TRIBUTES have been paid to one of only two women who served on the ship used to transport elite troops to the Falklands. Jean Woodcock, 77, was a stewardess on the MV Norland ferry, which was used by the Merchant Navy and the men of 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment (2 Para).
She died on September 8, after respiratory problems, say her friends.
Roy "Wendy" Gibson, also a steward on the ferry, said: "Jean was only very small but she had a lot of backbone. She wouldn't take rubbish off anyone.
"But she was lovely at the same time and always had a smile on her face."
In an interview with the Mail last year, Miss Woodcock said she did not think twice about volunteering for the dangerous voyage into the unknown.
She said: "They said to us, those who want to serve need to put their names down. My friends told me not to go but I told them, 'I go where my ship goes'.
"They thought I was silly, but my parents had passed away and I had no siblings.
"I loved the sea – so that was the end of it."
Miss Woodcock, who grew up in west Hull, worked with several other women when the MV Norland was a passenger ship.
But Mr Gibson says only Miss Woodcock and another woman were onboard on MV Norland when she was sent to the Falkland Islands in 1982.
He said: "Jean was very good at her job. She worked in the restaurants, feeding the troops onboard and preparing their cabins, just as I did."
Miss Woodcock, who was a resident of Lake View Manor nursing home in Pearson Park, west Hull, never married and did not have any children.
Speaking last year, Miss Woodcock described how the UK task force came under attack from Argentine forces.
She said: "On one occasion, the Argentine bombs hit ships either side of us. Maybe someone was watching over us."
Before her stint on the MV Norland, Miss Woodcock had worked on cruise ships and enjoyed spells in Australia and America.
The Falklands was not Miss Woodcock's only near-death experience, however.
As a child, she survived an horrific car crash in Bawtry near Doncaster, spending weeks in hospital with a fractured skull, broken jaw and badly injured legs.
Sisters Maureen Seager and Jean Lyons were close friends of Miss Woodcock's.
Mrs Lyons, of Mulgrave Street, east Hull, said: "I became friends with Jean through my sister.
"Jean was a lot of fun. She was always so bubbly – laughing and joking all the time.
"She was always so generous and a good friend."
Miss Woodcock's funeral was being held today at noon in the small chapel at Chanterlands Crematorium, west Hull.
