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Miss Kathleen Spooner, Fire Watcher, Dorking, Surrey, England, 1940-'41. Women were severely restricted in their ability to contribute to the war effort on the front line, even on the home front. However, many, like Ms Spooner, did the most that they could. Note the bucket and stirrup pump, These manually operated pumps worked on a similar principle to bicycle pumps, sucking water out of the bucket and spraying it on the fire through the short hose (I believe that US fire watchers used similar pumps). I can testify, from using such a pump owned by my grandfather, that operating the stirrup pump is bloody hard work. How effective it would have been against a fire of any significance is, to say the least, doubtful. Still, the presence of ARP fire watchers cannot have hurt morale - and I suspect that Ms Spooner got a lot of healthy exercise practicing ... Best regards, JR.