TURNER (PERRY), Lorna May
| Service Number: | WF90210 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 20 October 1942, Claremont, WA |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS) - Unallotted |
| Born: | North Perth, WA, 27 July 1924 |
| Home Town: | North Perth, Vincent, Western Australia |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Shop Assistant |
| Died: | Natural Causes, 20 March 2014, aged 89 years, place of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Bruce Rock Cemetery, Western Australia Niche Wall |
| Memorials: | Bruce Rock Australian Servicewomen's Memorial |
World War 2 Service
| 20 Oct 1942: | Enlisted Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, WF90210, Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS) - Unallotted, Claremont, WA | |
|---|---|---|
| 29 Sep 1945: | Discharged Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, WF90210 |
Help us honour Lorna May Turner (Perry)'s service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Faithe Jones
Daughter of Alfred PERRY, 87 Angove Street, North Perth, WA
Lorna Turner (nee Perry) lived on a farm near Ardath in the Shire of Bruce Rock, enlisted in the Australian Women's Army Service during WWII and worked on the search lights and Anti-Aircraft Battery at Buckland Hill. Buckland Hill was located on the coast near Fremantle, and commenced operations in October 1942. Personnel of both sexes served at Buckland Hill. As battle dress wasn't available to the until until August 1944, women at the site simply wore blue overalls and men's hats.
A corrugated iron tin shed at the site allowed the women to take a cold shower, and wheat sacks were eventually draped over the doorways after the women complained about a lack of privacy. Evening meals were followed by a training night shoot of around three hours. Women serving in this unit received a day's leave roughly everly 10 days.
Lorna recalled one evening when herselft and her friend Myra Parker were participating in a practice exercise. A tiger moth plane ha dbeen put up towing a drogue to allow the unit to practice shooting Japanese planes out of the sky. They were about to fire, when suddenly someone yelled out, "Halt"!. They had almost accidentally taken their own tiger moth plain out, rather than the drogue.
Following the end of WWII, the Army, Navy and Air Force women's branches were disbanded.
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