Julie Hallett was born and raised in London, England. Before the war broke out, life was very good for Julie. She was an honor student at her private school and was given a scholarship to continue her studies there before the war. When the war broke out, she was evacuated with her school to a safe location and they stayed there for a while. Because of this Julie did not experience the bombing associated with the Battle of Britain. Later in the war she encountered some minor raids, when visiting friends in London. On those occasions they acted responsibly and took shelter. On the night of the first flying bomb raid V1’s Julie says they were more mystified than anything.
After that, Julie decided to join the WRNS Women’s Royal Naval Service. The WRENs had enough volunteers to more than meet their needs and did not require any conscripts. With so many applicants available they could afford to be choosey when selecting candidates. Julie considered it an honour to be accepted into their ranks.
Julie’s assignment in the Wrens was at the Marconi Research Laboratories near Chelmsford in Essex. There she was engaged in research into the propagation of short wave radio waves. She spent her first few months on watch i.e 24hr shift-work interpreting observations taken of the state of the ionosphere. Later she was transferred to daytime duty as assistant to one of the scientists, working on new projects.
She was interviewed for this project by Crestwood student Josh Stern.
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