In the Navy - terminology
1953
"I went in the Navy and I was in the Wrens when I was
eighteen in 1953 and I have to say, hand on heart, there were no gay
relationships that I was aware of. I joined up because I wanted to get
out of Birmingham, I wanted to get away from that deprivation which,
again, wouldn’t have been a word in my vocabulary, I’ve learned that
since. There was a period when I went on a joint services exercise in
Gibraltar and met some Army (ref: Armed Forces) girls and, of course, they’re notorious for
gays and I was just gob smacked. I watched these women and even then I
wouldn’t have said ‘lesbian’, I would have said they were ‘tomboys’. I
think ‘tom boy’ about weighs it up but you were only allowed to be a
tom boy until you were about thirteen. I thought it was something
innocent but it wasn’t at all".
Contributed by: Jean Turley, 72