Vera was a teacher at Moreton Secondary Modern School for some years before moving to the newly combined Chipping Campden Comprehensive School.
She became head of the RE department and was fully involved in the life of the school.
She participated in Sports Day – we think that she is in the sack race here.
In Newport Vera had met John Doran through their shared interest in amateur dramatics and they moved to Campden where John had a teaching post at St. Catharine’s School.
They raised four children – Rob, John, Andy and Keyna.
Vera also taught at St.Catharine’s School.
“She helped out at the Youth Club and the St. John Ambulance Brigade, and really cared for the children she taught, taking time for them out of school hours.”
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Vera joined the WRENS in 1940 and took up dispatch rider duties based in Devonport Docks in Plymouth during which time she was frequently on duty while the Luftwaffe tried their best to destroy the docks. On duty one evening with the marines the building next door took a direct hit and she had to crawl on hands and knees to get out of the cellar. She was recruited by Bletchley Park after a year and became a wireless intercept operator. She was posted to join the Pacific Fleet in Mombasa, where she took time off to climb Mt Kilimanjaro. A year later the fleet returned to the Pacific and she was move to Trincomalee on the north coast of what was then Ceylon. After the war she did some nursing at St Barts in London and tried her hand at an estate agents before doing teacher training in Cheltenham. In July 2009 she was awarded her ‘We Also Served’ commemorative ‘badge’ honouring the work of the many, mostly civilians at Bletchley Park and it’s outstations.
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