Peggie Carmichael

Peggie Kathleen Carmichael 

1925-2024 (written, age 96)

 

I left Holly Lodge High School  in Liverpool in the summer of 1942.  My intention was to continue my education at Liverpool College of Art.  I had done well in my School Certificate exams, and achieved the necessary qualifications.  However, the war intervened, and the College was closed down for the duration.  Then,  lured by the poster which was everywhere " Join the WRNS and free a man for the fleet"  I decided to volunteer, so I took a job with John Lewis in the Display department, until I reached the qualifying age of seventeen and a half years. From then on, my life in the WRNS has been detailed in my memoirs.

 

I was demobilised from the WRNS in 1946.  I had worked for more than three years as a mechanic, and really enjoyed the job. So back in 'civvie street'  I had hoped for similar work, but it was not to be,  as such jobs were reserved for the men.

 

After we left the forces John and I  were married and in 1948 we had a daughter called Christine.  Sadly, in the following five years I suffered three miscarriages, so Chris remained an only child. When she was six years old,  and settled in school, I decided to look for a suitable part time job.  Unfortunately, I had few skills to offer, so I wrote to my local paper, the Liverpool Echo explaining that I was a trained mechanic, and a skilled dressmaker and needed a part time job.  To my complete surprise,  I got a phone call the following day inviting me to attend an interview with a Mr John Reynolds, who was the Area Manager for Singer Sewing Machine Company.  It seemed that Singers had contracts with a number of local authorities,  for the care and maintenance  of all school sewing machines, and teaching the  specialised skills required for machine embroidery.  To my delight,  I was offered the job of Schools Representative to start after 2 weeks training in the Singer workshop.  It turned out to be my dream job, I worked school hours and covered a large area from Liverpool ,Merseyside and the Wirral, to parts of Lancashire and Cheshire .The Singer contract was for two service visits annually, and I called on small village schools with one sewing machine, up to large teacher training colleges, with twenty or more sewing machines.  Although I was working as a mechanic, I continued to dress for work in my usual style, and used a smart leather bag to carry my tools.  I had a cabinet fitted in the boot of my car, which enabled my to carry a large variety of spare parts, thus enabling me to cope with all necessary repairs up to major ones.  I often worked in classrooms with teaching in progress, so learned to be as unintrusive as possible. I worked happily for Singers until  my daughter had left school, and I felt free to work full time.

 

From then on,  I continued working as a Student Welfare Officer at  Liverpool University, until I retired at the aged 65 years.