Sam writes: On Wednesday the 11th of November Bell Kerr a member of the local community and Winifred came into Hartington School to teach the children about the history of women roles in the wars.
Bell was a Radio Mechanic who fixed radios which had been broken during the war and she got them working again. The voltage was at 240V so she had to be extremely careful because she didn’t want to hurt herself. She undertook training so she was able to mend the radios.
At the end of the war Bell received one medal and her husband received four, one was given to him from King George V. Bell worked hard in the war for four years working nine hours every day. She also talked to us about how she had learnt how to march properly with her regiment in the war and then demonstrated marching and we practiced together in the school hall. Bell came into school with her Uniform and it had a red ‘Sparks’ badge on the arm. This identified that she had passed the exams she needed to repair the radios.
Once the war ended and she retired from working she played in an orchestra at Saint Giles Church, she also played the organ.
On the same day, Winifred from the Education City Company visited and she came in and told us the different roles women undertook in the war. Winifred played the role of the nurse brilliantly, making it very realistic and interesting! She came in with bandages and showed us what to do if we had been hurt in the war. We pretended that we had been wounded then she carefully wrapped the bandages around our wrists. This demonstration will help us later on in life when we or someone else is injured unexpectedly, we will have the knowledge to help them.
