An ‘incredibly brave’ 102-year-old veteran of the wartime Auxiliary Fire Service has been officially honoured for risking her life to save others during the terrifying Bristol Blitz.
Great great-grandmother Ula Rigg was the centre of attention as a regional fire chief awarded her a World War Two Defence medal ‘recognising her war effort for the Civil Defence’.
The ceremony, which was kept as a surprise from her until the last moment, took place at Colten Care’s Salisbury care home Braemar Lodge where Ula has lived for the past three years.
Ula’s daughter Debbie told her there was ‘something happening downstairs’ and brought her down from her bedroom.
On entering the home’s foyer, Ula was ‘clapped in’ by a gathering of family, friends, uniformed fire service personnel, fellow residents and Braemar Lodge team members, with clear sight of a fire tender parked outside.
The Chief Fire Officer of Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue, Andy Cole, spoke of her ‘incredible bravery’ as he presented the medal on behalf of firefighters in Avonmouth where Ula was based in the war.
Debbie, who had applied for the ‘long overdue’ award for her mother, said: “To see her sitting there and receiving the medal brought tears to my eyes. I knew how much it would mean to mum after 80 years.”
Born in Lichfield in the Midlands in 1922, Ula was just three when her family moved to Bristol and 16 when war broke out.
At 18 she joined the Auxiliary Fire Service, renamed the National Fire Service in 1941 to emphasise its integral importance to the war effort.
Ula worked on the service’s switchboard inside an Avonmouth dockside banana shed which was being used as a temporary fire station during the Blitz.
Bristol was an especially vulnerable target for the Luftwaffe due to its shipping activity, strategic position on the River Avon and because it was home to the Bristol Aeroplane Company.
It became the fifth most heavily bombed British city of the war, experiencing six major bombing campaigns between November 1940 and April 1941.
There were 77 air raids with hundreds of alerts sounded. Nearly 1,000 tons of high explosive bombs were dropped, killing 1,299 people and injuring 1,303. Just under 700 people were rescued from the debris of tens of thousands of bombed homes and buildings.
At a time when the public were taking shelter from night time bombing raids, Ula went out into the thick of the targeted area to do her work.
Under the most extreme pressure, she and fellow colleagues on the switchboard did their best to maintain communications across the fire services and deploy appliances and engines to where they were most needed.
Fires that broke out in the darkness due to the bombing had to be tackled immediately as they would simply alert the next wave of incoming German planes to potential targets in the blackout.
Debbie said: “If she was off duty and at home in the Shirehampton area of the city when an air raid siren went off, she had to race back down to Avonmouth.
“Her father had made steel heel tips for her and used to speak of seeing sparks flying off her shoes as she ran down the road.
“She must have been very scared but she has always preferred not to dwell on that and instead speak of happier experiences from the war.
“She organised troop entertainments using her singing, dancing and acting talents to boost forces’ morale.
“Being from Shirehampton, she created a song and dance performance group called The Shire Spots.
“One memory she recounts is of being hoisted on to the top of a bus shelter on VE Day in 1945 and leading the community singing of We’ll Meet Again.
“After it was over, she moved onto other things. It is only as time has gone on that the family felt we should apply for a medal to honour her wartime role officially.”
Peacetime saw Ula working in a music shop in Weston-Super-Mare, where she met and sold sheet music to her future husband Kenneth, and progressing her love of singing and acting. As well as appearing in many amateur drama productions, she went on to teach speech and drama at a local technical college. “She has always considered herself an actor,” said Debbie.
Speaking to the audience at her medal ceremony, Ula employed more than a century of good grace and humour to say, with a smile: “I’m going to remember this for the rest of my life.”
Chief Fire Officer Cole said: “It was an honour to present the Defence medal on behalf of my colleagues at Avon Fire & Rescue Service recognising Ula’s war effort for the Civil Defence. It was incredible to listen to her talk about her wartime service and experiences during the time she served for the Auxiliary Fire Service in Avonmouth. At a time when the public were sheltering from the bombing during the Blitz, Ula demonstrated incredible bravery, supporting the war effort by ensuring vital communications were in place across Bristol. Ula explained she will always remember witnessing many tragic events and great devastation but also spoke fondly of happier memories working in the Fire Service. Her service is something both Ula and her family are rightly extremely proud of, and I’m delighted it has been recognised with this award.”
Graham Ballard, Companionship Team Leader at Braemar Lodge, said: “Ula was working above ground when others were underground. She helped to make sure people and resources were protected and fire services were in the right locations to tackle fires caused by the bombs. She is a truly remarkable lady and was clearly thrilled with her presentation.”
Ula’s Defence medal has been specially engraved with the name and image of King George VI, the monarch at the time of the war.
