Nan Alldritt was educated at Murray Bridge High School. After leaving school she did army service, working with searchlights and radar in the 58th Ack Ack and Searchlight Battery. This was manned entirely by women, replacing the men who were needed for front line duty in Darwin and New Guinea. She then worked in Intelligence. She studied journalism at the University of Adelaide under Prof Biaggini. In 1949 she married Donald Alldritt, later to become Assistant General Manager of ACI, and a keen golfer. They had two children, and Nan was involved charity work including the Asthmatic Foundation and the Crippled Children's Association.
When her husband retired in 1975 they moved to Victor Harbor and bought the Central Hotel. They "retired" again, this time to an old house at Encounter Bay, "Meetings". Nan took a course in Creative Writing at the Dept of Further Education. She wrote stories to provide subject matter for children's art classes at the primary school at Victor Harbor. These proved very popular, she says, but have never been published.
In 1980 they moved to England to be near their daughter. They bought a 400 years old pub, with a golf course, and Nan managed the pub while her husband saw to the golf course. When Don was diagnosed as having cancer for the first time they moved to Oxfordshire to a 400 year old house and managed a retirement village. Nan did some historical research, mainly in the Bodleian Library. They returned to Australia in 1995, and Nan wrote the official history of the 58th AAS/L Battery in her book Candles in the Sky (1998). She was a contributor to South Australian Scrapbook.
