THE wife of a retired headmaster of Therfield School, Leatherhead, has been reunited with a wartime friend after nearly 70 years.
Joy Wooding, wife of John Wooding, who was head of the secondary school from 1972 to 1985, served in the WRNS at Scarborough, Yorkshire, during the Second World War.
She worked at the secret wireless listening station based on the moors above the seaside town where colleagues picked up vital German U-boat signals. Unknown to her at the time, these messages were sent to the top-secret Bletchley Park decoding station in Buckinghamshire. This operation is credited to shortening the length of the war.
Joy, who will be 91 in July, and is also known as Joyce, spotted an article in a Wrens magazine reviewing a new book about the listening station written by her wartime friend, Muriel Howell – who married and became Muriel Davison.
She wrote a letter to Muriel, 90, who lives at Hook, near Chessington, and said she would like to get in touch. And after a couple of phone calls a meeting was arranged by the ladies' families so the two could meet up.
On Monday last week, Muriel visited Joy at her home near Southampton. The two embraced and laughed in almost disbelief after meeting in the flesh after nearly 70 years.
"It was wonderful," said Muriel. We chatted for nearly three hours and had so much to talk about after such a long time. There was a lot of reminiscing to do. We talked about the other Wrens and remembered lots of amusing incidents."
Joy made Muriel laugh by recalling the time when she and some of the other Wrens at the listening station were hungry, found some cheese and melted it in an empty film can over a bunsen burner, held in place by a pair of pliers.
Joy married in 1945 – Muriel in 1947 – and they lost touch after being demobbed on New Year's Eve 1945.
Joy and husband John, who served in the RAF and was a navigator with a Mosquito squadron in the war, in 1956 moved to Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe.
He went into teaching and later had a headship in Kent. When Joy secured a post as headmistress of The Mead First School in Stoneleigh, near Epsom, John sought a headship in Surrey. He took the position as head of Therfield in 1972 and remained there until his retirement in 1985.
The couple set up home in Ottways Lane, Ashtead, which was convenient for both places of work.
Neither former Wrens realised that they lived just three or four miles apart.
Joy later became president of Leatherhead Inner Wheel and John was the secretary of a Masonic lodge. They also had strong links with Tyrells Wood Golf Club, near Leatherhead. Joy, who had two daughters, Carolyn and Pat, was also involved with a ladies' luncheon club in Leatherhead.
"It was absolutely amazing meeting Muriel after so long," said Joy, who lost her husband in December 2011 at the age of 89.
"We had a lot to talk about and we had lots of laughs."
Joy is pictured twice in Muriel's book, A Wren's Tale, which tells the story of the wireless station's secret link with Bletchley Park and her three years working there.
Neither Muriel nor Joy said they had any idea of how important their radio work was. It was kept secret until recent years.
Muriel said: "Neither we or our parents knew about Bletchley Park. At Scarborough, we were kept quite separate from the wireless operators. I think that was deliberate. We rarely went into the operating room."
Joy said: "Occasionally, when I went into the operating room, you would sometimes hear a bleep on the radars and I guessed that was the U-boats. The operators would alert the Admiralty."
Another coincidence was that in the early years of the war, Joy was working in the Home Office and Muriel just round the corner in the Colonial Office, off Downing Street, yet they did not know each other until they met at Scarborough.
At their reunion meeting, Muriel produced some original radio log books, as well as two original Wrens' hats which both put on their heads before bursting into laughter.
"A Wren's Tale", by Muriel Davison, is available from the National Trust shops at Box Hill and Polesden Lacey, Barton's Bookshop, Chessington Garden Centre and eBay, price £5.95.
