WOMEN'S BRAVERY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 31, 6 February 1941, Page 14

WOMEN'S BRAVERY

THREE WIN MILITARY MEDAL CALMNESS IN AERODROME RAID When enemy bombers heavily attacked a Royal Air Force Fighter Command station in England, a 28----year-old W.A.A.F. sergeant was on duty in the station armoury, reports the "Manchester Guardian." Although a large amount of ammunition was stored near her office she manned the telephone, passing instructions to the various defence posts. She shouiecl words of encouragement to the airmen in the building, and when the raid was over calmly went outside and began to peg out with red flags all the places on the aerodrome where unexploded bombs were buried. Her commanding officer said of her: "Her exceptional courage and coolness had a grert moral effect on all those with whom she came in contact." Her name is Joan Eugene Mortimer, and her identity is revealed in the official announcement of the award of the Military Medal to her. Two other W.A.A.F.s in the same station also received the Military Medal for similar courage. They are Assistant Section Officer (then Corporal) Elspeth Candlish Henderson, aged 27, whose home is in Edinburgh, and Sergeaent Helen Emily .Turner, whose home is in Holloway. London. This is the first time that a military decoration like the Military Medal has been awarded to women members of the Royal Air Force. "DID MY BEST." Corporal Henderson and Sergeant Turner were on duty in a building which received a direct hit during a September raid. Sergeant Turner was the switchboard operator and Corporal Henderson had charge of a special telephone line. Bombs were falling around' the building, but both airwomen carried on with their jobs, although they knew that there was nothing but a light roof over their heads. "When we did leave," said Sergeant Turner, "we had to make our way out through the wreckage, crawling through the broken-down walls to safety. I felt a bit sorry for some of the youngsters in the building at the time because it was their first experience of bombs. I did my best to cheer them up.', Corporal Henderson said: "There was nothing much else we could do, anyway, was there?" PEACETIME JOBS. Before the war Sergeant Mortimer was a Conservative Party organiser in the eastern counties. Corporal Henderson, who lived abroad i'or many year? and spent some time in Ceylon, was secretary to a surgeon, and Sers>eani Turner, who worked with the Air Force in the last war. was at one time a telephone operator at the Savoy Hotel.