Reminiscences — FANY

This section contains some of the memories of the FANYs who served across all the theatres of war between 1939-1947 with S.O.E.. The accounts were reproduced in a booklet, the cover of which is shown top left, and tell the story of their different roles and experiences of serving with the FANY Corps and S.O.E..

The booklet was compiled and edited by J.E.A. Brown mainly from personal contributions to the the FANY Gazette.

At the foot of the contents page is the following note:

"There has been very little written about some aspects of Corps history, but about others there are several similar accounts. It has not been possible to include everything, but we hope that as many people as possible will find something to represent their own line of business. Names of places often had to be left out for security reasons."

The names of places omitted are replaced by *****

I am most grateful to Lynda Rose, Corps Commander, FANY(PRVC), for allowing me to reproduce these reminiscences.
Copyright © FANY(PRVC)

England	The other members who worked for S.O.E. did not write in detail about their work in signals and other supporting categories, without which the agents could not have operated. Later they did contribute accounts of their lives and journeys. This Unit operated under the greatest security and other members of the Corps did not know for whom they were working or what they did. In the early days it was referred to as "Bingham’s Unit" from the name of the officer-in-charge.	Read on...

North Africa	Destination unknown.	Read on...

S.O.E. Goes East	We gave the same support to S.O.E. in the East as the Corps had in Europe: contingents went to India and Ceylon. Since 1942 drafts had gone from the Kenya Unit, which became the Women's Territorial Service (East Africa), and in 1944 the first draft went from the UK. FANY officers had the novel and difficult task of organising the stations from scratch and dealing with the complications of daily life in the East.	Read on...

Coming Home	When the War ended there began a great gathering and dispersal. The ATS members were handing in their tin hats, gas masks and other impedimenta at demob centres, while the Corps unit members were converging on FANY Headquarters (housed in St. Paul's Vicarage since being bombed out in Grosvenor Place), where most of them had started their service.	Read on...

Remembrance	Between the Wars the Corps was regularly represented at the Festival of Remembrance in the Albert Hall. Since the Second War we did not receive an invitation until 1972, when a FANY officer marched down into the arena with representatives of other voluntary services.	Read on...