Danish WW2 Pilots

Cpl Helga Marie Jørgensen

(1912 - 1978)

LACW Helga Marie Vest Jørgensen was one of the Danish women who served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force during the Second World War. One in seven of the Danish volunteers in the Allied air forces was a woman. Often their stories are little known.

Helga Marie Vest Jørgensen was born on 23 October 1923 in Skoven near Jægerspris, the daughter of Hans Vest Jørgensen and Marie Kristine Jørgensen (née Nielsen).[1]

Jørgensen moved to the United Kingdom at some point. In September 1939, at the outbreak of war en Europe, she worked as a domestic servant in Letchworth in Hertfordshire, England.[2]

Jørgensen volunteered for the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force during the Second World War (444898).[3] The exact date is not known, but the service number indicate that it was between February and June 1941 in Gloucester.[4] In December 1942, she is attached to No. 3 MT School, RAF Pwllheli, N Wales, holding the rank of Leading Aircraftwoman.[5]

Endnotes

[1] DNA; Parish register, Draaby Skovsogn.

[2] Ancestry: 1939 England and Wales Register.

[3] NA: AIR 78/89.

[4] Dalum’s service number is part of a block of numbers (440001 to 450000) allotted for WAAF enlistment in Gloucester in February 1942. The next block (from 450001) was allotted in June 1941.

[5] DNA; 10194, Danske Råd i London, Rekrutteringskontoret.