Cricket Witness No 4 - Women at the WIcket

7 Introduction ‘It gradually got that you were free’ experiences were a journey of self-determination and self-discovery. In London, she travelled on the underground for the first time, boated on the Thames with soldiers from New Zealand, and visited the theatre to see film-star Gladys Cooper (who later former her own cricket club, and played in Hollywood). 2 She even attended a garden party at Buckingham Palace, quite the honour for an upper-working-class girl. The year she spent in Portsmouth she went ‘dance mad’, taking every opportunity to visit the local dance halls or, when possible, play tennis and hockey. Other service girls mustered together to play a hasty game of cricket, with an old bat and ball left behind in the barracks. Life was not without its hardships. Long hours of monotonous, endless work with the constant stab of hunger hampered her ability to explore this vibrant new world. So too did the rigid rules and stern punishments that policed the Wrens’ social encounters, but these were often resourcefully navigated. For many of Beatrice’s friends, these restrictions were liberating compared to their stifling home lives, and they savoured their time away, free from their parents’ dictatorial regimes. Whenever possible she went on day trips to the Isle of Wight where she could meet sailors and exchange addresses. She even received postcards and chocolates from Japanese sailors – under a pseudonym, to avoid the unwanted attention of her officers. Step out of line, as she did on more than one occasion, and her late passes were swiftly removed, curbing her exploits. But her well-earned reputation as a jovial troublemaker never put her in any serious trouble. For Beatrice, the First World War was remembered not only as a time of enormous suffering and loss of life, but for the freedom it brought her. It was a period in her life when she cast off the restrictions of her small-town youth and formed her own identity. Speaking in 1977, she summarised the impact the war on women’s lives: ‘I think that the service people, not only the Wrens but the other two services also, pioneered the beginning for votes for women and freedom for women more. Because up until then we were brought up in a very, very strict Victorian stilted youth, and it gradually got that you were free , and when the war was over, the first war, you got more freedom. I know I had, I was allowed out later at home when I got back, and you got ideas you know – I remember starting hockey, and cricket and tennis at my office . And more-or-less it taught you to be a leader, which you were.’ 3 Beatrice was unequivocal: her wartime work on the home front had given her the skills and confidence to start a women’s cricket team. Although the political emancipation she spoke about did not directly apply to her – she would have to wait another ten years before she could vote – the interwar period was a time of political and legal improvement for women. For many, however, the freedoms they gained in these years were not granted simply by Westminster. The war brought physical and social liberation too. It nurtured ideas previously undreamt of, and removed restrictions once thought of as permanent. Cricket was one of these boundaries women crossed.