Daphne Tester (nee Dangerfield) was born in Ontario, Canada, hence her Canadian wings on the arm of her uniform. Her family moved back to England when she was only 9 years old.
Over the years our family had many get-togethers at our home in East Grinstead, however, she rarely spoke about her WAAF diaries, so we barely knew anything about them. We were also unaware that she still had them, tucked away in a drawer. It wasn’t until many years later, in 2008, when they made the hard decision to move house, that they were found again.
The Big Move
Mum and Dad, Maurice and Daphne Tester, had lived in their family home for over 48 years. They had been finding their large house and considerable garden, increasingly difficult to manage.
On the build-up to moving day I had a phone call from Mum asking about what to do with her diaries. It was a ‘by the way’ type of discussion. “Oh, I’ve found my old war diaries.” she said, ” I’d forgotten about these. I’m not sure what to do with them. What do you think? Shall I just throw them out”. My immediate response was “Oh no, don’t do that. Keep hold of them and I will have a look next time we come over”. When we did, I was horrified that she had suggested throwing them. They were lovely, all 6 of them, leather bound, and the tiniest handwriting! Some of it I could barely read. So, Mum suggested perhaps I could type them up in a document to give to the family. So, that’s what we agreed on. It was only when I made a start on the work that I realised how important and interesting this ‘find’ was.
Memoirs of a WAAF
Having made the decision to create a book, Memoirs of a WAAF, based on the first diary, it took me, with support from my husband, more than 2 years of hard work, from start to finish, to reach publication.
Mum and I sat down on several occasions, going through more detail about what she could remember about her time in the WAAF. There was a lot of it! Much of her diaries were full of good memories, but also some sad times.
It was a very proud day when we received the first batch of books, ready for Phil and I to sell to local shops.
Sadly my dear Mum passed away in May 2017, but the very happy memories of that time are very precious.
Thankfully, the book sold out, through various outlets, but luckily I kept a signed copy, and the Kindle version is still available on Amazon. I’m working on getting the new paperback version on Amazon too.
