who worked for Defense Industries Limited in Ajax, Ont. Watson passed away in Medicine Hat on Aug. 30, 2018 at the age of 92. At DIL, Watson had the responsibility of looking for flaws in the grooves of shells because that defect could cause them to backfire. “You had to be careful screwing the cap on,” Watson explained. For a young girl of 15, living in Medicine Hat when the Second World War broke out, it was the experience of a lifetime. She had seen a notice on the door of the Glass Factory in Redcliff where she’d been working. “Come work for Defence Industries in Ajax,” it had suggested. The offer included transportation to Ajax, and if she worked there for more than six months her journey back home again would be covered as well. In 1941, nearly 3,000 acres of farmland in Ajax had been transformed into the largest ammunition shell-filling plant in Canada, according to the Honour Ajax Bomb Girls website. They employed more than 9,000 individuals and produced about 40 million shells. Her father had listened to her enthusiasm about Ajax and told her to think hard about her decision. “He used to say, ‘What you do today may affect you for the rest of your life,'” said Watson of his thoughtful advice and support. She had lived in Ontario before so it was not totally unfamiliar, and two of her Medicine Hat friends were also eager to work in Ajax. They travelled by train to Ajax and were billeted in one of a number of barracks, each housing about 100 girls and women. An older woman was in charge and there were security guards at each gate, said Watson. A canteen provided all their meals and sometimes arranged “canteen dances,” which service men attended. They were issued a grey-blue colour jumpsuit with the top attaching to the pants with buttons at the waist. They also had to cover their hair with a kerchief and wear black, lace-up Oxford shoes, said Watson. “I must have grown up very fast,” said Watson who believed the television series Bomb Girls is very close to her experience. She worked six days a week in one of three shifts as the factory operated 24/7. Sometimes people coming off a shift were offered additional work helping to pick apples in nearby orchards. Watson says she was well paid. The Honour Ajax Bomb Girls website says males earned 80 cents an hour and females 50 cents. She returned to Medicine Hat at the end of the war and in September 1946 married Harry Watson, who’d been in the Canadian Royal Navy during the war. “After I turned 13 everything seemed to just happen,” said Watson. “Such a joy, so fulfilled.” The service of women in the First and Second World Wars is often overshadowed by the significant role of men. In the First World War, more than 2,500 nurses served with the Canadian Army Medical Corps. A total of 53 died and two of those were from Medicine Hat. Ida Lilian Kealy of the Gas City was one of the first 10 nurses called from Alberta to serve in the First World War. She was stationed as the No. 1 Canadian General Hospital in France for most of the war and on March 12, 1918 died of pneumonia. Also from Medicine Hat, Matilda Ethel Green, who worked at the Medicine Hat General Hospital, joined up in 1917 and was stationed at the No. 7 Canadian General Hospital in France. She also developed pneumonia and died on Oct. 9 1918. Canadian nurses in 1942 became the first of the Allied countries to have officer status. The rank of Nursing Sister was the equivalent to that of Lieutenant. They were paid about two-thirds of men in that rank, according to History Woman Military. Canadian Nursing Sisters were nicknamed “Bluebirds” because of their light blue uniform with a white apron and cap. Many women joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Canadian Women’s Army Corps), Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service, and the Royal Armoured Corp. More than 45,000 women enlisted in the Canadian military during the Second World War as support staff, clerical workers, drivers of heavy equipment, parachute riggers, telephone operators, laundry workers and cooks. It has been estimated one in every nine Canadian women at the time enlisted for service. See Thursday’s Medicine Hat News for the fourth Remembrance Day story about the tombs of the “Unknown Soldier” in England, Canada and the U.S. — who had the idea, how the remains of one soldier representing all the others in unmarked graves was chosen and the symbolism 32
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