Nickname II; K-K-K-Katy

I have a rule about not writing about my grandparents, for identity security reasons, but I figured since this is about a name that was never official, and does not exist on any records, I could bend the rule.

My grandmother was known as Kate, ever since World War II. Her real name was not anything close to Kate!

My Granny picked up the moniker  from a popular song at the time. It was actually a World War I song, but like so many war songs from the Great War, it found new fame in the 1940s. 

My Granny joined the war effort as soon as she could, and so was registered as an ATS bookkeeper in the 1939 Register, taken just a few weeks after Britain declared that they were at war.

The ATS (Auxilliary Territorial Service) was a women's branch of the army, which was formed in 1938. It wasn't until 1941 that unmarried women between 20-30 years of age were conscripted to join up.

K-K-K-Katy was a jolly song about a young soldier, prone to stuttering, who falls in love with a beautiful girl named Katy. I can just imagine a fair number of handsome soldiers singing that song to my Granny. She was, as you can see, quite beautiful!

Here is the songwriter singing the song on the Ed Sullivan Show, and no; it's not Joe Biden! Enjoy!