Peter Hedley on Shipbuilding

Lisa: Was it predominantly men that were employed?

In the Drawing Office itself it was men. The ladies had their own area which was the Tracing Office but for some reason the Tracers were ladies.

I don’t know why that was, but we didn’t have any ladies working in our particular office at all.

Lisa: Do you know where else women would have been employed?

Um, women were employed in the Wages Office and several of the other offices where they had paperwork etc. But in the main, machinery areas etc. certainly in my time, I believe during the War ladies did work on the lathes etc. certainly not in my time, no, ladies were really, usually just you know, on the admin side of things.