PONTEFRACT IN 1943

Daisy Day, which was held in Pontefract on Saturday, in aid of the National Children's Home and Orphanage, created a record for the town in that it realised £60-16s-3d. Mrs E. Walker and Mrs C. Pickering were the organisers.

A Khaki Service was held at Horsefair Methodist Church, Pontefract, on Sunday, to which Methodists in the A.T.S. and the Army, stationed locally, were invited. L/Cpl J. Aitchinson, of the Royal Armoured Corps, was the preacher, and a number of serving men and women joined the choir for the occasion.

Life in the ATS was the subject of a talk by Senior Commander E.M. Breedon, of a local A.T.S. Training Centre, at the Municipal Offices, Pontefract, yesterday week. The talk was the first of a series arranged for the girls, on various branches of national work. Commander Breedon said the A.T.S. is now by far the largest of all women’s services. At first there were only four jobs for girls in the A.T.S.; now there are 60. ''They do practically everything that the men do, except fight.” She mentioned the branches of the work in the services; about the painstaking care taken of the girls. ''Life in the A.T.S is grand and very full, and there are very few who find it difficult to adapt themselves to it. Personally I would not change it for anything.”

Mrs W. Harker, of 4 Castle Vale, Pontefract, received word on Friday that her two sons, Company-Quarter-Master- Sergeant Major Harker, 29, of the West Yorks Regiment, and Driver William [Jack] Harker 24, of an Anti-Aircraft Battery of the Royal Artillery, have met in Bombay, and spent a good time together. It was the first time they had met for eight years. Q.M.S. Harker has been in the Army since he was eighteen, and Driver Harker joined at the outbreak of war and has been in Bombay for about eight months.