Wartime weathergirl from Ludlow recounts her stories
During her time in Sri Lanka, war-time weather girl Ruth McFarlane attempted to crack Japanese codes, saw Lord Mountbatten, Gracie Fields and troops and prisoners of war return from the war-torn east.
Mrs McFarlane, 89, now lives on Broad Street in Ludlow, but remembers it all vividly – and now pictures have come to light from her time in Columbo as a Wren meteorologist.
Kept by her daughter Jo Sharp, 54, of Richards Castle, they show Mrs McFarlane as a young Wren, and the Allied forces victory parade she attended in 1945, after the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan.
The story of women serving during the Second World War is not often told – so the memories of Mrs McFarlane will be a fascinating addition to a display at the Royal British Legion building on Mill Street, Ludlow, this summer, to mark the 70th anniversary of D-Day, put together by sisters Margaret Edwards and Jean Parker, who run Poyner's clothes shop in the town.
Mrs McFarlane signed up to the Wrens when she was at university in Hertfordshire.
"I was doing maths and chemistry. They kept on changing the rules for how long you could stay and it became apparent that I couldn't finish my degree, I could only do two years of it."
She joined the Fleet Air Arm and became a meteorologist at Dale airbase in Pembrokeshire in December 1943.
She was at Dale for less than a year, she said, when a more exotic posting came up.
"The option of going to Ceylon (modern day Sri Lanka) came up and I took it," she said, "but the job was rather different – we were trying to break Japanese weather codes, taking down from the teleprinter all the information being given out by the Japanese and trying to find a pattern to it.
"But before we did much much of that it was all drawing to a close – they dropped the big bombs while I was there."
The atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, sparking Japan's surrender to the Allies.
"I can't remember whether we actually knew what was happening or what our response was. They kept things pretty quiet. We were just happy to be going home.
"They brought most of our prisoners of war that had been in Singapore back through Columbo. When you saw the state they were in you thought 'Thank heavens it's finished'."
She was in Columbo for the victory parade led by Supreme Allied Commander Lord Louis Mountbatten. "It was very exciting really, it was wonderful because we were on a high. It was most impressive to see the troops in all their tropical gear and the band, and of course Lord Mountbatten was a marvellous figurehead."
