Molly Traill Archive

Here are the letters Molly received from the GUCCC. There are no copies of the letters she sent to the company. First – Eily Gayford sets the scene:

A meeting with Molly that afternoon; the next day down to the Grand Union depot at Southall, then over to the head office at Ruislip, and at last back home. Everything was now settled. Daphne was not coming with us, but staying where she was on the Heather Bell, and in the new year Molly and I were to do a trip with a pair of boats worked by regular boat people, to learn the route and the management of a pair.¹

1942 started with real winter weather, ice and snow, and not the kind which soon disappears. At the end of January, we were still waiting to join the Grand Union. We had written reminding them how anxious we were to start as soon as possible, but they had replied that all transport was being seriously affected by the severe weather conditions, and owing to other difficulties they were unable to say definitely when we could come. So that was that and there was nothing we could do about it.²

There is then a six month gap in the correspondence while Molly and Eily Gayford did their training trip with Ciss and Albert Sibley.

The correspondence then moves on to March 1943:

A telling off from the company:

Her TGWU card:

The question of publicity is raised again:

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1. The Amateur Boatwomen, Eily Gayford. p.53 ↩︎
2. Ibid p.54 ↩︎

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Website by Crispin Partridge – Grandson of Molly Traill.