I was in the Land Army and I was stationed in Rumney. I was in it for 12 months and they decided I wasn't strong enough. I had a letter from them saying that they didn't think I was strong enough to carry on, six weeks later the Labour Exchange sent for me, it was either go to Bridgend Munition Works or join the Forces.

I chose the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service) and we had to go through route marches and everything like that. I did my training in Dalkeith and one morning we'd had injections and went down to the hall, we were sitting there and who should come in but Max Bygraves in his RAF uniform. He sang for us 'You Need Hands To Tell The World You're Happy' and, you know, it was great.

The Army used to choose places like clubs and they used to take them over and then we used to go in and arrange, we used to show the people what to do and how to do it. Then once that was finished we moved on then to another place.

I saw a lot of Europe and went to Brussels, Dresden, Essen, Hamburg, Cologne, also went to Italy, Naples, Capri, Bari and Austria. When we went to Capri and we were sitting on a bridge, about five or six of us if I remember, and this gentleman came up from there and he spoke to us in sort of half Italian and then he told us he was Gracie Fields' husband. She was on tour and he said, 'Would you like a glass of orange juice?'

The gas chambers and things like that saddened me, you know, because there's good and bad in every country isn't there. Then we went through Dresden, Essen, Cologne, and they were flat. Then we went to Belsen, everything had gone, there were rows and rows of latrines and there wasn't a door on one of them. We went to Badenheusen, all people had been turned out, they'd made it into a garrison town.

I met my husband on 6th October 1946 in Austria. He asked me to marry him before he went, because John was demobbed at the end of November and they all used to, say, 'Will you marry me?' But once they go home then, they forget all about you and they're back with their old girlfriends, but then I thought to myself, well I have so many postings, because people were getting serious and then my officer called me down to the office. " You've been caught at last,' she said. I said, 'Pardon Ma'am.' 'You'd better sit down,' she said. So I sat down and she said, 'Driver Woodford has applied to be released to get married at St. Clements Church, Leigh-on-Sea on 4th January.' I said, 'No Ma'am.' 'Yes,' she said, 'You've been caught at last.'

I had about 57 years of the happiest days of my life. John was the kind of person that could adapt to anything, he'd been in the RASC in North Africa.