telegraph operator; Second World War; railway family; grandfather, Darlington carriage works; father, clerk, joining LNER 1937; York telegraph office; single needle and paddle telegraphs; men and women operators; teleprinters; telegraph office; shifts, rosters; processes; knowledge requirements, railway, geography; public telegrams; teleprinters; Second World War; conditions, shifts; telephone switchboard; Betty Barrett MBE, supervisor; work allocation; signal boxes; air raid; York Station; station closure; telegraph office in bunker; conditions; Control; toilets; Intelligence Office; troop trains; security; propaganda; meeting future husband; Royal Engineers; Intelligence Office; switchboard move; conditions, nightshifts; Leeman Road canteen; rations; nepotism; reserved occupations; free passes; wartime travel to Scotland; husband's job; courting; OCTU T9 Longmoor construction unit; meeting husband's family; marriage (1944); Cambridge goods office; demobilisation; York drawing office; buying a house; children; railway career opportunities; Newcastle; Darlington; impact of moving around on family; impact of railway on social life; attitudes of wives of railwaymen; family connections in railways; railway social activities; charity work; Second World War; switchboard operation; T.F. Cameron; Katie Henderson, secretary to general manager; Jenkin Jones; passenger managers; attitudes to bosses; conditions control, use of external Post Office lines; economy; teleprinter paper; work standards; code words; machine repairs; teleprinters; time signals, ten o'clock system; messenger arrangements; wives - rivalry; 1926 General Strike, father; conditions, dress code, behaviour; Second World War; air raid; York Station; d.o.b. 1921-05-01. railway work 1921-1990s. York; Darlington; London North Eastern Railway (LNER). 3.1496 x 2.8346 x .315 in.