'Daredevil' Freddie, 95, from Elmswell near Bury St Edmunds, shares stories from World War 2 and Berlin Airlift

Freddie Montgomery, 95, has had many books published, but her latest tells the most incredible story – her own.

The former lecturer and minister, who now lives in Elmswell, near Bury St Edmunds, describes her book as a ‘social history’, which looks back at her life and that of her ancestors

Freddie, who has been widowed twice, has one son, Francis.

She said she had been ‘nagged’ into writing the book at the age of 91, by friends and family members who love to hear her fascinating tales from the past.

Now her hope is the book, called The Life of a Girl Called Fred, will be picked up by a company who can publish it and help to raise funds for charity.

Freddie, who moved to Elmswell from Stanton, was born in London in 1928, 10 years after the end of World War One.

She grew up believing her father was dead but in reality her parents had separated before she was born.

Now, looking back on her childhood, she can remember meeting a mysterious man for afternoon tea every few weeks, and special anonymous presents which were delivered every Christmas Eve.

Brought up by her mother and grandmother, who owned property, Freddie said it was a time when ‘children were seen but not heard’.

However, as a 10-year-old Freddie remembers listening in to her mother’s secret conversations of a growing threat to Jews in Europe.

Then Freddie was suddenly sent to boarding school, where her friends affectionately shortened her name, from Winifred to Freddie.

She explained: “I found out later that I had a Jewish background and my mother wanted me away from the family, because in 1938 it was not good to be Jewish.”

Freddie was at boarding school throughout the whole of World War Two and was protected from it, only reading about it in the newspapers – but back in London the family home was damaged.

Returning to the capital at the age of 17, Freddie had dreams of becoming an engineer, however her mother made her turn down an apprenticeship. She then tried her hand as a sales woman of war surplus and various other roles across London.

It was when she met up with an old school friend, who had just joined the military, that Freddie thought to herself ‘I would like that job’ and she set out to join the Army.

“I was too young and I had to get my mother’s permission,” remembered Freddie.

“There was a big family meeting, ‘should Winifred join the army?’, ‘no’ said an aunt, ‘yes’ said my favourite uncle and my grandmother said ‘if I was her age I would’.”

Freddie was one of only six selected (from a crowd of 50) to join what was then the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS). She then became one of the first members of the Women’s Royal Army Corps.

Before long, a posting came up for Freddie to go abroad and she found herself mysteriously at the Hook of Holland with 11 other women but was sent alone to a control commission hotel in Minden, Germany.

The evening she arrived Freddie, then in her early twenties, was told she was being sent to Berlin.

At that time the Berlin Blockade (1948-1949) had been put in place by the Soviet Union, meaning railway, road and canal access for Western Allies was blocked and an airlift was set up to get essential supplies in to the city.

With a minister and his wife she travelled in to Berlin by road. followed closely behind by five armed soldiers.

Freddie remembered: “Every so often we were stopped and our papers were examined by

Russians.”

On her arrival in Berlin there was still rubble in the streets from the war, Germans living in poverty, and airmen dying in the airlift.

But times weren’t all hard, during the airlift – Freddie met her beloved first husband Richard: ‘ a terrific person’.

‘I’ve always been a daredevil’ said Freddie as she recalled the time she was forced to hide on the floor of the bus after visiting the Brandenburg Gate without permission.

She can also remember a ‘reformed Nazi’ who took her on an early morning trip to see where Hitler’s body was burned.

Decades on, Freddie is still cautious about speaking about her time in the German capital but said she hadn’t shied away from it in her book, despite an unnerving experience when the Russians tried to find her in the years after the airlift.

Royal memories

Created in World War Two, the ATS was the, women’s branch of the British Army.

In her book, Freddie proudly writes about becoming one of the first members of the Women’s Royal Army Corps – which absorbed the remaining troops from the ATS in 1949.

She remembers a grand ceremony where she received the King’s Shilling – the monarch at the time was King George VI.

Many years later in 2009, Freddie was given Maundy Money by his daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, at a ceremony in St Edmundsbury Cathedral.

This was in recognition of her work for the church across Suffolk.

Freddie has lived through the reign of five monarchs, and can even remember the death of King George V.

If you are interested in publishing Freddie's book, please email - suzanne.day@iliffepublishing.co.uk.