A Kyneton resident who was among the first girls in history to be enrolled in the Royal Australian Air Force was last week honoured for her service to the nation during WWII.
At age 19, centenarian Margaret Emily Green (nee Selway) was enrolled with 15 other girls at No 1 Recruiting Centre, Queens Street, Melbourne, on March 15, 1941.
She took up duty on March 24, 1941, at Kellow House in St Kilda Road, for training as a teleprinter operator, and began working at the Victorian Barracks on April 14 of that year.
Margaret later trained and worked as a Wireless Air Gunner, sending and receiving messages in Morse code, and went on to become an instructor to new recruits before being promoted to sergeant.
“It was very, very busy,” she said of her time there.
“We worked very hard, we were writing and copying and handing it in to the bosses, there was no free time at all.”
In 1942, Margaret met her husband, Lance Robert Green, who was serving in the RAAF as an aircraft mechanic. They married in July 1943 and brought up three daughters in Pascoe Vale.
Her father, William George Selway, had also served in WWI as a Bombardier with the 2nd Australian Field Artillery Brigade and received a military medal for bravery.
Two RAAF members paid a visit to Margaret at RM Begg Aged Care last Wednesday to acknowledge her service and milestone birthday, which was on February 11, 2022, during the RAAF’s centenary year (from March 31, 2021 until March 31, 2022).
Flying Officer Chloe Howard and Leading Aircraftwoman Harkirat Kaur presented Margaret with a framed Air Force 2021 Commemorative Memento in thanks for her service as a Centenarian Veteran.
