In the summer of 1944, Wren Kathleen Oates was stationed on the Isle of Man, writing dozens of letters home about life and operations at Ronaldsway. Eighty years later, her daughter, Christine Smith, explores these letters in a series of columns based on Kathleen’s wartime experiences...

Two letters were dispatched 80 years ago from the Ronaldsway Base to the Leicester family of Wren Kathleen Oates. It was a quiet week, both on the work and social front, with some flying cancelled due to bad weather, and so she had both time and energy to complain.

Things may not have been helped by hearing her colleague and fellow Plotter Cynthia talk of a Wren friend in Italy, who was in no rush to return home. ‘She’s had a lovely time out there: driving all around the country. She was saying how much she’s going to miss the food out there, the sunshine, the red wines et cetera.’ Kathleen’s father Chris had been stationed there in the First World War and she recalled how much he had appreciated that country.

Thus, her Sunday letter of June 3 began with an outburst against the inclement weather. ‘Another wet dull day! I’m absolutely fed up of them and of having to stay indoors! Every Sunday since coming back from leave, it has rained and rained! I’m not happy these days unless I’m out on my cycle riding by the sea or exploring somewhere new. I’m absolutely fed up of sitting in canteens.’

Of course, the upside of bad weather was that Kathleen could be writing letters instead of working, and there was also the tantalising possibility of sometimes getting to bed on time instead of doing a Night Flying shift. This could be seen as she described her new – theoretical - rota to the family, in which things did not always go to plan.

‘I’m on night duty Monday, starting about 11:30 and finishing anywhere around 5 o’clock in the morning, so I’ll definitely be sleeping all Tuesday morning! Then Tuesday, I shall be on again from 12:30 until 5 pm, and the next day will be night flying and so on.’ However, when Tuesday came around, work was not following the timetable: ‘I’m writing from Ops because flying has been cancelled because the weather is so rotten. – However, I still have to stay here till 5 o’clock as it may clear up at any moment. Last night [Monday], I was on Night Flying from 11 o’clock till about five this morning. Dawn was breaking as I cycled back to camp. I went straight to bed but woke up about 8:30 with the usual bustle in the cabin then onwards, until 11 am, I slept intermittently.’ However, Kathleen was luckier on Wednesday June 6, as Night Flying was cancelled, ‘so I got a good night’s sleep after all! The first two details went off, but we had to recall them just after midnight – I could have cheered! This morning, I slept till about 10 am then went over with Cynthia to the canteen to play table tennis until lunchtime.’

All was well in Kathleen’s world, however, when she was not confined to Base by the weather. Saturday June 2 ‘was lovely, luckily. Cynthia and I took the Electric Tramway to Laxey and spent the afternoon there on the beach. It’s only a small place, with a little bay and jetty. The sun was lovely and hot and we were able to watch a little aircraft carrier chasing up and down the coast on exercise. We had tea in Laxey – boiled eggs – then we took the tram back to Douglas. We broke our journey at Groudle Glen and explored there. It’s just a little way out of Douglas and there is a very pretty Glen with the usual river and waterfall, palm trees, lily ponds et cetera; it ultimately comes out at a little beach. Back in Douglas again, we went to the last house at the cinema to see The Strawberry Roan. This is a British picture – a tale of farming people. We also saw a short descriptive film of the Scilly Isles, which was rather interesting. I thought about going there someday for a holiday, but the islands looked much more bare and less tropical than I’d imagined. It takes 3 ½ hours to get there by sea – a shorter crossing than it is to the Isle of Man.’

This prompted her to advise against a holiday on the Isle of Man at the moment, ‘as people are already being left behind when the boat sails’. Presumably this reflected a surge of tourists and boats filled to capacity.

As so often, Kathleen’s letters reflected the availability of goods. She offered to post some Manx kippers to Leicester; her family had clearly been reminiscing on experiencing the quality of these in previous holidays. She also offered, if required, to return a needle which they had sent to her, now that she had successfully darned her stockings.

She had bought some material at Taggarts, ‘as there are rumours going around about a stronger check up on chits, so I thought I’d spend mine whilst I could. When I collect it, I’ll post it straight home without taking it back to Camp, as we have to get a chit now to take any parcel out of camp – which is a nuisance…. It was 3/11 per yard.’

The second letter home that week had a more contented note, as she wrote from Port Erin beach. ‘Last night [June 5], I went out with one of the Petty Officer Air Gunners, with whom I occasionally go out. We had quite an amusing time, considering the limited facilities of Castleton. We went to the cinema, then for supper to the CKR [now known to be an Arbory Street cafe in Castletown], then to the dance at the YMCA.’

However, by the time of posting, on Friday June 8th, ‘it’s awfully dull again!! I’m going to find a lovely sunny country in which to live after the War!!’.

The next letter from Kathleen will feature in the Manx Independent of June 26.