Women of Intelligence: Winning the Second World War with Air Photos by Halsall Christine

Author:Halsall, Christine [Halsall, Christine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2012-05-17T21:00:00+00:00

We used to go to Villiers David’s house – Friar Park – where all the light switches and door handles were shaped like monk’s heads, so you pressed down the monk’s nose to turn on the light! He and his sister had bought the farm next door so there was butter and cream at meals which was such a treat.15

It has often been noted that RAF Medmenham resembled more of an academic institution than a military establishment, with men and women recruited from widely diverse civilian occupations. The early, informal recruitment for the RAF of suitable, academically qualified colleagues at Wembley was successful and was formalised under Wing Commander Hamshaw Thomas at Medmenham. The WAAF selection system was also successful in picking out potential women PIs, and not only the obvious choices with qualifications and experience in photography, archaeology, art and geography. Historians and English graduates were also among those recruited, as were the women who had shown at a selection board that they looked at and examined a subject in depth, seeing more than the superficial view.

Although the comprehensive collection of men and women working alongside each other at Medmenham were experts in the widest variety of specialist subjects, all had a common characteristic: none took things at their face value and all questioned whatever they saw on the photographs. Searching for clues under the stereoscope, examining something unusual and then following it up until the answer was found became second nature to them. From 1940, as soon as WAAF regulations allowed, women were employed on the same work as men and were recognised as being equally capable. They were given responsibility for decision making in all aspects of intelligence production at Medmenham.

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