A woman of war

 Freda Lawton marched through Melbourne in her Air Force uniform to recruit for the World War II effort.
The Uniting AgeWell Noble Park resident played the drums in the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Force (WAAF) band while serving from 1942 to 1946.
Australian women were not allowed to hold combat roles but Ms Lawton and thousands of women like her still played a part in the war effort.
They returned to the workforce or changed careers to free up men who were needed overseas.
The ladies worked as telegraphists, electricians, fitters, flight mechanics, meteorological assistants, clerks, medics, caterers and more.
“I was a clerk so I did the paperwork, and I rose to the exalted rank of corporal,” Ms Lawton said.
“I worked at Laverton, which was more or less a supplier of engineering parts, and then the Air Force headquarters in Preston.”
She said the highlight of her time with the WAAF was when decorated military pilot Peter Stuart Isaacson flew in on the first Avro Lancaster Bomber to arrive from England.
Wing Commander Isaacson was well known for flying his plane under the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1943.
Ms Lawton will remember her own service on Anzac Day, as well as her father’s.
He served in the Fifth Pioneer Battalion in Egypt during World War I.
She remembers marching with her dad each year and laying a wreath at the Tongala Bush Nursing Hospital, in the small country town where she grew up.
This Wednesday 25 April, she’ll watch the Anzac Day services on television.