Susan Haynes found herself unexpectedly in the limelight when she won a personality of the year contest.

She was as surprised as anyone when the panel of judges picked her as the winner of the annual competition at Oxford Telephone Exchange.

Susan, now Susan Plucknett, of Spooner Close, Headington, tells me: “I was in shock, totally surprised. I never expected to get that far.”

As one of the so-called ‘Hello Girls’ at the Speedwell Street exchange, she was prompted to call us after seeing the picture of the 1968 winners of the competition, Patricia Phillips, of Mickle Way, Forest Hill, and Joyce Partington, of Hutchcomb Road, Botley (Memory Lane, August 5).

They were chosen for their “personality, speech, appearance and knowledge of the telephone or telegraph service”.

After winning the Oxford round of the competition, they were invited to the national finals in London.

Mrs Plucknett’s success came the following year when, wearing a Cathy McGowan dress, she was chosen with another girl, whose name she forgets, to be Oxford’s representatives at the finals in London.

She had got a job at the exchange after leaving East Oxford School in 1963 at the age of 15.

She recalls: “We had to do directory inquiries, fault inquiries, clerical work and the switchboard, including 999 calls.

“For directory inquiries, we had to go to Ipswich for training, which was quite an adventure for a young girl.

“We were asked if we would like to go in for the competition – we were not forced into it. It was based on personality and on our knowledge of our work.

“I have always been a bit of a joker, life and soul of the party, who likes a laugh, but I never thought I would win.”

She cannot remember who accompanied her on the train to the finals in London or who won the title, but she has fond memories of her time at Oxford telephone exchange.

“We had fashion shows and other social activities. There was no bitching – everyone was friendly,” she says.

More than 40 years after leaving the exchange – she left to have her first baby in 1971 – she still meets three former colleagues regularly – Marcella Brogden (nee James), Sue Denham (nee Cross) and Linda Oliver (nee Reed).