She did however have to regularly visit the staff sergeant’s office for a meeting with what she called ‘knotty,’ which was a large bamboo cane.

 

She admitted that she was both wilful and cheeky and usually ‘thoroughly deserved’ her regulation twelve strokes on the bottom and more often than not got at least an extra six for ‘offering staff some lip.’

 

“Sitting down was often quite a challenge and on one occasion I had my backside welted with twelve strokes on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday of the same week for smoking in the lavatories.

 

As if to reinforce these stories, I was then told of similar things from an entirely different source. One concerned a woman during the Second World War. After a few months training she was posted to Malta where she worked as a clerk/typist at a large base near Valetta.