Former WAAF corporal who took message World War II was over receives special commemorative medals in surprise presentation in Inverness
In September 1945, Corporal Margaret Higgins was alone on duty as a teleprinter operator with the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force when a historic message came through that World War II was over.
She was based at RAF Brackla - near Piperhill between Nairn and Inverness - and it fell to the young corporal to pass on the news to her superiors.
Now Margaret Thomson, the 99-year-old of Inverness, has been recognised for her wartime service with a surprise presentation of two special medals by Poppyscotland.
Born in Glasgow, she was 14 when war broke out.
The city was a strategic target for the Nazis because of its role as a hub for industry and its production of ships and ammunition.
Along with other schoolchildren, Margaret and her eight-year-old sister were evacuated by train from a small local station - an occasion she recalls vividly as a barrage balloon close to the station burst into flames prompting immediate panic.
“Women were screaming, ‘the Germans are here’,” she recalled.
“I was in charge of about half-a-dozen children as I was older.
“It was quite an experience.”
They sent to the small village of Quarter near Hamilton in Lanarkshire where they waited in the local hall for someone to take them in.
“My mother had told us not to get separated,” Margaret recalled.
“Everyone was taken except me and my sister and two other children.
“My sister started to cry, saying ‘no one wants us’.”
However, the two girls were taken to the home of a gamekeeper and his wife where they were also greeted fondly by their dogs - sparking Margaret’s lifelong love of dogs.
She recalled the gamekeeper as a lovely person but after a few months she became homesick and returned to Glasgow where she got a job in a toy shop.
When she was 18, she was called up for war service.
Opting for the armed services as opposed to doing munition work, Margaret - who had been learning shorthand and typing - joined the WAAF which was looking for teleprinter operators.
She was kitted out with her uniform and underwent training, including marching or ‘square bashing’, at locations in the north of England before being posted to RAF Brackla which served as an air crew allocation centre.
She has fond memories of her time there including cycling to a dance in Nairn with a group of others.
Unfortunately, they had not charged up the bike lights and on the way back were stopped by a local policeman.
“He asked for my ID which said M. Higgins.
“He asked what the ‘M’ stood for and I said ‘Miserable’!
“He closed it and said don’t do it again.”
It was at RAF Brackla, she and her future husband, Alec, who served with the RAF, first encountered each other although it was only later they got to know each other after being posted to England.
They married at St Andrew’s Church in Glasgow on December 27 1946 where they were joined by a few family members, including Mr Thomson’s parents who had travelled from Inverness.
Although Alec had been demobbed, Margaret was still serving with the WAAF and had to return to her base a couple of days after the wedding to await demob in January 1947.
“It was a quiet wedding,” she said.
“It was very low key. We went for a meal and then went to the Empire Theatre afterwards.”
She recalled how family members chipped in with their clothing coupons so she could get her wedding outfit while Alec ended up wearing his de-mob suit as the jacket sleeves and trousers on his tailor-made suit had been made too short!
The couple, who had two sons, Charles and Alexander, later lived in East Kilbride before moving to Inverness which Margaret recalled as being like “another world”.
Alec, who passed away aged 63, was a joiner while Margaret was a supervisor at the Inverness factory of electronics firm, Tarka Controls, which made automatic thermostat switches.
Mrs Thomson lives independently in Inverness although her eyesight is failing.
She praised Sight Veterans Scotland which did an assessment of her needs and provided her with a range of aids such as a one-touch kettle and reading lamps to make life easier.
The surprise presentation of the medals by PoppyScotland in recognition of her war service took place at Inverness Town House at the end of a series of presentations.
One medal, first issued in 2020, commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Allied victory in World War II.
The other, first issued in 2018, is a “thank you” to those who served, sacrificed and changed our world.
There was an additional celebration when the Inverness Military Wives Choir sang ‘Happy Birthday’ after discovering her 99th birthday was imminent.
She was accompanied by a friend, Carolyn Currie, but neither were aware beforehand what was to take place.
