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[Page 33]
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That was one of the jolliest days possible and proved to be my last pleasure outing for the next morning I received my "Call up" notice and was instructed to report at Connaught Club.
This large building was a men's popular club and reflected very clearly the needs of the times when it was commandeered by the War Office as a Training hostel for women.
I shall never forget the strangeness of my surroundings that first night. I seem to have been transported into another world and such a strange one. The staff connected with the hostel were all uniformed and very smart they looked in their khaki tailored skirt and tunic, but about them all there seemed an element of aloofness. They had not got used to their new position and the recognition of place so new to women of England. That, I think tended to the extreme coldness and apparent indifference to the "Freshmen" entering.
At dinner the Unit Administrator entered, followed by her deputy and staff, all looking very conscious of their military dignity. The meal, I remember, was a very badly cooked one with a reminiscent flavour of red herring in each course evidently imparted from the breakfast dishes. At the conclusion of the meal it was, I found, necessary to sit at attention until the Unit Administrator had left. On returning to the Orderly room a notice directed that all new comers should submit themselves immediately to the Medical Officer for inoculation and vaccination and both were perpetrated before bedtime.
The next morning I awoke with extreme dizziness and longing for Home and its comforts, but I remembered that there were rules to be observed and so I pulled myself together, was with the Assemblage for 8 o'clock breakfast and followed in a queue, when in the servery we fell into line, helped ourselves to the requirements for breakfast and carried them to the dining room.