Kathleen Carlon

Volunteer, Women’s Australian National Service

“My mother was frightened I’d be sent to the country, so she encouraged me to volunteer for the Women’s Australian National Service.”

At the start of World War II, Kathleen Carlon was an only child living with her widowed mother in Wagga Wagga and working in a local pharmacy. She was 17-years-old and her mother was worried Kathleen would be conscripted into the Land Army and sent to work on some distant farm.

“My mother was frightened I’d be sent to the country, so she encouraged me to volunteer for the Women’s Australian National Service in Wagga,” said Kathleen. “We called it the WANS or the Widows and Neglected Spinsters.”

Kathleen worked in the pharmacy during the week and on weekends and Tuesday evenings she trained with the WANS doing first aid, cookery and marching.

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