Sheila MacDonald Nicholls (née Mackintosh)

General Information

First Name(s): Sheila MacDonald

Unmarried Surname: Mackintosh

Married Surname: Formerly Drayton, later Nicholls

Date of Birth: 22 June 1922

Place of Birth: Enfield, Middlesex

Date joined WTC: 1943

Date left: 1945

Previous occupation: Bank clerk.

Reasons for joining: To help where needed.

Family’s reaction to joining: Good

Reactions of local people towards WTC: From my experience people were very kind and friendly.

Reasons for leaving: Head Office called me with news that teachers were needed and I was qualified to enter the course.

Employment

Training: Received training in Suffolk

Worked for County War Agricultural Committee from 1943-1945 in Powderham on the Earl of Devon’s Estate in Devon. Later transferred to Dorset.

Type of work undertaken: Measuring variety of felled timber, recording and occasional dispatching at local railway or lorries.

Best and worst memories of time: The best – opportunity to work in a variety of areas on the estate in summer. The worst – freezing weather in Winter.

Opportunities to meet others: Several Land Girls working on another estate, became friends and joined weekend trips on trains etc.

Learnt independence and gained confidence.

“My job was to measure the wood and work out quantities of timber. The Earl of Devon donated half of the trees on his estate and some were very old. It was a lot of hard work. We worked in all weather. If it snowed you had to dig round the timber to be able to measure it. We would work from 7am until 6pm and you might work two to three hours before you got a break.”

Accommodation

Lived in a private billet in Teignmouth, Devon.

Life after the war

Sheila went on to teach British children in Germany, before moving to Southend in the 1960s. She became headteacher of Bournes Green Infant School in the 1970s.