Jo left school at 16 and as she had Physics with Chemistry, she joined the Women’s Technical Service
Register and did her war work at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington in the Optics
section of Light Division. The journey from Godalming to Teddington by train and trolleybus was
onerous, but it was fascinating to work in such a prestigious organisation. They had to present their
work at the first Physical Society Exhibition after the war which was held at the Science Museum.
During her time at the Lab, the Director General was Sir Charles Darwin, grandson of the famous
author of “Origin of the Species”. V1 and V2 rockets were falling at the time and as most of her
colleagues worked nearby, every time they heard an explosion everyone ran up to the roof to see
where the smoke was rising. She left the Lab in 1946 due to parental pressure. Her piano practice had been suffering and she was close to gaining her LRAM [Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music]. As work of national importance was still mandatory, she took a job in the Path Lab at St. Thomas’s Hospital, Hydestyle.