We were kept very busy with lectures on electronics, circuitry, detectors and amplifiers, transmitters and receivers, transmission line theory and antennea. It was quite a difficult course for non-physicists. They had only been able to find perhaps half a dozen women with physics degrees, the chemists and botanists worked hard at the exacting course, at the end of which there was to be an exam, after which we would be posted to operational duties.

Being at the Grand Hotel we used to have informal dancing on Saturday nights called 'hops' and here we often met the young men from TRE. They were very interesting people, although their style of dress was somewhat bizarre with their tweed jackets with leather patches on the elbows and brouges on their feet. A few had old cars with long narrow bonnets in which we were sometimes driven around when they had petrol. It was at one of these 'hops' that I first met John Adams, my future husband. He helped me a little to master transmission theory and I must have done ratehr well in the exams as after a brief stay at Stanmore, 60 Group Headquaters, I was posted back to Worth Matravers to lecture at Forres School. Most of the other members of the course went to Wing Headquaters to keep an eye on the operations of a group of CH stations. We were all promoted to the rank of Flight Officer.

I was to help on a course of RADAR supervisors run by two civilians, John Whitehouse and Johnny Clegg. These were courses for chosen RAF and WAAF Radar personnel, often non-commissioned officers who had been in charge of operational 'watches'. I soon found out the calibre of these people coming from all walks of civilian life. You would find secretaries and hairdressers, soliciters and clergymen, all working together and keen on their jobs. They were splendid and spent the time at the school working very hard indeed at aerial theory, counteracting jamming, identification of aircraft, estimation of number, and enough electronic theory to know when the transmitter or receiver needed attention. Some evenings we had to lock them out of the classrooms to make them take a break from work. They all realised the importance of their work in giving advance warning of air raids to both civilian and RAF flying personnel and they worked with a remarkable will to suceed. They were usually rewarded for their labour for, if they passed the course, and after a dreaded interview with Squadron Leader Scarf who decided whether or not they made the grade, they were commissioned before being sent back to man all the CH or CHL stations now covering the coast from Firth of Tay to Lands End. The CHL stations had been brought into service to spot the low flying aircraft that had been stealing in, flying low and undetected, by the CH stations.

Forres School continued to grow as more and more courses were necessary. J Radcliffe left and Len Huxley became the new Director. Soon there were courses for new entrants to TRE mechanics courses, courses for supervisors on CHL stations and for Ground Controlled Interception stations. I eventually took over the supervisors course and later the CHL and GCI courses. We wrote an instruction manual based on the supervisors course which was studied by all RADAR personnel on ground stations and was known as the operators 'bible'.

It is difficult to stress too highly the immense importance of TRE and its immeasurable contribution to the war effort. It was, therefore, not suprising that our intelligence services received evidence that a raid on TRE and Worth Matravers was imminent. We had already experienced many air raid warnings. The army sent troops to protect the area and TRE was evacuated to Malvern School, which moved for the second time to Harrow. Swanage was badly bombed days after the evacuation and my first billet near the station received a direct hit.