Oxford firemen and women ready for duty on Home Front

Members of the National Fire Service are pictured outside the fire station looking out on to Gloucester Green in 1943 or 1944.

The picture comes from Theresa Prickett, of Old Marston, Oxford, whose husband Hector is the man in the glasses in the second row.

He was a part-time fireman before the war and enlisted in 1940, after an eye injury prevented him from serving in the armed forces.

He was initially based at Banbury and would travel to Oxford to visit the fire service offices at Belsyre Court, off Woodstock Road.

There he met his future wife Theresa.

Mrs Prickett joined the service in 1940 and, after three years working in Oxford, was transferred with three colleagues – Grace Snow, Vera Butler and Elsie Baggot – to the NFS centre at Taplow, Berkshire.

She recalls: “We were taken by van on Monday and returned by train on Friday.”

She recognises two others in the picture – Gladys Frater, sitting on her husband’s left, and Margaret Simms, on the extreme left.

In those days, there were no female firefighters – the men tackled fires, while the women dealt with phone calls and administration in the offices.

The National Fire Service was formed in October 1941 when it brought together more than 1,000 local authority fire brigades, including the Oxford City Volunteer Fire Brigade.

Oxfordshire and part of Berkshire were known as D Division of No 15 Fire Force.

The move ensured uniformity in much of the basic equipment used by the country’s fire brigades during what was the busiest time ever in the history of the UK Fire Service.

The National Fire Service disappeared on April 1, 1948, and its duties were transferred to 148 fire brigades run by county and county borough councils.

Oxford and Oxfordshire had separate fire brigades until 1974 when the two were amalgamated under county council control.

The present Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service is one of 63 in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.