Eleanor Carroll Gratton

I was working in Fredericton and I used to see the girls, and I thought how great they looked in their uniforms. On my day off, I was walking downtown and I went by, well, the recruiting officer’s home and her mother had all the literature on CWAC [Canadian Women’s Army Corps]. So I went in and talked to her, and when I came out, I was in the army.

Well, I really liked it and I, of course, was homesick for a while, but got over that. And you have lots of friends; and we went from Saint John to [No. 3 Canadian Women’s Army Corps (Basic Training) Centre] Kitchener, Ontario. We were all night on the train, of course, and arrived there some time early in the day. And we took our basic training in July. We finished around the end of July. Very hot.

When I left Kitchener, I went to Hamilton, Ontario, to a trade school [Canadian Army Trades School]. We took equipment repairing. Then we were posted to Halifax, to the [No. 6] Ordnance Depot [Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps]. I worked in clothing in Halifax, issuing clothing and taking in clothing from people that maybe had to exchange for, too small or too big, [laughs] and whatnot. Of course, I worked in the return stores when the men were coming back from overseas; and we would see all the men coming back, which was very exciting.

I was working in the stores when my husband came back from overseas. He came back in September 1945. He was with the 7^th Anti-Tank Regiment [Royal Canadian Artillery]. He was overseas for four years.