My mother, Jean Charnley (nee Christison), who has died aged 92, was one of many women for whom the second world war represented a door to freedom and travel opportunities which, as a miner's daughter in the 1930s, would otherwise have been limited.
Born in Coxhoe, County Durham, she had connections to both Ireland (and Catholicism) through her mother and to Scotland (and coal-mining) via her father. She was the youngest of the family, with four older brothers, and enjoyed school, particularly history and poetry, but opted to do a shorthand and typing course when she left.
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