Extracts
from English Hartwright Reminiscences about life during
World War II 1939 -1945
World War II for a young married couple with a husband serving in the RAMC
From Marjorie Hartwright’s Reminiscences
Alma Hartwright 1914 - 1969
My husband Alma had joined the Red Cross Society before the outbreak of war and was in the mobile section which meant that he could be sent to any part of the world where medical services were needed and in the event of war, would immediately be called up. War was declared on September 3rd and Alma received his call-up papers on the following day. Alma was in the RAMC and posted to HQ Western Command in Chester where he was part of a six man squad, known as the Passive Air Defence Squad, responsible mainly for the decontamination of the building and personnel in the event of a gas attack. All the men in the squad were poison gas experts.
After we were married he was posted to Woolwich and in 1943 sailed from the Clyde in the SS Botany, a Polish ship (later torpedoed) for North Africa. He served in a general hospital, worked in the operating theatre, and helped to cope with the terrible casualties after the Anzio beach-head action in Italy. He also ran the Officer’s Mess where his baking and catering experience was of some use. Before the war Alma had worked on a cruise liner the SS Vandyk which was also torpedoed during the War.
Alma served in North Africa, Sicily and Italy and was demobbed at Aldershot in November 1945.
We lived in Cheshire and Alma saw Margaret Hartwright from Worcestershire’s name in a Red Cross magazine and wrote to ask her if they were of the same family. The connection was not established, but they each had a copy of the same family crest. The two families met as Margaret’s Reminiscences confirm.
