A 95-YEAR-OLD Riding Mill woman has been awarded a medal for her service in the Second World War after more than 70 years.

Joan Gledhill, who lives in Wentworth Grange care home, was surprised to receive the Military Campaign War Medal (1939-1945) after her niece applied for it on her behalf, unsure whether she would be entitled to it.

Joan, who is originally from Wakefield, was just 19 when she was called up for service, starting off in Pontefract in Yorkshire where she received basic training and learned everything there was to know about the army. After a short stint in Hull, Joan was sent to Shropshire on a radar site, where her job was to plot incoming planes and decide which way to point the guns if they should need to be deployed.

A member of the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service), she was soon posted to another site in Hardgate in Glasgow Clyde Bank in around 1942, where she spent around two years, along with her friend Winnie Wells from Kent.

“There was a map about 75 yards square in the plotting room and it tracked all of the planes coming in and going out,” she explained.

“It was all very secret. A couple of years ago it was on TV that Clyde Bank was bombed just before we got there, which is why we were sent, but we never had to deploy the guns.

“Things got very bad. They were very frightened of a German invasion.

“We had invaded them by parachute by then and they were frightened of them doing the same to us.

“Winnie and I would have to stand in the sentry box with sticks in case parachutes came down, so we would do one night in camp and one night out there. If they came down with machine guns what did they think two young girls were going to do with sticks?” she laughed.

Joan and Winnie were moved to Berwick towards the end of the war, where they were appointed as drivers to take officers from a nearby men’s training camp to manoeuvres along the coast.

She said: “The Queen did the same course as me for driving, but I can bet she did nothing like we did!

“There were no signs and hardly any maps to use then, which led to some funny stories.

“There was one time I took three officers to be dropped off somewhere around Berwick and agreed to pick them up at a bridge.

“I spent a lovely afternoon at the stream and ate all of my sandwiches when they turned up.

“They said I had gone to the wrong bridge and they had had to walk six miles to find me!”

Then Joan Kendall, Joan married Peter Gledhill in 1945, before returning to Berwick for a short time.

“I loved it there, it was lovely. I never felt so well in my life; I ate well and went down to the beach.

“Getting on the train at Berwick when I was coming home to be demobbed, I howled and howled.”

Joan was thrilled to receive the War Medal, which came in the post around two weeks ago.

Her days in the ATS led to a life-long friendship with Winnie, who she stayed in touch with right up until her death around a year ago.

“I didn’t know about the medal – it was more than 70 years ago so it was a surprise,” she said.

“I think it’s lovely that I have got it now because most people who own them will be dead by now; they will be gone. So it’s an honour to receive it.”