Emma Smith Remembers World War 2 on the Grand Union Canal by lcmuseum

Emma Smith was interviewed at London Canal Museum in November 2014. This oral history recording was made or her memories. Emma Smith was one of the last surviving "Idle Woman" from the Second World War. Thenickname comes from the badge they war "IW", which really stood, not for "Idle Women" (they were anything but idle), but for "Inland Waterways". From 1943 to 1945 Emma and a number of other female volunteers crewed canal boats on the London to Birmingham route, mainly carrying vital steel from the London docks, to the industry of Birmingham - an important contribution to the war effort. These women provided additional crews so that more boats could be operated, at a time when most young men were on other forms of war service. After the war she wrote a book "Maiden's Trip" that has become a canal classic. In this recording she remembers how she was recruited, the work, the bed-bugs, the other boat-people, the food, and the terrors of boating at a time when a bomb might land beside you. There is abiding interest in the work of these hardy and brave young women, but this is believed to be one of the few, if not the only, oral history recordings that has been made.
Obituary:
https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/obituary-emma-smith-36855053.html
Emma Smith (Nee Elspeth Hallsmith)23/8/1923 to 24/4/2018