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In the 1950s, mother and daughter Kathleen and Evelyn Norton both worked at Sinfin Ordnance Depot – Kathleen in the packing department and Evelyn as a forklift truck driver. Here, Evelyn, 72, recalls those post-war days when women were no longer the wall-flowers they were before the conflict began.

Before the Second World War, it would probably have been unthinkable for a woman to drive a forklift truck. But then the war changed many things – and, for Evelyn Norton, just back from the bubbling post-war cauldron of the Middle East, it was nothing unusual.

Staff from M Shed at Sinfin Ordnance Depot enjoying a Christmas party around 1953-54. Kathleen Norton is third from the left, middle row

Evelyn had joined the Territorial Army at the age of 16, in 1951 and, as soon as she was old enough, had signed up for the WRAC. Before she knew it, she was serving in Egypt during the 1951-54 conflict which culminated in the Suez Crisis. “I worked at Ladysmith transit camp at Fyid, near Cairo, helping to look after families who were being evacuated due to the conflict,” said Evelyn, 72, of Darley Abbey.

“Two of my friends were killed while I was out there but not through the hostilities. They were coming home from a hockey match and their lorry went over. It had no canvas top, no doors, so they were all just thrown out. Another two girls were molested and murdered, so we had to have escorts whenever we went out.”

When Evelyn returned home after three years, she rejoined the TA Signals, bought a motorbike and took a job at Sinfin Ordnance Depot, driving a Lister forklift stacker truck.

Her mum, Kathleen Norton, was already working there in M Shed as a packer.

“Mum started at Sinfin in 1949, moving from packing to the traffic office, until the depot closed when she transferred to Chilwell. She worked at both depots for 22 years in all until she had an accident.

"She used to have to go round the depot finding parts, sometimes having to climb up tall ladders to reach them. When she was 62 she fell off a ladder and injured her ankle, which finished her working days.

Women packing spare parts at Sinfin Ordnance Depot in 1940. The depot continued to operate for several years after the war. Both Kathleen and Evelyn Norton worked there in the 1950s

“She is now 93 and still remembers a lot of the people she worked with – Eunice Chollaton, Dorothy White, Gladys Bacon, Edith Evans, Betty Moor, Enda Churchill, Peggy Newbold, Jean Barrowcliffe, Olive Bosley and many more.”

Evelyn only worked at the depot for two years, when she left to get married (since reverting to her maiden name), but she also recalls many colleagues from her depot days and still keeps in touch with two Lister truck drivers – Brenda Humphries (nee Pearson) and Mavis Cox (nee Davison), as well as Aurila, from Oldham.

“I was 21 when I started work at Sinfin; Brenda and Mavis were 18. We all drove Lister trucks, shifting loads around the depot but, to this day, neither of them can drive a car.”

Evelyn went on to work as a driver, delivering parts for T C Harrison for 29 years, retiring at 63.

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