Eileen Younghusband

Eileen Muriel Younghusband, BEM (née Le Croissette; 4 July 1921 – 2 September 2016) was a filter officer in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force in World War II. She worked in the filter room, a top-level British air defence hub which assessed radar reports in order to give air raid warnings. Later, while posted to Belgium, she was part of a team of mathematicians who alerted Allied forces to the location of V-2 rocket launch sites. and promoted to section officer in October 1942, she was posted to 10 Group Fighter Command at RAF Rudloe Manor, Corsham, near Bath, where she was deployed as a filter officer.

In this post, she was responsible for assessing the information gleaned from Chain Home coastal radar stations, estimating position, height and number of enemy forces in the air – essential for establishing Britain's defence network and giving air raid warnings. These teams had a matter of seconds to calculate accurately the whereabouts of both friendly and enemy aircraft. This information was essential since the RAF had a limited number of fighter aircraft and trained pilots, and limited supplies of fuel. Allied aircraft could then bomb the launch vehicles. She remained at Mechelen until June 1945.

Following VE Day she was seconded to the Breendonk concentration camp, where she acted as a guide and interpreter (she was a fluent French speaker), relaying to RAF personnel the realities of war. and moved into hotel work.

Later years Younghusband graduated from the Open University at the age of 87, and wrote two volumes of memoirs, Not an Ordinary Life (2009) and One Woman's War (2011), the latter dealing more specifically with her wartime experience.

Recognition Younghusband campaigned on health and education issues, such as cuts to adult education, and she was awarded the British Empire Medal in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to lifelong learning. Britain's Got Talent finalist Nathan Wyburn created a portrait of Younghusband from wartime images of her to commemorate her World War II work.

A life-size statue of Younghusband as a young WAAF officer stands in a replica filter room at the Battle of Britain Museum at Bentley Priory.

Personal life and death Younghusband married physical training instructor Peter Younghusband in 1944 and they had a son, Clive, in 1946.

In 1984 Younghusband moved to Wales. She died in hospital in Cardiff on 2 September 2016, at the age of 95.

Publications