 On the outbreak of war in September 1939, Bessie left her union post and joined G Division of the Liverpool Ambulance Service, as a driver. Initially her main job was to train other drivers, mostly young women. She became a section leader and then a deputy leader of G Division, an administrative post that should have kept her at headquarters. However, she records that she drove her ambulance through all the 68 major air raids that struck Liverpool during the war years. It was dangerous work; on a single day, 3 May 1941, 14 drivers lost their lives. Bessie remained with the ambulance service almost until the end of the war in 1945.
