By Alice Millard, Archivist
If you haven’t read part one of the Tommie and Betty Archive blogs, you can catch up here.
Just as we used the archive to delve into the early lives of Tommie and Betty in part one, we are going to explore what the collection can tell us about the significant aspects of their lives through the 1950s and into the 1980s.
Women’s Royal Army Corps
The collection includes hundreds of photographs from Tommie and Betty’s time in the Women’s Royal Army Corps (WRAC), from the 1950s to the early 1960s. Betty appears to have joined the Women’s Royal Army Corps around 1955; it seems likely that she met Tommie around this time, when both were in the same Sussex branch. From what I can tell, Betty was a corporal and Tommie served as a private.
Many of the photos are of the annual WRAC summer camps, attended by both Tommie and Betty, and feature many of their friends. These photos document the activities, training, competitions, and social events they clearly so enjoyed. You get a real sense of the passion and enthusiasm they had for their roles within the WRAC. Both women were drivers, and the photo albums show a variety of military vehicles that they drove, as well as training events. They even met two racing drivers during their time with the WRAC, Jo Ashfield and Sheila Van Damm – the daughter of Vivian Van Damm of Windmill Theatre fame. Incidentally, Sheila Van Damm lived near Pulborough with her sister in later life.
Holidaying
The archive shows us that both Tommie and Betty were fond of trips, domestic and overseas. There are several postcards addressed to them from holidaying friends. And, though there is a marked lack of correspondence between the two women in this collection, there is one postcard sent from Tommie to Betty in 1959 from Devon –
“Hallo! there, with this card will come a bundle of magazines two of yours & one extra, which I found very interesting, you will know why. We shall be at the following site until next Monday, so if you would like to write!!! here’s your chance Half Way House Hotel, Aylesbeare, nr Exeter, Devon. Not certain about weekend, will write again. Cheerio God Bless Tommie”
There are albums of holiday snaps, too. Here is a page showing several photos of Tommie and Betty thoroughly enjoying a caravan trip in Stratford. I love the small details in these images; the salmon and new potatoes for dinner, the handsomely dressed dinner table, and the tea paraphernalia set up outdoors in the cold!
Life Saving
As if service in the military wasn’t enough, both women were also exceptionally active members of the Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS) from the 1970s right up to their deaths in 1996 (Tommie) and 2018 (Betty). Their archive includes various awards and certifications completed in connection with their life saving activities. These include a Certificate of Thanks awarded to Tommie in 1994 by the Commonwealth Council of The Royal Life Saving Society in recognition of her service. And, in honour of Betty’s contributions, the Sussex branch of the RLSS has established the Betty Hakesley Award.
Writing these two blog posts has been a pleasure; to be allowed such an insight into the lives of Tommie and Betty feels like a privilege and archives are one of the few places you can learn such a lot about the lives of those you don’t know, without ever meeting them. But, of course, this is just an overview of a very rich collection which will continue to inform and inspire future researchers.
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