A tribute to late Fermanagh WW2 veteran Frankie Hornby (99)

The late Frankie Hornby.

Recently deceased 99-year-old Frankie Hornby was born and brought up in the townland of Lammy in Magheraveely near Newtownbutler, and the late 95-year-old Rita Hamilton was from Maguiresbridge.

In December, 1943, at just 18 years of age, Frankie joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and began her basic training in England to become a Leading Aircraft Woman.

Her ambition was to be a cook, but she quickly discovered that there was no call for chefs in this branch of the service, but rather, a serious need for drivers.

During a memorable chat with the lifelong friends at Frankie’s home in the fold in Lisnaskea, she told me about this time in her life with more than a glint in her eye, and as if it was yesterday.

“The first thing I drove was a three-tonne truck. I had only ever been used to riding a bicycle in Fermanagh, and knew nothing about cars, lorries, highway codes or anything else.”

Frankie Hornby and Rita Hamilton at Castle Archdale RAF Base.

After only six weeks of tuition at the Bedford Royal Air Force, Frankie and her fellow trainees were sent to sit the driving test.

Despite being put through the wringer by a strict young RAF instructor, who scared the life out of her as soon as she got into the car, she passed, and to her great relief she never had to prove her driving skills again.

From Bedford, she was dispatched straight to Cornwall, and the coastal command fighter station in a little village called Coverack.

“It was a tiny place and the RAF were based at a farm. I didn’t realise that this was where many highly-trained young women were plotting planes home.

“So it was a very secret place, and my job was to pick people up from airplanes, or take them to airplanes. Sadly, sometimes I drove an ambulance at night to recover a dead body.”

Despite her youth, she was conscious that it was a dangerous time, and that life was very precious.

As D-Day loomed in June, 1944, hundreds of American GIs arrived in Cornwall days before the Normandy landings were due to take place.

Frankie was asked to take a young flight lieutenant to Truro Station. She was told he was going to see his family in London. She remembers how polite he was as she dropped him off.

“He was lovely. When he got out of the car, he shook me by the hand, which was very unusual for an officer to do that.

“Some 15 years later, I was working in Birmingham, and was in a restaurant, when the very same man stood up and spoke to me!

“He told me that in fact, all those years before, he’d actually been on his way to France for the D-Day landings.”

Frankie Hornby and Rita Sullivan examining a World War Two US Jeep at VE Day commemorations in Enniskillen.

Slowly but surely after this turning point in the conflict, the trappings of war began to disappear, and Coverack became a quiet village again.

Frankie returned to Northern Ireland and was initially based at Headquarters in Belfast, driving high-ranking officers and chaplains around the province for Sunday services.

She also drove supply lorries for the RAF to the out station at Newtownbutler. One day after the drop-off, she decided to call with her mother, who lived fairly close by.

This surprise visit remained etched in her mind, and she never forgot the reaction when the huge truck trundled up the drive.

Frankie parked at the back door, and jumped down from the driver’s seat, while her mother declared: “God bless us child, what are you doing in that thing?”

After a cuppa and a chat, Frankie was swiftly told to “turn that huge yoke round and get back before dark”.

Her great pal, Rita Hamilton, was also determined to do her bit for the war effort.

Born in 1925, at the age of 18 she also joined the WAAF, and was promptly sent to Blackpool.

Her abiding memory of this time was square bashing on the promenade, marching up and down, and getting badly blistered heels from the newly-issued, heavy brogue shoes.

“We’d never had them on our feet before, so it’s no wonder we were cut to ribbons. But I loved the uniform. It was very smart, and I kept a picture of me in my Air Force blue in the kitchen.”

For as long as she can remember, she loved cars and engines of any kind. With more than a hint of mischief, Rita talked about driving since the age of four, albeit on her father’s knee.

He allowed her to steer and change gears as they manoeuvred along Main Street in Maguiresbridge.

The first motor vehicle she ever drove by herself was a three-tonne truck during her training in England.

When she came back to Fermanagh, Rita was a driver at Castle Archdale from 1943 until she was demobbed in 1947.

“We drove everybody everywhere. We picked up supplies of beer or groceries, and delivered them to the Officers’ Mess; we carried depth charges to the seaplanes in trucks; and we drove ambulances, too.”

She also drove air crews to the slipways for their sorties over the Atlantic. “Some didn’t come back, sadly,” she recounted, “but that was part of the war”.

Rita, her sister Constance, and Frankie, along with several other women drivers, celebrated VE Day on an RAF motorboat on Lough Erne after hearing Prime Minister Winston Churchill announcing victory on the radio.

Two young RAF boatmen ferried Rita and their WAAF chums around the islands on their celebration voyage.

“We were all very excited at the news,” Rita recalled. “We were so happy that everything was over. It was an unforgettable trip.”

When they were both based at Castle Archdale, Rita and Frankie lived in the same Nissan hut.

They talked fondly about the pot-bellied stove, the cramped conditions, Frankie’s temporarily lost engagement ring (which was eventually found in a Swift matchbox), washing outside on chilly mornings, and driving to the pictures in Belfast in the official RAF staff car after they dropped officers off at gatherings in Hillsborough.

Both women knew the importance of the work they were doing, and with the passing of the years, they looked back with a quiet sense of pride on their contribution to the war effort.

It was an honour and a privilege to meet Frankie and Rita, and I count it as a highlight of 35 years of interviewing people throughout County Fermanagh.

Despite their advancing years, their energy and sense of fun was infectious.

During one visit, Rita produced her War Service Medal, which she had brought along to show me.

Frankie quipped: “Where did you get that?” She had never received hers, and we deduced that it may have been delivered to the wrong address after the war.

Shortly after the radio interview, Selwyn Johnston contacted the Ministry of Defence and arranged for Frankie’s medal to be forwarded.

Her niece, Coral, reported that although humble about the part she played in World War Two, she wore it with pride, and continued to talk about how much the RAF meant to her.

As an ongoing tribute to Fermanagh’s local World War Two veterans, in 2020 two paintings by artist David Briggs were commissioned as part of the county’s 75th VE Day commemorations.

They are captioned, ‘Sunderland Scramble – Rita’s War’, and ‘Catalina Return – Frankie’s War’.

Both women gifted the artworks to their old primary schools in Maguiresbridge and Aghadrumsee in the fervent hope that they will inspire future generations for many years to come.

The paintings will serve as an enduring powerful symbol of the collective indebtedness for these two local exceptional women, who may now be sadly gone, but will never be forgotten.

The late Mary Frances (Frankie) Hornby (99) died on Tuesday, April 2.

Anne Marie McAleese is a broadcaster, writer and author who considers Fermanagh as one of her favourite places. You can listen to her every Saturday morning on BBC Radio Ulster’s, ‘Your Place and Mine’, 8am-9am.