As the nation prepares to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, Parklands Care Homes has released a podcast capturing the stories of women who lived and served during the Second World War.
Peace at Last: Memories of VE Day is a two-part podcast featuring residents from care homes in Moray and the Highlands, sharing their first-hand experiences of wartime. Now in their late 90s and early 100s, these remarkable women recount personal stories of service, sacrifice and loss — from childhood evacuation to top secret codebreaking and surviving Soviet imprisonment.
The podcast also captures the sense of optimism that swept the country after years of devastating conflict.
It features Dr Jean Munro, now 101 and a resident at Lynemore in Grantown, who was a member of Hut 6 at Bletchley Park, the team responsible for deciphering German Army and Air Force Enigma messages. She wasn’t able to reveal her work to family and friends until the 1980s. Historians believe that breaking the Enigma code may have shortened the war by two to four years, potentially saving hundreds of thousands of lives. “I never thought of it that way, but if I think about it now, I think I’m really glad,’ she says.
Fellow Lynemore resident Edith McCreadie grew up in Battersea, London, and was just 15 when the war broke out. At the time, she was working at Harrods as a trainee seamstress, but at just 17 she joined the RAF. “I had to ask my parents first because, otherwise, you couldn’t go. My mum wasn’t very pleased,” she recalls. Edith was later posted to North Africa where she met her future husband.
Margaret Radin, a resident at Urray House in Muir of Ord, was just nine years old when war broke out. With fears that Edinburgh, where she lived, would be a target for Nazi bombing, Margaret and her siblings were briefly evacuated to Inverness, a journey that felt more like a holiday than a hardship. She remembers idyllic days picking fruit and playing at the Ness Islands in Inverness, and the celebration in Edinburgh when peace finally came. But there were darker memories too: the fear of gas attacks and the heartache of being separated from her mum and dad. She remembers her younger brother worrying: “I’m not going to have a proper daddy with me anymore.”
Cathy Garrow, who now lives at Eilean Dubh in Fortrose and celebrates her 100th birthday later this year, worked in a farmhouse kitchen in Ross-shire during the war. As a carefree teenager, Cathy didn’t follow the war closely but recalls a strong sense of community and going to the local dances. She worried about the young men going to war, but for the most part, life on the farm continued much as it always had. “It didn’t appear to us that there was war on. We just carried on regardless,” she says.
Helena Rosol, now resident at Eilean Dubh, grew up in a small Polish village and was just six when the war began. In February 1940, just months after the Soviet invasion of Poland, her family was forcibly removed from their home by Soviet troops and deported to a camp in Siberia. Tragically, her entire family were killed by the Soviets. Two years later, as part of a wartime amnesty, Helena was helped by the Red Cross and taken to an orphanage in India, where she remained for the rest of the war. In 1947, she was due to travel to the United States to join adoptive parents, but a stopover in England led to her meeting her aunt and uncle – a moment that changed her life. She remained in England, met her future husband, and together they raised two daughters. Helena reflects: “War never helped anybody or anything.”
At Netherha in Buckie, Patricia Innes, who turned 100 this month, recalls growing up in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and working in a naval office in the capital Colombo, helping to decipher top secret coded messages. She remembers living under constant fear of Japanese attack and the pressure of wartime intelligence work. “I think I was too busy to be scared,” she says. “I just tried to do the best I could.”
Glenisla resident Mamie Cree, who turned 101 last week, was conscripted from her home in Keith and sent to Dalkeith, a big upheaval since she’d never been further than Elgin. She worked in an army payroll office and remembers the wartime dances and meeting her future husband of 75 years. A portrait of Mamie in uniform hangs on her wall, and for the recording, she proudly wore the same beret she was pictured in all those years ago.
Margaret Simpson, a resident at Weston View in Keith, grew up on a farm between Stonehaven and Montrose. She remembers wartime shortages and her mother’s ingenious workaround for sugar rationing – keeping bees to make honey for “jammie pieces.” Occasional dances also helped keep spirits up.
Donald Morrison, Director of Communications at Parklands Care Homes, hosts the podcast. He said: “It was incredibly humbling to meet people – some now in their 100s – who lived through the war and supported the war effort, whether as civilians or, in some cases, aiding our armed forces. There are some remarkable and poignant stories of service, sacrifice and loss and I feel so privileged that we were able to capture them. We all owe that generation a huge debt of gratitude.”
Peace at Last: Memories of VE Day is available to download at podfollow.com/parklands
A short video has also been produced to commemorate VE Day.