THE WREN Spring 2020 No. 397 Spring 2020 The Association of Wrens and Women of The Royal Naval Services PATRON: Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal PRESIDENT: Mrs Alison Towler SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT: Mrs Anthea Larken CBE

VICE PRESIDENTS: Mrs Patricia Wall Mrs Beryl Watt Mrs Marjorie Imlah OBE JP Mrs Julia Clark Miss Julia Simpson BSc CEng MBCS Miss Rosie Wilson OBE Miss Eleanor Patrick Mrs Mary Hawthornthwaite Mrs Janet Crabtree Mrs Carol Gibbon Mrs Pat Farrington Miss Andrea Crook

CHAIRMAN: Miss Jill Stellingworth VICE-CHAIRMAN: Mrs Linda Mitchell HON. TREASURER: Mrs Rita Hoddinott EDITORIAL TEAM OF THE WREN: Mrs Georgina Tuckett Mrs Rita Hoddinott PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER: Mrs Celia Saywell MBE ADMINISTRATORS: Mrs Katharine Lovegrove Mrs Lin Burton TRUSTEES: Mrs Karen Elliot Mrs Lisa Snowden Mrs Lyn Gannon Mrs Vicki Taylor Mrs Barbara McGregor Mrs Georgina Tuckett Miss Alison Moffatt Mrs Jackie Whitmarsh Mrs Kathy Rolls

Subscriptions: Membership renewal for 2020/21 payable by 1 April 2020 Annual membership for UK members £13 or 5 years £60 or 10 years for £110 Annual membership for overseas members £16 or 5 years £75, or 10 years for £140 All correspondence for the Association of Wrens should be sent to: Association of Wrens, Building 1/87, Scott Road HM Naval Base, Portsmouth PO1 3LU Tel: 02392 725141 email: [email protected] If a reply is required, please enclose a stamped addressed envelope

The contents of THE WREN are strictly copyright and all rights are expressly reserved. The views expressed herein are not necessarily the views of the Editorial Team or the Association and accordingly no responsibility for these will be accepted. Whilst the Editorial Team has high regard for all advertisers, readers are recommended to seek appropriate financial or legal advice before entering into any binding agreement.

VERY IMPORTANT Changes To Data Protection Act – Members Consent Please be aware that photographs and news submitted for publication to The Wren magazine will not be posted on the AOW website (www.wrens.org.uk) and the AOW Facebook page (not the ‘Wrens Facebook Group’) without the express permission of the member submitting the item. Personal information i.e. addresses, e-mail addresses or telephone numbers WILL NOT BE INCLUDED in the magazine, on the AOW website or on the AOW Facebook page unless members give specific instruction that they wish their personal details to be included. For example, include with your submitted article the following statement: ‘I give my written consent for my personal details to be included in The Wren magazine*/on the AOW Website*/Facebook page* (*delete any area where you do not wish your details to appear).

Registered under the Charities Act 2011 — Registration No. 257040 The Wren 1

ENCLOSED INSIDE YOUR SPRING MAGAZINE:

Chairman Nomination Form Closing date 12 June 2020

Trustee Nomination Form Closing date 12 June 2020

Application Form for Edinburgh Castle Reception Closing date 18 September 2020

Application form for Edinburgh Gala Dinner The WRNS Garden under water during recent floods Closing date 18 September 2020

CONTENTS FROM THE EDITORIAL TEAM 2 2020 Scuttlebutt 3 Chairman’s Letter Trustees Corner 4 Important Information 8 Branch and IG Reports

11 PR Team Report l-r: Katharine Lovegrove (Administrator), Rita Hoddinott (Hon Treasurer), Lin Burton (Administrator) 12 Standard Bearers Report and Georgina Tuckett (Trustee/Editor) This is going to be the shortest editorial on record. You 15 Events ladies have really turned up trumps this time and left us no space! Amazing stories and fabulous pictures. 16 Remembrance Keep up the good work - BZ to all contributors. Some of you have family who are vulnerable to the 17 People and Places virus , others are working in the NHS and others have their children home for an extended holiday and yet 21 Families in Blue Suits more are already self isolating because of your own health concerns - to all of you we send our best wishes 25 WWII and VE Day Memories and hope that this crisis goes away sooner than everyone is forecasting. 30 Marjorie West - Award 32 Coalhouse Fort The Grand AOW Centenary Raffle is to be drawn on 3 October 2020 34 WWI Feeding the Navy Tickets can still be purchased via HQ 37 Aircraft Engineer to Book Binder Front cover: 40 Birthdays and Anniversaries Administrators Katharine Lovegrove and Lin Burton outside the new HQ building (see page 41) 42 Letters Photo credit Nigel Huxtable 40 Obituaries Back cover: On the steps of St Mary Le Strand Church on 8 March 2020 following the service to dedicate the new Standard. (see p 7) 43 Deaths Photo credit Stephen Elliot 2 The Wren 2020 Scuttlebutt Our Centenary Year has arrived!

BUT SO TOO HAS CORONAVIRUS AND SADLY THIS HAS DISRUPTED A NUMBER OF OUR CELEBRATIONS

Our Centenary Year has finally arrived and after many meetings and much planning over the past two years the celebrations were due to begin. On 8 March, as part of our 2020 commemorations, a New National Standard was commissioned, updated to reflect the inclusion of Women of the Royal Naval Services in the name of our Charity. As a number of you are avid attendees of the Mountbatten Festival of Music at the Royal Albert Hall it was decided that that was a suitable weekend to hold a Sunday service in the WRNS church of St Mary Le Strand where we laid up our old Standard and dedicated the New National Standard, we also commemorated the lives of our past Presidents and lit candles in their memory. I hope many of you will get to see the new Standard as the years unfold. By the time you get to read this report many of you will know that we had to postpone the much anticipated dinner at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton. It promised to be a spectacular event in a very special setting and judging by the excellent response we had for tickets, obviously you our members thought so too. This was to be a very special evening celebrating who we are, our heritage and our future. Blue and Gold Together highlighted that although women in the navy have changed their blue badges for gold we still share the same spirit and enjoy a good party. Postponement may even heighten our enthusiasm for the evening making it even more special. Another casualty of the unfolding events has meant that our Out of Town meeting in Exeter on 16 May has sadly been postponed and so too the major Centenary event at the National Memorial Arboretum on 10 June. Every effort will be made to reschedule all the postponed events. A number of you will have paid for your tickets for these three events. The Treasurer will be maintaining records of who has submitted payments and will ensure you have a ticket when rescheduled. If you would prefer to have a refund, and have your name removed from the event list, please email or write to HQ with your bank details or to request a cheque. PLEASE DON’T TELEPHONE with this information. Please bear with us as we may not be able to process refunds immediately. How long the effects of the virus will continue is uncertain so for the time being we are including in this edition of The Wren application forms for our Edinburgh events, but please be aware that this too may be a casualty of the situation we all face. By all means submit your forms but no payments will be taken or cheques cashed until we have a confirmed go ahead. The Just4Groups accommodation package application form for the weekend is already available on the website, but please be aware that acceptance of an accommodation booking does not guarantee that you have a place at the events and you may be able to find accommodation at a lower price. There are other events planned by Branches and Informal Groups throughout the year in venues across the country, if you plan to hold an event but due to unforeseen circumstances have to cancel it, do please let the office know so that all details can be included on the website. Despite the circumstances let’s try to remain strong, whether we wore Blue or Gold (or both), always remember the special place women have had in the Royal Navy over the past century and the founding of our Association in 1920. Best wishes and stay safe, Carol Gibbon The Wren 3 TRUSTEES CORNER Chairman’s Letter On opening this magazine you will see Carol Gibbon’s (AOW2020 Chairman) Scuttlebutt Report about all the events that had been planned for this year. It is right and proper that, at the beginning of our Centenary year, this has main focus so that you are immediately aware of what is now the situation in respect of these events. Coronavirus has had its devastating impact on what should have been for us a year of celebration but now is a year of disappointment in that we cannot all meet up and rejoice about our Centenary. However, the most important factor in all this is that - you - our members are kept safe, and as far as the AOW is concerned, out of harm’s way. Please heed all Government advice in respect of how to look after yourselves as best you can so that in the future we can meet together again and have a belated Centenary Party. The Yeovilton Dinner has been postponed as has the Out Of Town meeting and dinner in Exeter. It had been hoped that we might still meet at the National Memorial Arboretum to unveil our Commemorative Stone but sadly this, in light of changing advice, needs also to be postponed. These are sad times for us all but, as I have already said, it is the safety of you our members that is paramount during these times of uncertainty. Moving away from 2020 events - another major event has been the move of the AOW Office from Semaphore Tower to a single-storey building still within the Dockyard - situated between Victory Gate and HMS Victory. The move has taken a great deal of forward thinking, logistical planning, and brave decisions. All of this has been conducted by the office team (Katharine and Lin), supported by Rita, with meticulous efficiency and patience - and now settled into their new ‘home’ they deserve the utmost praise for a job well thought-out, well conducted, and a plethora of BZs, especially to Katharine and Lin - and to some of you who also assisted with the move. While we are sharing the building with the RNA, each Association is retaining its single identity - we are the AOW and will remain so for a good time to come. Finally, I must reiterate again that as responsible AOW members you do heed the Government advice in respect of this Coronavirus pandemic, and please ensure that all of you look out for not only yourselves and other AOW members but also those around you that require assistance throughout this difficult time. Thank You. Jill Stellingworth Association of Wrens Events 2020 You will see a list of potential events that the Association of Wrens/WRNS BT are hoping to attend this year. Please have a look and see if there are any events that you could help out at – we need volunteers to man the stand and sell goods. You do not have to commit to being there all day, a couple of hours will greatly help us. If you think you can help, please email me on [email protected], giving me your contact details, which event(s) you wish to attend and what time you can spare at them. I will then contact you to confirm your help. I can then draw up a rota and will contact you with further details when the organisers send out their information (some of them leave it very late, so don’t worry!). Thank you – without volunteers, these events cannot go ahead. Lyn Gannon EVENT DATE LOCATION Armed Forces Day 28 June 2020 Southampton International Air Day 11 July 2020 RNAS Yeovilton Bournemouth Air Festival 20-23 August 2020 Bournemouth Stubbington Fayre 31 August 2020 Stubbington VJ 75th Anniversary 5/6 September 2020 Ugbrooke Park 400 Anniversary of Mayflower 14-20 September 2020 Plymouth AOW AGM 03 October 2020 Edinburgh Please note: Many events have been cancelled and these above events may also be subject to cancellation.

Out of Town Meeting 2021 We regret to announce the death of HMS Cambria (Cardiff) have kindly offered their Cdre Muriel Hocking RD* RNR. venue for our Out of Town Meeting in 2021 - the An obituary will be in the Summer issue. date for your diaries is Saturday 19th June 2021. Further details will be published at the end of this year/early 2021. 4 The Wren IMPORTANT INFORMATION FROM HQ Association of Wrens - Building 1/87, Scott Road, HM Naval Base, Portsmouth P01 3LT Telephone number: 02392 725141 HQ email address: [email protected] Editor’s address: [email protected] Public Relations Officer’s address: [email protected] Website: www.wrens.org.uk Office opening hours: Monday to Thursday 0900 – 1700 and Friday 0900 – 1230 In order to avoid a wasted journey, please contact HQ before arranging to visit because security passes will need to be obtained beforehand. CORRESPONDENCE & PAYMENTS MEMBERSHIP YEAR All communications for the Association should be sent The membership year runs from 1 April to 31 March. to HQ with a SAE if a reply is required. and will apply to all members who join between 1 April All cheques and postal orders must be made payable to and 31 December. With their membership enrolment the ASSOCIATION OF WRENS. Overseas members letter they will also receive a copy of a previous are requested to send sterling money orders or pay by edition of The Wren magazine (subject to availability). credit/debit card. Payments may also be made using Members who join between 1 January and 31 March debit or credit cards via the website or by telephoning will have their membership expiry date extended to HQ. 31 March of the following year to allow them to be Please do not send cash through the post. There is allocated a full year. They will also receive a copy of a no need to send separate cheques for a donation, previous magazine (subject to availability). member’s subscriptions and insurance etc. As long as the individual amounts are clearly stated it can all be YOUR MEMBERSHIP NUMBER on one cheque. This can be found on your membership card and the address sheet which comes with The Wren magazine. CHANGE OF ADDRESS If your membership number starts with an A Notification should be sent to the Administrator at: you are an annual member and need to make a [email protected] or by post. payment on or before 1 April annually. If your membership number starts with a F MEMBERSHIP CARDS you have paid a five year subscription. You do not Replacement cards are available from either the need to make a payment unless you wish to make Administrator or via the website at £1.99 each. (Please a donation. We will remind you when your five year note it is not necessary to send in your card when subscription expires. renewing your subscription). If your membership number starts with a T you have paid a ten year subscription. You do not need DEATHS to make a payment unless you wish to make a donation. It is most important to inform the Administrator of a We will remind you when your ten year subscription member’s death. Records have to be amended and expires. delivery of the magazine stopped. Failure to inform HQ If your membership number starts with an L can easily result in unnecessary distress to surviving you are a life member and do not need to make a relatives and friends. There is no charge for a death payment unless you wish to make a donation. announcement or an obituary entry in The Wren. The informant will be sent a notification containing the ANNUAL RENEWAL BY BANK PAYMENT The current membership fees are £13.00 for UK death announcement. Email notification of deaths residents and £16.00 for overseas members. If paying should be sent to: [email protected]. annually by Standing Order please ensure you have A copy of the issue containing the death notification notified your bank of the correct amount and the and/or the obituary is available to the deceased payment date (on or before 1 April). Please ask your member’s next of kin on request. Further copies can bank to include your name and membership number be obtained for a donation of £3 each to cover postage. as an identifying reference. If you have a standing order set up to make this payment, please check your DATA PROTECTION bank statement to verify that the subscription has The Association database exists to maintain been paid. You can now set up an on-line Direct Debit membership details only. Member’s details are those payment through www.gocardless.com by entering the that have been supplied by the individual member when following link in your browser https://pay.gocardless. joining the Association and from subsequent information com/AL0001XF4ZPV5E provided by them to HQ. This information is not used If renewing by a credit/debit card please ensure that for any other purpose and the database is protected by the details of the card are written clearly. Payment may password access. Any member may request a copy of also be made by bank transfer. Please see reverse of their data by writing to HQ enclosing a SAE. your renewal form for our account details. The Wren 5

BRANCHES & GROUPS If you are finding it hard to recruit for your Branch, INVITATIONS TO EVENTS please contact the Administrators who will be very The AOW is fortunate to receive invitations for happy to contact non-Branch members in your area members to attend some very exciting events; to see if they would like to join you. There may be a Buckingham Palace Garden Parties, visits to charge for this to cover postage costs. Highgrove House, canal trips, Founders Day at the Some members who do not belong to a Branch, or Royal Chelsea Hospital and Christmas parties in did belong to one which has since closed, continue various locations. Details of events are forwarded to to meet up with others on an informal basis. In this all Branches and Informal Groups. If you don’t belong case the Association would like to formally adopt to a Branch or Group but would like to be made aware such Informal Groups and thereby offer them the of these opportunities please contact HQ to advise. benefits of being included on our website; have their Some events are exclusively for members who are in own Association email address, write a report for the receipt of a War Pension or an award from the Armed magazine and receive information and invitations. If Forces Compensation Scheme so if you are in receipt you would like your group to be adopted in this way of either of these please let us know. (Preference will, please contact HQ. Not all members of an informal on occasion, be given to War Veterans). group need to be Association members but we will require a named contact who is a current member, CENOTAPH CEREMONY the name of the group, the number of members (both SUNDAY 8 NOVEMBER 2020 AOW and non-AOW) and frequency of meetings. Tickets are essential for those taking part (but not for These details will then be presented to the Trustees spectators) and are available for current Association for formal adoption. members only. Please note tickets are not transferable. The list for members to request a ticket for 2020 will DISSOLUTION OF BRANCHES & GROUPS be open from 1 June to 31 July inc. Full details will be Branches who become Informal Groups are, under available on our website or direct from HQ from 1 June. the Constitution of the Association, in effect dissolved and should therefore take action in accordance with WIMBLEDON TICKETS A number of tickets are available to members for this Section 9j of the Constitution which states: ‘In the event each year courtesy of the Lest We Forget and event of the dissolution of a Branch, all assets of the The Not Forgotten Associations. If you are interested Branch shall be realised and all debts and liabilities in attending please contact HQ. Tickets are available discharged, any remaining funds shall be disposed to current Association members only, one per member of as agreed by the Branch membership’. The advice and are allocated via a lottery type draw. of the Association Headquarters should be sought regarding the ultimate disposal of relevant archives AOW MEMBERSHIP OF THE ROYAL MARITIME and women’s service memorabilia (WRNS/RN). CLUB PORTSMOUTH (Formerly the Home Club) The AOW has an Annual Membership of the Royal BRANCH INSURANCE Maritime Club; mention it when you book and you Branches are required to pay £13.00 annually will get a discount. The current discounted rates to provide Public Liability insurance for Branch are £105.00 per night for a double or twin room. business and social activities wherever held - Limit (Children aged 3 to15 - price on request, under 3s of Liability £5,000,000. Where appropriate this are free). All rates include breakfast. Prices quoted includes parading the Standard but not the Standard are effective from May to October 2020. For further itself, see below. Informal Groups requiring Public details, please contact the Club direct on 02392 Liability Insurance should contact the Treasurer for 824231. entitlement on payment of the required premium. PORTSMOUTH HISTORIC DOCKYARD INSURANCE OF BRANCH STANDARDS The Association has arranged for a discounted ticket Insurance for Branch Standards is available from for members. If you show your AOW membership HQ, through the RNA, at a cost of £5.00 per annum card (credit card type) at the ticket office you can buy (running 18 March to 17 March inclusive). This a DAY ticket, giving entrance to the Museum of the covers fire/loss/damage anywhere in the world Royal Navy, all historic ships (excluding the Mary whilst in transit and includes both the Standard and Rose*) and Harbour Tours, for £10 each for yourself the ceremonial equipment. An excess of £100 will and up to a further 4 friends. You must visit together. apply to any claims made. For example, you and 2 friends would pay £30.00 Please apply by completing the relevant section on in total, i.e. £10.00 each. Day tickets are not usually your Branch Return or contact HQ. sold to the general public. (*A separate ticket must be purchased if wishing to visit the Mary Rose.) There WAR MEDALS is no discount on yearly tickets which are sold to Information is available at www.gov.uk/guidance/ the general public. the-ministry-of-defence-medal-office. Alternatively contact HQ for assistance. 6 The Wren THE WREN DONATIONS All items for consideration for the next edition (due Heartfelt thanks for your kind donations to the Association. Each one is greatly appreciated and helps out in April) must be with the office no later that 1 the Association work for the benefit of all the members. June 2020. Please send to [email protected] or Please accept this acknowledgment in appreciation of post to the office address.All items submitted for The your generosity. Individual letters of appreciation will Wren magazine are considered by the Editorial Team only be sent for donations over £25.00 due to the rising and inclusion in the magazine is at their discretion. It cost of postage. is regretted that no personal communication will be All donations can be gift-aided if you are a UK tax payer, entered into. Submissions can only be returned if a thus increasing the amount donated. SAE is enclosed. LEGACIES BIRTHDAY AND ANNIVERSARY NOTICES Like the life-blood of any charitable organisation, the Notices are charged at £5.00 per entry. Association of Wrens relies heavily on subscriptions and donations to fulfil its role of celebrating past ADVERTISING RATES achievements, preserving history and traditions, Members advertisements are charged at 15p per fostering esprit-de-corps, supporting the work of the word. There is no charge for ‘Where Are You Now’ WRNS Benevolent Trust, and assisting with the relief requests or Obituaries. of necessity and distress amongst both serving and retired female members of the WRNS/WRNR and TALKING WREN RN/RNR by referring them to the appropriate Service A recorded version of The Wren magazine is available charity. free of charge to members who are registered visually The Association’s main expenditure arises from impaired. Please apply to HQ if you would like to costs in relation to the above objectives – these are receive it in this format. It is produced on a memory primarily HQ staff costs, meeting costs, and costs stick by the Portsmouth Area Talking News (PATN), associated with the production and despatch of The therefore, the appropriate equipment is required e.g. Wren magazine. a computer, laptop, or a speaker (which is available While costs are constantly monitored and controlled in from PATN costing £15 or £25). Please contact the order to minimise any annual losses to the Association, Administrator for further details. Memory sticks are it is also true that unfortunately each year subscription returned to PATN post-free by reversing the address income is decreasing and we become more reliant on label on the wallet. fundraising donations and legacies to continue our work. THE WREN MAGAZINE & AOW WEBSITE By remembering the Association in your will you can Please be aware that photographs and news ensure that it will continue to thrive and benefit those submitted for publication to The Wren magazine who follow in your footsteps in the Naval Service. will not be posted on the AOW website (www.wrens. A legacy will also mean that you can take advantage of org.uk) and the AOW Facebook page (not the ‘Wrens the tax privileges that are available to encourage such Facebook Group’) without the express permission of support, namely the reduction or even elimination of the member submitting the item. Personal information the tax payable on the balance of any estate and are i.e. addresses, e-mail addresses or telephone themselves totally exempt from inheritance tax. numbers WILL NOT BE INCLUDED in the magazine, A legacy is a specific sum of money left in your will. You on the AOW website or on the AOW Facebook page do not need to let the Association know your intentions unless members give specific instruction that they as it is understood that the business of making a will wish their personal details to be included. can be a very sensitive matter. For information a will Items offered for inclusion on the website should can be made by yourself, however, we would advise be made initially via HQ at [email protected] or that you consult a solicitor or use a will service to 02392 725141. ensure your will is valid. Please consider leaving a legacy to the Association – we do rely on and need your support.

Looking for Service Records?

MOD SERVICE RECORDS For guidance on how to apply for Service Records visit: https://www.gov.uk-get-copy-military-service- records Service Records up to 1926 - available from the National Archives: http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/help- with-your-research/research-guides/womens-royal-naval-service-records-1917-1919. (Tel: 020 8876 3444) Service Records (Ratings and Officers) from 1926 to present day contact: Disclosure Cell, Navy Command Secretariat 4, West Battery, Mail Point G2, Whale Island, Portsmouth PO2 8DX. Tel: 02392 628672/8670/8671/8667. The Wren 7 Dedication of the New National Standard and Past Presidents of the AOW are Honoured As part of the Association’s centenary celebrations and commemorations it had been decided to dedicate a new National Standard which showed our new title of ‘Association of Wrens and Women of the Royal Naval Services’. We also needed to ‘lay up’ the old National Standard which had been dedicated in 1985. An opportunity to remember our Past Presidents was required and rather than having a small number attend a ceremony at each of their graves (if we could find them all) it was decided that our own church was perhaps the more appropriate place to hold the act of commemoration. It was quite by chance that the service to ‘Dedicate our new National Standard and to Commemorate our Past Presidents’ was held on International Women’s Day but what more auspicious day could we have chosen. The date was chosen because many of us had been at the Royal Albert Hall the previous evening for the Mountbatten Festival of Music and so about 70 ladies gathered at St Mary Le Strand on a dry sunny morning for our special service. We were delighted to be joined by relatives of Dame Vera Laughton Mathews and Dame Marion Kettlewell. Our grateful thanks go to the Chaplain of the Fleet, Venerable Martyn Gough QHC, RN for conducting our service. In his address he spoke of the role of Standards and of the standards which we as Wrens had maintained. Four Branch Standards attended the service, Portsmouth, Weymouth, York and Kingston, and they preceded the National Standard to be laid up. This was presented by our National Standard Bearer, Chris Walker who asked for the Standard ‘to be committed to the church for safe keeping’. There then followed a tribute to our Past Presidents who are no longer with us. A candle for each lady was carried to the altar as a short tribute was read by our President, Mrs Alison Towler. The candle bearers were: Mrs Anthea Larken (Past President) for Dame Katharine Furse, Mr Steven Laughton Mathews (grandson) for Dame Vera Laughton Mathews, Miss Jill Stellingworth (Chairman) for Dame Jocelyn Woollcombe, Miss Jennie Kettlewell (niece) for Dame Marion Kettlewell and Mrs Jane Hardie (former Association General Secretary) for Miss Daphne Blundell. The new National Standard was then brought to the altar by the National Standard Bearer who asked that it ‘may be hallowed and made worthy. We pray you therefore to bid God’s blessing on it’. After those present had promised to honour the Standard the Chaplain of the Fleet dedicated it with the words, ‘In the faith of Jesus Christ we dedicate and set apart this Standard to be the sign of our duty towards our Queen and our country in the sight of God, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen’. This was followed by the first recital of the revised prayer of the Association of Wrens and Women of the Royal Naval Service: (see below) During the final hymn the new National Standard was paraded out of church followed by the Branch Standards and the Chaplain of the Fleet. All then gathered on the church steps for photographs. The laid up standard will eventually stand beside the WRNS Book of Remembrance, but this may take a few months as we need to get the correct Faculties (permissions) from the Diocese and a stand made. Janet Crabtree (Vice President) Almighty and most merciful God, The protector of those who go down to the sea in ships; Bless, we beseech thee, all members of the Association of Wrens. Bless also, we beseech all the women who served in the Women’s Royal Naval Service And the women who have served or are serving in the Royal Navy and Naval Services. Bind us together in loyalty and fellowship, In doubt and temptation guide and uphold us, And grant us at all times the help of thy grace. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen 8 The Wren Branch ReportS Exmouth Branch reports should consist The last year has been a mixed one for us. We lost our of no more than 120 – 130 words oldest member, Daphne Warburton (née Kenward), who served in the Education Branch 1949-53; by not including details of meeting coincidence, several of our members also served arrangements. in the education/training support branches. In July, we welcomed Jane Allen after she had crossed the River Exe at Exmouth Quay on the homeward stretch Bournemouth and District of her awesome walk. In September, instead of our usual meeting, we had a private tour of Budleigh Although our numbers fluctuate each month we Salterton’s Fairlynch Museum. We viewed a model always achieve more than expected. Joining other of The Golden Hind, made by Dame Vera Laughton Branches for lunches,coffee mornings, Carol service, Mathews. Golden Hind was the name of the first Sea AGMs, a wonderful HMS Dauntless reunion and the Ranger Company and Dame Vera was Skipper of the Royal British Legion for Annual Parades. A coach second Sea Ranger Company, known as SRS Wren. took members to the OOT meeting in Portsmouth. We meet on the second Tuesday of the month, Secretary attended the evening retirement dinner alternating between a ‘business’ meeting at the RMA/ on the “Mary Rose” for President Anthea Larken. Police Social Club and dinner at a local restaurant. Enjoyed quizzes, fundraising bring & buys, an Easter Please join us! bonnet parade, boat trip around Poole Harbour Contact: Zoe Allars [email protected] and a Xmas lunch. Talks from Senior Befriending Service, Nel Brookes a wonderful portrait artist and various members. Our highlight was our D-Day 75th Anniversary lunch attended by AOW Chairman and Vice Chairman. Helped Lyn Gannon at Bournemouth Air show. Recruited three new members and sadly said a final farewell to a founder member, Vera Weston. We have changed venue and now meet on the last Wednesday of the month at The Elstead Hotel, Knyverton Road. For full details contact Secretary Val Brigden on 01202 766664 [email protected] Cleveland

Happy New Year to you all. Better late than never! We were happy to welcome two new members to our Branch (including one QARNNS) last year who joined Fairlynch Museum us for our Christmas lunch in a local garden centre L to r Susan Lacey, Shona Morley, Sharon Wright, Zoe Allars, which everyone enjoyed. We also had a Christmas Michelle Baldwin, Sharon Seabrook dinner in a pub for those who couldn’t get to the lunch. At our first meeting of the year we had our first guest Fife speaker for years – Deb (a veteran who served in The Royal Artillery) came to talk to us about Tees Valley We had a busy autumn and winter. Socialising over Wildlife and brought lots of weird objects (skeletons, food has been a popular pastime. We went out a bits of fur etc.) for us to guess what they were. Some few times to enjoy Saturday lunches and our annual of our ladies now need transport to the meetings and Christmas lunch in a lovely venue overlooking the have asked that their appreciation of the lifts they are Forth River. Sharing food together certainly is good for given gets published. Our Branch meetings are held at making new friends and enjoying existing friendships. the Easterside Hub Middlesborough. We welcomed to our October meeting, Stuart Please contact [email protected] for further Baker, an Officer from Border Control, at Edinburgh details. Georgina Tuckett Airport. Stuart told us about his job in relation to both Immigration and Customs cases. It was eye opening, interesting, amusing and different from our usual meetings! Some of our members were honoured to participate in the Inverkeithing Remembrance Day Parade. We donated toiletries to local Women’s Aid and our Christmas charity was to donate clothing and selection boxes for the homeless. We continue to welcome new members. If you live in Fife and would like to join us contact Yvonne Thorpe, [email protected] for more information Fife Branch The Wren 9 Nottingham INFORMAL GROUPS We are a small land locked group but we meet every Cambridge and District month and recently enjoyed rd our Christmas meal at Bistrot Meetings are still held on the 3 Tuesday of each Pierre where we were able to month but the venue has changed to Coton Garden belatedly celebrate the 90th Centre, just on the outskirts of Cambridge. Parking is birthday of Pat Pollack who free! If anyone is in the area on a meeting day please served 1949 to 1955. come along and join us, we will be in the restaurant We meet the last Tuesday from 11am onwards! Details from address below. of each month at the RBL in We manned two stalls in November at a local Nottingham at 2pm. A warm Christmas Fayre, The AOW and the RNLI, we may be small in number but can spread ourselves when welcome assured. called upon! Carole Southall Plans for the East Anglian Wrens Reunion which is going ahead as planned on 16 May, to be held at The Portsmouth Gonville Hotel, Cambridge. See Summer 2019 Wren for further details or contact jenny.hannah46@gmail. com Now postponed to 10 October 2020. This year is not only exciting with the AOW centenary We would welcome more members to our group, but our Branch will be celebrating 75 years. An please contact me if you live in range of Cambridge afternoon tea (what else?!) has been organised for and would like to join us. members to get in their sea time. We leave from Margaret Staples, [email protected] Ocean Village in Southampton on board a Blue Funnel cruise ship for the afternoon where ladies will enjoy a traditional cream tea and entertainment. Saturday 8 Cardigan August, 12 noon. Portsmouth Standard is also being replaced, after over We look back on year 2019. We manage to meet 60 years of service, with a new standard which will each month at Cardigan Golf Club. Our December get represent both blue/gold Women of the Royal Naval -together was held at Everley and Malcolm Wilson’s Services, as does the new National Standard. Notice home. “Big Eats” and drinks, very much enjoyed by of the dedication to be confirmed. the members along with husbands and partners. Sadly we have seen another member cross the bar, Our January meeting was at the Golf Club, then the Molly Midworth, who will always be remembered. RIP annual post-Christmas Lunch was at the usual venue. Molly. The Golf Club was voted our favourite venue. For Our Branch continues to grow with new members many years we had our Christmas lunch at a ‘Castle joining and Branch meetings/coffee mornings being Kitchen’ which is in a nearby village called Cilgerran. well attended. Branch AGM to be held Tuesday 14 The lovely couple who ran it have retired and the April 1915 at the RMC in Portsmouth. Now cancelled. venue is closed. Jan Vanson [email protected] We still continue to fundraise and collect where and when we can. All the members very much look forward to The Wren magazine. Tyne Area Christabel Watson Our membership has increased this year with two new members, who have joined us for our monthly meeting. Inbetween meetings we have enjoyed other events, Lytham St Annes including visits to Beamish Museum and the Tyneside Cinema, and an afternoon tea in July. We attended The Winter season has been a good one for our the Annual Tribute to Admiral Lord Collingwood at the Group. As one door closed on our dear friend Dorothy Collingwood Monument on Trafalgar Day. A tot of grog Holmes another one opened and we welcomed Patty was most welcome as was the lunch afterwards in the Maguire (95). She was a WWII Wren Writer and is now Tynemouth Volunteer Life Boat Museum as the weather living in a nursing home in Cleveleys. Rosemary and was rather wet and windy. Three members made the Dee, at the request of her son Christopher, paid her a long journey to the National Memorial Arboretum for visit and were warmly welcomed. The outcome of this Remembrance Sunday. In December we held our was she came to her first meeting in December at our annual Christmas lunch and some of us also joined the Christmas lunch celebration and thoroughly enjoyed NE/NW Jenny Wrens group for a Christmas lunch in herself, it was a delight to meet her. We look forward Morpeth. We meet in Newcastle on the second Friday to seeing her at future meetings. As usual we meet on of the month from 1115 to 1330 and would welcome the 2nd Monday of the month at the Glendower Hotel. new members. For more info call Sheila Nicholson 01253 402415 Anne Hardy – Secretary [email protected] 10 The Wren Isle of Wight London Supper Club Another successful year for our Isle of Wight informal The London Supper Club was formed in January 2019 group. We continue to average 14 at our meetings. and formally adopted by the AOW shortly after. From Every second and fourth Monday of the month we our original 9 founding members we have grown to a meet for a pub lunch at a different venue. During the group of 25 and are still adding new members. We are year a group of us were invited on board HMS Queen a mixed group of former WRNS, WRNR and current Elizabeth with the local RNA, and concluded with a serving women. We have members who travel in from tour of Portsmouth harbour and a chance to raise a as far as Portsmouth and Colchester and welcome glass to celebrate. guests at our suppers and events too. We also celebrated the 90th birthday of Sue Gee (née We have enjoyed delicious food and fabulous company Down) at our Christmas party - and what a wonderful in many different venues, including a Burns supper at party it was, with 16 of us being very jolly and enjoying The Civil Service Club, free cocktails at Ping Pong, a a superb cake baked by one of our members! Our gourmet meal cooked and hosted by the students at oldest active member is Heather Brittain (née Green) Westminster College, Chinese New Year celebrations who was 95 years young in January 2020. in Chinatown and some sea time when we had supper If you are ever on the Isle of Wight and would like to on The Tattershall Castle moored on the Thames. We join us at one of our venues, please contact Claire meet for supper at 7pm on the 2nd Thursday every Barker on 07872 494396 or Jane Marshall on 01983 other month starting in January. 884164. Contact Veronica Radakin [email protected]

Isle of Wight Informal Group’s Christmas Party 2019

London Supper Club visit to MOD Main Building Rhyl in September 2019

Although numbers in group are diminishing we still Calling all members not belonging manage to attend as many events as possible. Two to a Branch or Informal Group! big events were the N.Wales Armed Forces Day at Holyhead where the Submarine Service were granted Would you like to belong to a Branch or Informal freedom of the Borough of Anglesey. A ceremony was Group but don’t have one in your local area? Would also held to mark 80 years since HMS Thetis sank. you like to be kept up to date with news from HQ RNA Llandudno celebrated 50years with a Gala Dinner and details of invitations and events both locally and on their 50th Trafalgar Sunday a slate memorial and nationally? If so please sign up to join our new was dedicated and placed in the gardens by the War virtual branch! Memorial. We also attended a Trafalgar Day lunch We have introduced this new ‘branch’ to keep more with the Chester Wrens. The Royal British Legion and members ‘in the loop’ about what’s new and what’s Blind Veterans organised D-Day events. Other events going on and who don’t currently receive this news attended were the OOT meeting at Portsmouth, through a group. If you are interested in joining Rhyl Air Show, Civic Sundays, Battle of Britain and please contact HQ with an email address which Remembrance Sunday - so quite a busy year! can be your own or that used by a friend or family We meet at the Botanical Gardens, Rhyl the first member who is happy to pass the information on to Wednesday in every month. you. Please make sure you have their permission to Contact Anne Gibson 01492 871904 pass their email address to us. Please call HQ on 02392 725141 or email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you! The Wren 11 PUBLIC RELATIONS TEAM REPORT Celia Saywell - Outreach Facilitator This was the best job title I could come up with, but as time goes on the volume of those wanting to be counted IN, has made the OUTreach almost redundant! It’s very pleasing to find that interest in the Association from those serving is increasing, and also from veterans in their late nineties whose families are looking with increased, or even initial interest, at their mothers’ service histories! By answering their queries we, in turn, have received facts and photos, some unique, which otherwise may have been consigned to the dustbin! In this issue I hope you appreciate the extract from ‘Blue Tapestry’; Director Vera Laughton Mathew’s heartfelt message which celebrates the service of those 75,000 Wrens during the period, 1939 to 1946. Now, fast forward to Outreach matters of today, AOW advertising has taken a step forward with a collection of crisp, colourful images designed by Karen Fisher, to celebrate our Centenary. We have booked for two adverts in Navy News and hope that stories and photos from local 2020 events, will be sent for us to share with them. My thanks to Barbara McGregor for doing PR duties at the NSN Conference and as always to Katharine and Lin who have been so helpful, despite the move! Vicki Taylor - Facebook Administrator The AOW Facebook page continues to draw followers with our total currently at 2,232! Thank you! Our intention is to inform you of upcoming events, news stories, anniversaries and any information we need to get out to our membership in conjunction with our website. Please feel free to message us with any queries you have but be advised you may be re-directed to the HQ office for detailed assistance as I don’t have all the answers in Devon! You may also find the answer is in your Wren magazine or on our website.

Lyn Gannon - Events and Sales Co-ordinator The events season is in preparation, the list of events that the AOW hope to attend, along with WRNS BT, is on page 3 of the magazine. The call is out for volunteers to help at these events – without you, these events cannot take place, so please have a look and volunteer if you can – a couple of hours would do, please don’t feel you have to commit to the whole day – unless you wish to!! Details of how to volunteer are also on page 3. These events are used to sell our wide range of goods but, more importantly, to talk to visitors to the stand, and to hopefully recruit new members – ASSOCIATION OF WRENS literature is always on hand to give AND WOMEN OF THE out. You would be surprised how many ROYAL NAVAL SERVICES visitors come and say that one of their relatives had been a Wren, yet didn’t know about the Association! So events are an invaluable tool to the AOW, please consider coming along to an event and helping. We welcome all those who served in the WRNS and WRNR, together with former and serving Jackie Whitmarsh - Website Manager RN and RNR female ra�ngs and officers. Celebrating the AOW Centenary, we are working towards an appropriate This acton packed CENTENARY year will be new picture and banner for the celebrated by our members and those who website. Karen Fisher is heading this would like to join us along the way! If you up so watch this space! prefer a quieter life then just sit back and enjoy There is a list of all the AOW branches our full colour magazine posted to your home, and groups on the website. Why not three �mes a year. have a look and see if there is one near JOIN you - or when you are on holiday, see NOW if there is a meeting nearby. Frequently Asked Questions Online (FAQ) - there is a large FAQ section on the site, full of Information. To date, the most frequently searched question CENTENARY 1920-2020 is “Where can I obtain WRNS Service Records?” The News section has received lots of positive feedback. Many stories are shared with the Naval Servicewomens Network, thereby helping to strengthen the ties between AOW and NSN. Lastly, the Events section is the place to go for up tp date Blue and Gold Together information on upcoming events, all over the U.K. From a www.wrens.org.uk | offi[email protected] | 02392 725141 walk up Mount Snowdon, reception at Edinburgh Castle, all Facebook: Associa�on of Wrens | Charity Reg No. 257040 the info is there! 12 The Wren

STANDARD BEARERS REPORT 2020 is to be another busy year with AOW Centenary Anniversary as well as VE Day and VJ Day. It was wonderful to take part at The Royal Albert Hall Festival of Remembrance in November 2019. The next National Standard Bearer competition has sadly been cancelled. This year six AOW Standard Bearers have been invited to take part in The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. As a Branch Standard Bearer I take part in The Birmingham Tattoo. It is a 2 day event. For the AOW Centenary our National Standard has been invited. If there is any other SB who would like to take part or if anyone would like to see it, I can get concessionary tickets. It is on Saturday evening 28th and Sunday afternoon 29th November. Let me know via HQ. You may know by now that we have a very smart new National Standard. It was dedicated at the Wrens Church, St Mary le Strand in March. The wording now reads “Association of Wrens - The Women of the Royal Naval Services.” Thank you. Chris Walker, National Standard Bearer The Wren 13

Women’s Royal Naval Service Benevolent Trust WOMEN’S ROYAL NAVAL SERVICE SEVENTY EIGHTH ANNUAL BENEVOLENT TRUST GENERAL MEETING The WRNSBT is your Trust and a registered Will be held on charity, a completely separate organisation from Tuesday 19 May 2020 the Association of Wrens, although both are now In the presence of based in Portsmouth. HRH The Princess Royal, Patron, To be a member of the Trust you must have served at in the WRNS and transferred to the RN before Collingwood Hall, HMS Collingwood November 1993, or served in the WRNS since Newgate Lane, Fareham, Hants PO14 1AS September 1939. The Trust helps both officers Guest Speaker and ratings across the world. Group Captain Kathleen Sherit RAF(rtd) The Trust exists to provide relief in cases of necessity or distress amongst its members and All serving femaleCancelled members of the Royal Navy their dependants and may also make grants for who joined before November 1993 and all former assistance with further education for members. members of the Women’s Royal Naval Service are cordially invited to attend. If you wish to apply for assistance or are The General Secretary will find it of great help if aware of a former Wren who may need our members let her know if they would like to attend help, please contact the General Secretary, by Friday 1 May as this is an invitation only event WRNSBT, Castaway House, 311 Twyford due to security requirements. Avenue, Portsmouth PO2 8RN Email: [email protected] Tel: 02392 655301 Tel: 02392 655301 email: [email protected] website: www.wrnsbt.org.uk

The Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society

Providing the highest standards of residential, nursing, dementia and respite care, including sheltered housing for independent living, for former seafarers and their dependents. Set in a 14 acre estate, our Surrey based care home provides like-minded companionship and support for seafarers and a safe haven for those in old age.

IF YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO NEEDS OUR HELP, PLEASE CONTACT US T- 01737 360 106 E- [email protected] www.royalalfredseafarers.com Reference code: WRENS The Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society - Registered as a Charity No. 209776

The Wren 15 Events Wrens Out Walking Event 23 May 2020 - Start 1000 – Dover Castle Finish 1530ish – Deal RMA DISTANCE - 10 miles (16 km) linear walk. 3-4 hours walking time. TERRAIN - Mostly downhill, but with climbs out of Dover and St Margaret’s Bay. Uneven terrain so make sure to wear appropriate footwear. TRANSPORT - Parking available at Dover Castle if visiting, and public parking in Dover and Deal. A railway line connects the two towns. FOOD & DRINK - Various pubs and cafes in St Margaret’s Bay. Small seasonal cafes along the route. Toilets available at the three castles during opening hours. ACCESS & DOGS - Unsuitable for wheelchairs unless specialised for off-road terrain. Great for dogs but take care on cliffs and follow any signposted rules.

We are aiming to visit a couple of sites where Wrens have previously worked. We are starting at Dover Castle at 10am, with a photo op outside the tunnels where Wrens worked during WWII. Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, Admiral of the Fleet Michael Boyce, KG, GCB, OBE, KStJ, DL, is scheduled to meet us at Dover Castle to see us off. The Cinque Ports is where the origins of the modern Navy began, in 1155 a Royal Charter established the ports to maintain ships ready for The Crown in case ofEvent need. Postponed After leaving Dover Castle we will be walking above the White cliffs via St Margaret’s Bay, Walmer Castle, where Admiral Boyce hopes to meet us again, and finishing at Walmer Bandstand on the green by Deal RMA. On the way we will visit the Dover Patrol Memorial which stands in memory of the Dover Patrol of 1914-19 and subsequent lives lost in the Second World War which is the half way point of our walk. Deal, of course, is where many Wrens worked with the Royal Marines Band. Deal Association and Deal RMA are planning a reception for us at the RMA on completion. York Branch Centenary Celebrations The Annual National Service for for the Association of Wrens and Seafarers - St Paul’s Cathedral Women of the Royal Naval Services Wednesday 14 October 2020 This Service is an opportunity to commemorate Friday 11 and Saturday 12 September 2020 and celebrate all seafarers from across the maritime profession, this includes the Royal York Branch invites you to celebrate the th Navy and WRNS together with representatives Association’s 100 Anniversary with them. of all sectors of the seafaring community. They have arranged a special celebratory weekend For several years some members of the AOW staying at The Tower Hilton Hotel in the centre of York. attended this Service by way of acquiring tickets via other charities, and thus these attendees Friday evening meet and greet social evening with a were scattered in differing sections throughout fork buffet supper 1900 for 1930. the Cathedral. Welcome drink on arrival - £20 per person. Last year (2019) in order for the AOW to be noticed and not be ‘lost’ within the congregation Saturday Service in York Minster at 1300. those wishing to attend the Service applied for Standards welcome. their tickets through the AOW office and thus Time to explore York following the Service before we,were well represented by a large group of dinner and cabaret - £28 per person. AOW members sitting together. It would be good to go down this route again this year especially Accommodation as it is our Centenary Year and our National Friday Twin occupancy B&B £150 Standard Bearer, parading our new Standard, Single occupancy B&B £140 will have two escort AOW Standards with her - Saturday Twin occupancy B&B £185 so the AOW will be well recognised. Please play Single occupancy B&B £175 your part in keeping the AOW ‘flag’ flying! 2 nights B&B including supper and dinner £215.50 Application for tickets should be made to the per person based on twin room occupancy AOW Office (with a sae) by 26 July at the latest. Thank you. Chairman AOW To book rooms https://secure3.hilton.com/en Stenographer Reunion To All East Anglian Wrens A number of enquiries have been made by ladies for The Cambridge Informal Group will be holding a Lunch at a second reunion following the success of last year’s. the Gonville Hotel, Gonville Place, Cambridge on Saturday I am looking to organise this in 2021. This year is a 16 May 2020, to celebrate 100 years of the Association of busy one with so many events planned by the AOW Wrens. for the centenary. A notice will be placed in The Wren Anyone interested in attending please contact Jenny when a date has been decided. In the meantime I am Hannah either by email: [email protected] or by happy to hear from fellow ‘Stens’ on any ideas for next phone 01954 214488. year on dates. [email protected] This event has been postponed to 10 October 2020 16 The Wren Remembrance 2019

Cardigan Informal Group - Remembrance Sunday 2019. The lady sat at the front of the group is our eldest member Mrs Myris Thomas proudly wearing her medal. She is accompanied by other group members.

Field of Remembrance Westminster Abbey 7 November 2019.

Yeovil and District Branch at Sherborne Abbey on Remembrance Day 2019

Esther May Robinson, aged 90, Royal Marine Wren Writer (Pay) served HMS Ceres and PRORM Chatham Kent 1946- 49 marching down the Prom at Morecombe November 2019.

‘Friends Remembering’ Remembrance 2019 at Cenotaph The Wren 17 PEOPLE AND PLACES Our Day with the Flying Tigers In October last year Gill Chapman, aka Dockyard Gill, published her bucket list on the Wrens Facebook site. Gill had had breast cancer in 2015 and sadly had just been told that the cancer had returned in her knee. Gill felt that she wanted to do everything possible that she could in between receiving treatment for this new fight. One of those things was a visit to a Naval Air Station to take a look around a helicopter. I live in Cornwall and have a friend, Teri Hughes, who is the Leading Writer on 814 Naval Air Squadron at RNAS Culdrose. With her help and that of the PRO of the base I was put in touch with their senior pilot Lt Cdr Simon Stevenson. He kindly arranged a day in March this year that Gill could visit. I was invited too. The day came and we were greeted warmly by the Squadron. After coffee, provided by them, and cake provided by me, we were shown around and introduced to some of the aircrew and ground staff. It was great to meet Chief Aircrew Shona Smith and also see that their CO is female too, Cdr Sarah Birkett, sadly away that day so we were unable to meet her. We were treated to a ‘baggy’ lunch then Gill was reunited with Kim Dooley who she served with at Culdrose pay office in the mid 1980s. Kim is now a civvy and l to r Frances Townsend and Gill Chapman the Staff Officer. Next we were able to climb up into a Merlin helicopter and have a good look around and have an explanation of its role in the Royal Navy. A great experience. The day ended with a presentation to Gill of a signed print of a Merlin helicopter. Frances Townsend l to r Gill Chapman and Lt Robert Harris Deal Informal Group Turning the Page Ceremony In Deal our informal group goes from strength to strength. We were made aware that the local British Legion Branch was struggling to fill the monthly rota for the page turning ceremony at our local Deal Memorial Hospital, due to lack of numbers. We had a discussion on our Facebook page as to whether the ladies living locally would be able to fulfil this commitment twice a year. It was agreed that we could and individuals in the group would take it in turns to do the page turning and reading, with two to four others as support. In October we went along to watch the RMA Branch (and standard) fulfil their commitment and for us to be briefed. On Monday 4 November, four of us assembled in the hospital foyer at 1050, two members of the British Legion came along to support us. Anita Walton turned the page and then at 1100 started to read the entries of Deal servicemen who had given their lives, listing their name, rank, which service and more poignantly their age, along with their Deal address. This was followed by the Exhortation and the Kohima Epitaph. People passing the foyer stopped to listen, the lady at the reception desk stood to attention and afterwards we all agreed that it had been a very moving ceremony and that it was a privilege to be involved. Anita Walton

l to r: Anita Walton, Jayne Gollop, Joan Shankland, Elaine Harwood-Herridge 18 The Wren Burns Night Supper Fleetwood Sea Cadet Reunion

l to r Pauline Fenwick, Lesley Iannarelli, Grace Purdie, Diane l to r front row: Maggie Morgan (Bradshaw); Angie Scholes Schumacher Lambert, Natalie Cutler, Carrie Anderson (Best Purser); Jean Bradshaw; Sheila Morris (Fairbrother); and Amanda Cleghorn Susan Swan. back row :Georgina Parkin (Kennedy); Ellen Bater (Pilkinton); Pat Butler (Haggerty); On the 25 January this year some members from and Terry Taylor (Honorary member for the night) the Edinburgh Branch of the AOW decided to have a Burns Supper in celebration of the life and poetry On Friday 31 January 2020 there was a reunion of of the poet Robert Burns. The event was hosted very Fleetwood Sea Cadets from the 60s and 70s. The graciously by Grace Purdie in her cosy Scandinavian reunion was at the Fleetwood Cricket club and was style cottage aptly named The Wrennery. We ate attended by approximately 100 ex cadets and guests. Haggis Cottage Pie followed by Cranachan, a traditional Many Fleetwood cadets eventually went on to join the Scottish dessert made from oatmeal, raspberries, cream Armed Services, among them some of the ex GNTC’s and whisky. A great night was had by all and of course we from the Fleetwood Unit. all wore our Wrens Tartan Scarves. The ladies in the picture all joined the WRNS and have Natalie Cutler kept in touch over the years and remained friends for all that time. 1966’ers 2019 Reunion Friday 9 August 2019 saw another gathering of ladies who joined the WRNS in 1966 for an evening of good food, even better company, a few drinks and lots of chat and laughter at the Royal Maritime Club in Portsmouth. This year we were also joined by OTC187 who were marking 50 years since their time at Greenwich, (some of whom are regulars to our dinners). Saturday afternoon, a good gathering of us made our way to the Guildhall for the Summer Concert and Beating Retreat from the Royal Marines School of Music. What a fabulous way to spend an afternoon. The perfect ‘icing on the cake’ for our weekend. We are pleased to say that the grand sum of £240 was raised and donated to Commander Jane Allen’s Victory Walk fundraiser. What started as a one-off, to celebrate our 50th Anniversary of joining the WRNS, has now turned into an annual event! We are always looking for more of you ladies who joined in the magical year of 1966 to come and join us. If you are on Facebook, we can be found in ‘I joined in the Wrens in 1966 did you …’ or please contact either myself or Max Higgins as detailed below. We have now booked this year’s event, again to be held at the Royal Maritime Club in Portsmouth, so keep Friday 7 August free in your diaries. We have also had confirmation from the Royal Marines School of Music that their concert will be on Saturday 8 August 2020. Renewing friendships and making new ones and even more memories! Barbara Cotton (née Binks) [email protected] Maxine Higgins (née Parrish) [email protected] Joining the AOW I was chatting to a former RN Cdr the other day and she admitted she hadn’t joined the AOW as she thought it involved joining a Branch. I promptly gave her one of the little cards we were all given with our magazine a few issues ago and said I had been a member for 10 years before joining a Branch! Now while we would love anyone who joins to also join a Branch, from my own experience I know that it is not always the best thing to do on leaving the service. What I didn’t get time to explain as the conversation was pretty fast moving was the reason I didn’t join a branch for so long – I left on pregnancy (as we had to do in those unenlightened days!), my husband was a submariner so never there to take his turn looking after the baby (then later the 3 children), plus before I even left the WRNS I had applied to join the WRNR and felt I didn’t have time for anything else. I knew about the AOW from when I was an OD Wren and heard more about it from a Chairman of Plymouth Branch when I was about to leave the WRNS as she wanted me to join them, because they needed another driver to take WWI Wrens (yes it was that long ago) to meetings. I did join the AOW on leaving the service and I knew that I would want to join a branch later but not then! Georgina Tuckett The Wren 19

The London Supper Club meets Essex Jennies In a London Supper Club ‘Extra Portions’ event we met up with the Essex Jennies recently for an exclusive tour of Trinity House followed by an early Supper at Brasserie Blanc on Tower Hill. The safety of shipping and the well- being of seafarers have been the prime concerns of Trinity House ever since they were granted a Royal Charter by Henry VIII in 1514. They are the General Lighthouse Authority for England, Wales, The Channel Islands and Gibraltar and a Deep-Sea Pilotage authority providing expert navigators for ships trading in European waters. Since 1796 Trinity House has been based at its central London headquarters at Tower Hill, alongside the River Thames. Rebuilt after the Second World War, its beautifully-appointed rooms have hosted royalty, mariners, prime ministers, scientists and visitors from all over the world and houses many fine paintings, models and treasures. After our tour, which finished with tea and biscuits, we headed across the Square to Brasserie Blanc where we all got to know each other a little better over supper. There are definitely more ‘Extra Portions’ events in the planning alongside our usual supper club meets every two months and hopefully more ‘Mash Ups’ with the Essex Jennies. Veronica Radakin

HMS Dauntless Presentation Members of Cleveland and Manchester Branches at Fountains Hall - 6 October 2019 Members of Cleveland and Manchester Branches made their annual visit last October to lay a wreath at the memorial to Wren Vyner and her brother S/Lt Vyner at Fountains Hall near Ripon. The ceremony has to be brief because of the position of the memorial at the top of a flight of stone stairs which means we block the access for other visitors to the Hall but we got together afterwards for ‘stand easy’ in the Visitor Centre of Fountains Abbey. Georgina Tuckett

On 22 October 2019 a group of members visited HMS Dauntless and presented them with Uckers Boards (1 x Wardroom - 2 x Senior Rates and 2 x Junior Rates plus a framed silhouette picture for the female Junior rates accommodation. Jill Stellingworth Phot: Lt Cdr Steve Lovatt RN - WEO HMS Dauntless 20 The Wren Friends after 69 Years 63 years of Friendship Prompted by Rosemary Southern’s very interesting article and photograph in the Spring 2019 edition of The Wren, Vera Smith (née Peppin) and June Willmott (née Bond) are still friends after 69 years. They initially met at HMS Raleigh in Torpoint and subsequently served together in Malta. Vera served for 13 years in the Victualling branch and then changed to the Welfare branch in which she served 14 years – a grand total of 27 years! June was a Shorthand Writer and changed to General on promotion to Petty Officer serving a total of 12 years. They kept in touch over the years spending several periods of leave together in Italy, Sicily, Paris and Scotland. They have attended many reunions over the years since leaving the WRNS, and now in their late 80s talk on the telephone on a regular basis. Vera now lives in Gloucester This picture of Enid Laverty, (formerly Stelfox) and me Phyl (her home town) but June lives in the Orkney Holmes (formerly Holgate), was taken on holiday. We met at Islands, which makes get-togethers a little more HMS Ceres whilst on Part II training and were drafted to HMS difficult. Their last time was in October 2019in Daedalus, Lee on Solent, 63 years ago and have remained Gloucestershire, whilst June was south visiting great friends ever since. family and friends. Long may our friendship continue! June Willmott ‘WRNR - Oppos for ever!’ My story starts with my (at the time) boyfriend being told he couldn’t join the RN by his mother! We then saw the advert for the RNR, and he signed up without telling his mum, When the Unit decided to enlist Wrens, I joined the WRNR, but didn’t tell anyone we were an item. Fast forward Richard defied his parent and went full-time RN at 25 years old. A ready-made “Sea- Daddy”! He earned his nick-name, plus awards for his shooting, and giving advice. We married on his return from the Falklands conflict, Richard having arrived there as ceasefire was declared. I left the Unit, and had children. I still count those first two intakes of Wrens into the WRNVR as my lifelong friends, some more than others. A few have moved away, through joining up themselves, and a few I’ve not seen for 30+ years. My CPO, Barbara Garnham and I have always been such good friends; I am her ‘twins’ Godmother and looked after them when she Barbara Garnham and Bernice (Bernie) Morgan went back to work. Since she fell and broke her neck I see her every week at her nursing home. In fact the ladies of the Swansea Branch of AOW have been to visit as well. Barbara was very supportive of me when my lovely husband decided that his health problems were too much and sadly took his life. My wonderful friends, Wrens and others, all steadied me for which I’ll be forever grateful. It was only after this event, after attending a Trafalgar Night dinner that I heard about the AOW and joined both nationally, and the Swansea Branch; a small group but perfectly formed! This had made me look at life differently. I realised just how much the RN was a part of our lives, even though Richard was only in for 5 years full time, and how much I missed the ‘RN family’. Then over two years ago, I heard of the Armed Forces Veterans Breakfast Club through our ladies being approached when selling Poppies for the RBL. I went along for one breakfast and was hooked on the banter! I’m now privileged to be in charge of the Admin for them, herding the three Forces in some sort of direction to meet twice a month. It’s certainly challenging but yet another wonderful set of friends. I knew the AFVBC was important to some, but didn’t realise just how much until I was asked to meet up for coffee. Some of them are finding it difficult to cope and need to talk to someone. I have the time, thanks to being retired now and I have a listening ear, a closed mouth and a waterproof shoulder. I may not be qualified, I can only go by mine and my husband’s experiences, but SO far, it has helped. If I need help I know I have back-up, professional help, and I know where to look for it. We have other members of Swansea AOW and AFVBC like my friend Natalie who is with The Poppy Factory, helping ex-Services back to work. Another couple volunteer for SSAFA, we are lucky to have many links growing within Swansea. Bernie is a tireless supporter of all things naval in Swansea! And amazingly has the time and patience to look after her two grandchildren so that their parents can work and go to college. CS The Wren 21 Families in Blue Suits Joan Paton and Niece Susan Lacey Beryl Hayter and Daughter Carol Gibbon

My mother Beryl Hayter (née Osment) joined the WRNS at the start of WW2 as a Wren Writer. She went to Greenwich for her officer training in 1941 and on Joan Paton (Susan’s mother’s Susan Lacey served from completion was sent to Gibraltar in her role as Cypher sister) served as a Steward 1979-89, as an Education Officer. She was based in the Communication Centre from 1939 to 1948, ending up Assistant, before being under the Rock where ironically I worked from March 1969 as a Chief Wren Steward. She commissioned as a WRNS until August 1970 when I was drafted to HMS Rooke. She spent a lot of time at RNAS Officer in 1981. Serving 10 lived in the WRNS Officers accommodation in the old Machrihanish (where she met appointments in 10 years. Royal Naval Hospital situated halfway up the Rock. She her husband, Max West), who left the service as by that time she was married at the end was an air engineering officer. of the war. She loved her time in the WRNS and was the influence behind my decision to join in 1967.

Sybil Johnstone-Wilson Georgina Scott 2/O WRNS (now Tuckett) Cdr Caroline Tuckett RN L/Wren AE served WWII served 1972 - 1980 in WRNS Still serving mother of .... and 1981 - 1990 in WRNR mother of ....

Hilda Willcox née Bennett and daughter Rita Hoddinott née Willcox

Like mother, like daughter, both joined as FAA Wrens and both married FAA pilots! Hilda Bennett joined the WRNS in Balloch, on the shores of Loch Lomond, in 1943 as a Wren Air Mechanic (L). Drafted to RNAS Yeovilton where on VE day she met Sub Lt John ‘Cobber’ Willcox they were married in 1946 shortly after Hilda had been demobbed. John served as a FAA pilot until 1960. Daughter Rita Willcox joined the WRNS as a Range Assessor in 1966, was commissioned in 1968 and retired as a 1/O WRNS in 1984 having married her FAA pilot Lt Cdr Graham ‘Hoddi’ Hoddinott in 1983. 22 The Wren

Kitty Marshall and daughter Jane Marshall Janette Crisp and daughter Lt Helen Crisp

Kitty Marshall was a Jane Marshall was a Petty Officer Wren Writer P.O. Wren Radar Plotter (Shorthand) and served and served from 1963 to from 1939 to 1944. 1969

Sisters Bernice and Janet Thomas

Janette Crisp with her daughter Lt Helen Crisp OOW3 (Officer of the Watch) onboard HMS Prince of Wales for the Commissioning Ceremony 10 December 2019.

Niki Stewart and Margaret Ellis

Bernice Basher Janet Hilton (née Thomas) (née Thomas) 1949 - 1953 1962 - 1970

Dorothy Joan Gumbrell and daughter Pam Todkill

Margaret Ellis, joined the WRNS, aged 18, in October 1959 as a Writer (S). She spent most of her 3 years in Malta where she met and married my dad who was serving with the RAF Police. She left on marriage as a Leading Wren.

Wren Cook Dorothy Joan Pam (Jo) Todkill Daughter Niki Stewart (née Smith) joined the WRNS Gumbrell (known as Joan) née Crowe in 1983, aged 19, and left in 1996 as a PO Wren (R). c 1945 - Pam’s mother Served at Northwood, Portland, had two years in Halifax, Nova Scotia working with the Canadian Navy, Other members of Pam’s family: then Dryad (where she met and married her husband) Ivy (Titch) Gumbrell – one of Joan’s sisters and Nelson. Leading Wren Diana (Trixie) Crowe, Pam’s Aunt Elizabeth (Betty) Crowe – Pam’s Aunt

The Wren 23

Carole Southall (née Fisher) L/Wren Wtr(S) Three sets of Sisters and Goddaughter Andrea Ford Three sets of sisters who served together over the years, I joined in 1968 as a Writer (S) thought you might like this photo taken at the Dauntless till 1973 and in 1976 my friend reunion at Hayling Island AB Mike “Florrie” Ford’s first daughter, Andrea, was born and I became her godmother. In 1981 Mike reciprocated and became godfather to my son. With a submariner dad and an ex Wren godmother, what else could Andrea do but join the Navy and in 1997 I attended her passing out parade at HMS Raleigh where her Division formed the guard of honour. Andrea left in 2004.

Patricia Douglas and daughter Shelia Margaret Douglas Mother Patricia Douglas (née Ridley- Maiden names l to r, Joyce and Lynda Duckworth, Thompson) 2/O WRNS. Writer Georgie and Patsy Blackey and Margaret and Valerie and Sports Officer. Served Howes. 1945-51. Died 30 November Joyce Courtney was a Cine Op, June 1960 - June 1970, 2012 aged 89. served at Excellent, Culdrose, Raleigh and Cochrane, her Other family connections: sister Lynda Debenham was a Switchboard Operator Godmother Sheila Helen May 1968 - April 1969, served at Culdrose and Yeovil. Broster OBE, Chief Officer WRNS - died 10 February Georgie Peters was a Switchboard Operator, 1999 age 92. April 1968 - April 1970, served at Culdrose and Aunt Jacqueline Ridley- Fort Southwick, her Sister Patsy Ellerker was a Thompson (née Peake) Switchboard Operator June 1964 to March 1966, served Bletchley Park 1942-45 - died at Culdrose and Fort Southwick. 3 October 2015 aged 90. Aunt Pamela Elspeth Muirhead Margaret Yates was a Writer (G), November 1960 - November 1966, served at Pembroke, Victory, (née Ridley-Thompson) 2/O Collingwood, Dadedalus and St Angelo. Her Sister WRNS. Served 1949-57. Died Valerie Brigden was a Stores Accountant November 2 October 2016 aged 88. 1963 - May 1968, served at Pembroke, Culdrose, Treasurer Norwich Branch Arbroath and Brawdy. Daughter Sheila Margaret Douglas, Lynda and George not only served together in the WRNS Leading Naval Nurse but also both worked together for many years for MOD QARNNS. Served 1980-88 1st at Portland, Patsy had been looking for Val for almost 50 QARNNS to transfer: LWREG. years when they met up again at Hayling Island. Served 1988-94. Joyce Hill and daughter Karen Burgess

Joyce Hill née Proctor 1954 Karen Burgess née Hill 1978 HMS Mercury (top row last right) (top row second left) 24 The Wren Anne O’Rourke (née Markham) and daughter Maree O’Rourke I have HMS Relentless on my birth certificate in the space for fathers address. The Royal Navy is such a big part of my life from dad, brother, husband, brother in law, son, daughter and myself all having served or are still serving. I went to HMS Dauntless Sept 1969, in Victory 234. Unfortunately my parents were still in Hong Kong and I had no family members at my passing out parade, so made sure I attended my sons and daughters. POMA Maree O’Rourke 30057752 – Joined 14/09/2008​ In 2005 I turned 30. I thought I would be too old but going on to the Royal Navy internet page I was found out the age limit was 36. ​ Having passed the entry exam and medical it was 2 years until my joining date. There I was 1 week before my 33rd birthday when I walked through the gates of HMS Raleigh. Being the oldest did not hold me back and I became a mother figure for some of the younger class. Joining the Royal Navy has been the best decision I have made. It proves that you are never too old (age limit now is 39 years and 364 days old)! ​

Nancy Smith and daughter Alex Gratrix (née Rowland)

My mother Nancy Smith joined the WRNS on 28 April 1959, following in the footsteps of her older sister Jean, who had joined as a Writer I knew Mum had been in the WRNS, but it wasn’t until I came home from school in 1985 saying that I’d got an interview for a Youth Training Scheme to be a DSA at the school dentist that I found out she had been there and done it all, well before me!

I joined in August 1987 as a Wren DSA and unlike most of my classmates, I had already been a DSA outside and had taken my National Certificate and passed. I got myself a place at Uni and left in October 93, just before the official disbandment of the WRNS. Alex Gratrix (née Rowland)

Looking to the Future - Mothers and Daughters HMS Westminster Families Day l-r PO Wtr Rhian Killpartick and daughter Seren LWtr Heather Peprell and daughter Isabel The Wren 25 Recollections of My Work in World War II Kitty N. Greenland (née Dorken) When war was declared in 1939 I was only 13 years I moved Quarters to Highgate Hill in London - we were 9 months old - so I continued at school for one more in a small row of cottages which had been taken over year (leaving age then was 14 years old). In June 1940 by the Navy. Each morning we walked up the Hill to I obtained an R.S.A. School Certificate and hoped to Channings School - a large old building - all stone stay on to get further qualifications. However, many stairs and concrete - where we spent long hours in of our specialised teaching staff were called into the the classroom learning about how the Navy is fed - Forces by then and their replacements were not able how to store food - how to calculate entitlements to teach at the level required so the Headmaster said - some of which l can still remember. Our instructor that the whole group of us must leave school - and that was a CPO and he was an excellent teacher - very he would find employment for us all. I went to work at strict but humorous too. At the end of 4 weeks we sat Allen and Hanburys (Allenburys) in the accounts dept. examinations and I managed a 75% pass – which They were a famous baby food manufacturer and meant I would go forward for promotion to Leading manufacturing chemists, they were also, at that time Wren after working for one year and proving my handling milk supplies for the Milk Marketing Board. competence. After 3 years I was not really content in this job and From Highgate I went with others to Rochester to the was coming up to 18 years. My ambition for a time “Holding Depot” in the King’s School. This was in late had been to join the WRNS and at 17½ in 1943 I May 1944 and we were not aware that D-Day was volunteered. However, A & H were on essential work imminent. On 6th June we were told that we were to and I was therefore in a “Reserved occupation” and go to Dover next day - “D-Day plus 1”. my Office Manager would not release me. Eventually We were put on a train at Chatham and arrived at he relented when he saw I was no longer happy in Dover Priory Station during a shelling raid. This was the job. He signed the form and I continued with my new to us but we soon learned it was a major factor application. It was not easy to get into the WRNS at of life in Dover in those days. We had experienced that time but I had always been in Guiding and at that air raids in London but it hadn’t interfered with our time was running a Guide Company and a group of work a great deal. We spent our first hours in Dover Rangers and was taking part in various aspects of in a shelter under the station. Later we were taken by ‘war work” - Red Cross, Fire Service and Hospital lorry to the Boys County School (BCS - now Dover Volunteer. This helped me to be accepted quite quickly Grammar School for Boys) where over 300 Wrens were Quartered. The building was so crowded that the Gym and after a Medical I had my “call up papers” to report had been turned into a Cabin for 52 Wrens - sleeping to Mill Hill training establishment on 5th April 1944. in double-decker bunks with a chest of drawers at the The building at Mill Hill was huge and housed hundreds foot of each bunk and a chair each. We slept there of trainee Wrens - it was part of HMS Pembroke - as for many months - eventually moving upstairs to the London land bases were known. It was run like a converted classrooms as numbers decreased. ship, as are all Naval land bases, we slept in cabins, Work for my friend and me was to be in HMS ate in the Mess, cooked in the Galley, had “Divisions” Lynx(Dover shore base) Victualling Office which was each day and worked to the 24 hour clock and ship’s in Champagne Caves - situated on the side of Limekiln bells. I suppose it was like a huge girls boarding school Street almost opposite the Viaduct. The caves were - we had classes and lectures, did some domestic jobs pretty grim - damp and smelly - raised flooring had and had various interviews. I remember queuing for been laid and small offices made with partitioning. everything in alphabetical order, for injections, being Basic furniture and bare electric bulbs for lighting - measured for uniform etc., so one made friends with shafts for ventilation but no natural light. Our office those next to you in the queue - and I still have those was a narrow room and in it worked 10 people - 5 friends today. We had a lot to learn about the Navy and Naval personnel and 5 Wrens. There was just room for every hour was filled. The only time we went outside 5 each side elbow to elbow. We worked in pairs and was to learn how to march and practise Squad Drill - I was with a Naval Supply Rating from Newcastle - it hours spent at that. We were known as Probationer took me a long time to understand his accent! Wrens and wore a simple navy blue overall. A fleet of small ships working in the Channel After 3 weeks we were kitted out with our uniforms were “tendered” to HMS Lynx - that is they were - Navy blue suits and sailor hat, a greatcoat and administrated from there - called in for supplies of raincoat white shirts and collars, black tie, black wool food, fuel etc. They had small crews - 16 to 24 men stockings, black shoes and navy blue knickers known mostly - they were mine-layers, mine-sweepers and as “blackouts” which had long legs with elastic - very motor torpedo boats. unpopular! The rest of our clothing we had to provide Each ship had a Coxswain who kept the books and and we had a small weekly allowance for this – I do not dealt with ordering food etc. These men were the remember how much but our weekly pay was 12s 8d ones who came ashore and into the office. We each which we queued for every 2 weeks at “Pay Parade”. had a group of ships to look after (they were known After 3 weeks we had a “passing out Parade” and left by initials - eg MTB 630) and we checked all their for the next stage of our training. books, calculated their rations and authorised their I had been told I would be in the “supply “category and applications to collect food. As a man joined a ship he in the Victualling department - that is dealing with food was “Victualled in” and it was our duty to know exactly supplies for the Navy. The training school for this was how many men were aboard and who they were. The at Highgate and so, with around 30 others, paperwork was quite excessive - but important. 26 The Wren Our hours of more life there than in the office also there was no work were shortage of a snack during “stand-easy’’. I must admit 0830 - 1730 to putting on weight at that time! with an hour As Dover became a safer place to live, the schools for lunch. We started to return and the Wrens were moved to the Lord were taken by Warden Hotel in the dock area - a very large former “RN Transport” Railway Hotel (now Southern House) I was lucky to be (covered lorries) in a large room with 9 others on the first floor - obviously each day - we for 1st class travellers. It still meant bunks and bare sat on benches boards for us, but we had a wash basin in our room and or on the floor a bathroom opposite - luxury after the ablution block at of the lorry the school. Downstairs we had a large recreation room and banged where we could spend our evenings and listen to the our feet on the radio, read or follow our hobbies. We no longer had floor as starting to use transport for work as we could walk the short and stopping distance between the hotel and the dock. signals to the The war ended in May 1945 and gradually the small driver. It was ships left Dover. Our numbers decreased and we were very basic and moved again to Victoria Park below the Castle. A row uncomfortable, of Victorian houses where numbers 9 - 12 had been but we enjoyed it converted for our use. The Navy moved in to the Lord most of the time. Warden Hotel and I went to work in the Victualling We worked 6½ Office there. days a week and The work in this office was very different from my our half day was previous departments. The men living in the hotel (now usually spent in known as HMS Lynx) were catered for in a “General Wren Kitty N Dorken in 1946 Quarters doing Mess” - which meant they were all victualled aboard and our washing and we had our own food store and galley. There were two small tasks and perhaps writing letters home. These of us working together and we had to work out weekly had to go through the Mail Office for censorship menus (taking ration quantities into consideration) and as Dover was in a restricted area at that time. We see that the food required each day was issued to the were not allowed to venture far, nor did we get any Galley at the right time. One important job was the daily home leave until the emergency period was over. If issue of rum - a ceremony known as “Up Spirits” at we needed to visit one of our ships berthed at the 1100. Each rating over 18 years of age was allowed piers, we were allowed to ride bicycles along the sea 1/8 pint, known as a ‘tot’, each day. Those who were front - it was closed to local people and only Service non-drinkers and didn’t take their rum were allowed 2d personnel on duty were allowed along there. a day in lieu. My first job each morning was to calculate In late summer 1944 there was almost continuous the number of men in each mess and work out their shelling from the big guns across the Channel and total allowance for the day. We had a tub and a set we spent longer hours in our cave offices. We Wrens of lovely copper measures and an Officer attended for were not allowed out in the streets during a raid so strict supervision of the whole procedure. An orderly provisions were brought to us - tinned meat, tinned from each mess attended and brought a receptacle fruit, tea and coffee so we were OK. If we were at to collect his rum. I called out the amounts and they BCS during a warning, we went to shelters in the were carefully measured and handed over. Incidentally bank behind the school (they are still there) and slept before distribution 2 parts of water were added to in double-decker bunks with our greatcoats on and the tub to dilute the contents. Any liquid left after the 1 blanket - with tin hat and gas-mask beside us. The distribution was tipped down the nearest drain. We had shelling ended when the big guns were captured from a rum store which was always locked, and we had to the Germans in September 1944. We then moved count the gallon jars each day and organise further out of the offices in the caves to Northumberland supplies - delivery of which was closely supervised. House near Granville dock. Conditions were much HMS Lynx was slowly run down during 1946 and in better there, and we had large offices and worked September there were so few people needed that in daylight. most of us Wrens were demobilised and returned to In 1945 I was transferred to work in the food store civilian life. In our case it was with much regret as we in Granville dock - this was where the sailors came had enjoyed the life and the work, been well fed and with their authorisation to collect food supplies. We housed and had made many friends. It had been an checked their papers and calculated (with Ready experience we would never forget. I now belong to our Reckoner!) the cost of the food. I still remember a few local branch of the Association of Wrens and we enjoy prices - potatoes were three farthings a pound, flour talking of our days in the Service - although it is now 50 one penny and three farthings a pound, butter 9d a years ago - the comradeship is still there, and we enjoy lb. and sugar 4d. No actual cash was handled - just sharing fun and friendship together. recorded to see they spent within their allowance. This was written in 1993 and another 19 years had We had a very basic store - tea in chests and sugar, passed when I re-discovered it recently - I am still flour and pulses in sacks, incidentally all sugar in touch with the two best friends I made - Betty in was Demerara as it fares best in damp conditions. Sheffield and Alice in South Australia. We did not deal with fresh food - meat, bread and vegetables as the NAAFI Store next to us handled Kitty N. Greenland. 1 May 2012 those. I really enjoyed working in the store and saw The Wren 27 My Memories of VE Day - 8 May 1945 Peggie Carmichael (Wren Air Mechanic Peggie Morris 1943 - 46) In 1945, I was a Wren Air Mechanic, serving at the Royal Naval Air Station, HMS Merlin at Donibristle, on the Firth of Forth in Fife, Scotland. We Wrens were billeted in Fordell House, a grand residence in its own grounds, about two miles from the main camp. The day started like any other, with we mechanics wearing our work outfits of bell bottoms and white matelot tops. We all trooped in for breakfast, chattering excitedly about the end of the war in Europe. Suddenly the loud booming voice of our Camp Commander came over the tannoy announcing that we had all been given the day off to celebrate. This was closely followed by a rather stern warning that Wrens would be required to observe the usual 10pm curfew! Camp transport would be available to Inverkeithing station, for those wishing to go into Edinburgh. Breakfast was no longer important as we dashed back to our cabins to change into our regular uniform of navy blue skirts and jackets, with white shirts and black ties. Living at Fordell House meant that we either walked to camp or hitched a lift on the little steam engine which ran round the grounds to the quarry. Arriving at the station we all piled onto the next train to Edinburgh, not caring if we were seated or standing. At Waverley station we ran up the steps making our way to our favourite NAAFI canteen in the grounds of Edinburgh Castle. En route we stopped to watch the soldiers of the Highland regiment marching along Princes Street, with kilts swinging, to the swirl of the bagpipes and the beat of the drums, to change the guard at the castle. The canteen was full to bursting point, but everyone waited their turn, chatting happily until reaching the counter, where we were served with our usual favourite meal of sausage, beans, scrambled dried egg and chips, followed by jam roly poly and custard. Happily replete, our small group made their way back to Princes Street where all the pubs were open and doing a roaring trade! The law in Scotland forbade women to enter a pub (even on VE Day) so we were dependant on the lads bringing us bottles of Babycham outside. Fortunately it was a bright sunny day, so we were happy to sit on the grass and enjoy the jovial atmosphere. Later, as evening approached, a band struck up in the castle grounds, playing all our favourites like Joe Loss’s ‘In the mood’ and Vera Lynn’s ‘We’ll meet again’ and soon everyone was dancing and singing along, not caring about the uneven ground. All too soon, we realised it was time to get back to Waverly station, if we were to make it back to camp in time for the 10 o’clock curfew. A few of the lads joined us, but others stayed on in Edinburgh not caring that they would have to get the first train back in the morning. We flew down the Waverly steps, piled on to the train, then dozed all the way back to Inverkeithing where we needed prodding awake to get off the train. Happily, camp transport was waiting, and we arrived back at Fordell House in time for the 10pm curfew. In no time we had tumbled into our bunks, exhausted, but happy, after a VE day which will live long in my memory.

June Fletcher née Cassel 1925-2019 In my training I had one frightening escapade when I was learning to fly in a dual-controlled Barracuda. Sitting in the front instead of the usual back, which my pilot had authorised, I set off, taking off, lifting the landing wheels of the plane, flying for one hour’s tuition, then commencing my landing. Unfortunately as I had pushed the handle of the undercarriage away from me for take-off, I was now unable to reach the handle – it was too far forward for my smallish arms and we were in trouble. “I can’t reach the handle.” “That’s stupid, of course you can.” “It’s too far forward.” “Stretch harder.” “I can’t.” I looked out to see all the emergency services, having heard our conversation over R.T, had assembled to prepare for an emergency landing. I then disobeyed all flying orders – I undid my harness, slid on my backside to the depths of the plane to retrieve the handle, crawled back, pulling it with all my strength and thankfully heard the gentle whirring of the wheels making their way down in preparation for a safe landing. My heart gradually slowed down and my inner voice said a prayer. Life in the Navy was not all hard work. We did have our own free time. But there were strict rules to be obeyed and no excuses. In the evening we could go into Londonderry, or Derry as it was known, and go sightseeing during the day, but our time limit was on an ordinary pass until ten-thirty or on a late pass, eleven-thirty, and not a moment later. No excuses were accepted, not for hail, rain or snow, and one minute late brought a week confined to barracks or in naval terms a week’s CB. It was quite usual to see Wrens running down the lane to our barracks, hat in hand and sometimes high-heeled shoes in hand also. But we were good sports and kept to the rules. On Friday nights all Jewish Wrens were invited by the distinguished and hospitable Spain family for a Shabbos meal. I will never forget their warmth and generosity. On some days off we went with friends to Moville or Greencastle, which were small places just over the borderinto Southern Ireland, where goods were much cheaper and one could buy wines and Irish whiskey at a much reduced price. We also had many happy weekends in Dublin itself. There was no shortage of food in the shops, because Eire was neutral in the war. We were not allowed to be in uniform because of Eire’s neutrality, but there was always trouble on the train back to our station as the customs used to walk up and down the train asking for any undeclared goods. They knew exactly which goods were bought in Dublin and they were confiscated. We enjoyed visits to different areas of Northern Ireland such as Belfast and many seaside resorts when the weather was fine and we could sunbathe on the beach and the beautiful hills and greens of the surrounding areas. We even had the good fortune to see a ship in construction and nearly completed when it was named Princess Margaret, but I cannot remember when or whether the princess just launched or named it, but it was a most exciting occasion. Sometimes I do forget details, but the memories are still with me. This is an extract from June’s memoirs published in honour of her 90th birthday 28 The Wren Paris – VE Night – 8 May 1945 Fanny Hugill (3/O F Gore Browne) I joined Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay’s staff in London straight from Greenwich in early February 1944. Planning for the invasion of Europe was continuing apace and we all worked under enormous pressure. London was of course being bombed and the future seemed totally uncertain. In late April the staff moved to HMS Dryad, behind Portsmouth. In all our moves I never remember anything getting lost. We were uncomfortably housed, but time was passing and on the 6 June the invasion of Europe took place successfully. But we were not to cross to France until early September. In orderly groups we landed at Arromanches and set up headquarters at Granville on the west coast of the Cotentin Peninsula. Three weeks later we moved again to our last headquarters in France near Paris, at St Germain-en-Laye. Here we were to remain throughout a particularly hard winter. The staff numbered about 50 WRNS officers and 150 Wrens, and probably about 200 Naval Officers which included French and Americans. On 2 January 1945 Admiral Ramsay was tragically killed. This was devastating for us all. Many of us had been together for what was a long time in wartime, many months. Early May found me at home in England on leave. We listened avidly to the news broadcast and Churchill announced that VE (Victory in Europe) Day would be celebrated on 8 May. My leave did not finish till the 9th but I decided to return early to celebrate in Paris. My mother was disappointed but saw me off on the boat train from Victoria Station on the morning of VE Day, 8 May. Also on the train was a senior naval officer and various other members of staff and I concluded that the Channel ferry would be met at Calais. This was correct. It was a beautiful day. The Channel was calm and waiting for us was a large Humber staff car with Royal Marine driver. We sped to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, arriving about 1745. At 1800 the Royal Marine band paraded in front of our Headquarters and we watched and applauded before starting our own celebrations. We dressed a large staff car with a White Ensign tied to the roof and a Union Jack on the bonnet. Groups of us piled into cars and jeeps to set off for central Paris, about 15 kms drive away. Roads were crowded. Everybody was out on the streets and music – both live and canned - blared from open doors and windows. We approached Paris by the Avenue Grand Armée – a wonderful view, and the Arc de Triomphe was magnificently floodlit with the flags of the Allies underneath. Down the Champs Elysées our route was barred with wooden barriers. Two of our party played up to the crowd, did some hugging and kissing, and moved a barrier to allow us to drive through. We were making for the fine house in Faubourg Saint Honoré, which was the Officer’s NAAFI. This house had performed the same function for the German officers. We then all set off on foot. The atmosphere was electric, all Paris was celebrating, and I don’t remember any unpleasantness of any sort. It was a most good-humoured crowd. We were hoping to reach the Place de la Concorde, where we found dancing en ronde in full swing. Later we walked down to the River Seine, which was a wonderful sight with all the barges and boats glaring lights and music, as we walked along the quay. Retracing our steps to the NAAFI, we found a party and dancing in full swing. It was an extremely hot evening. Some people were going to keep up the party all night, but our little group turned for home about 2.30am. It is impossible for any of us to appreciate exactly what the Parisians were feeling. Back at Saint-Germain, I fell into my uncomfortable camp bed, having taken part in something I would never forget.

30 The Wren Marjorie West - Legion d’honneur Award

My mother, Marjorie West, former Wren, was honoured on 27 November 2019 by France at a ceremony in her home village of Dedham. The award of Legion d’honneur was made by the French Military Attache, Colonel Armel Dirou. A French Lieutenant- Colonel from the Colchester garrison also attended, along with the Attache’s PA (a Warrant Officer) and a British Captain from the garrison - as well as 40 family and friends! Colin West At the age of 98, Marjorie West has been appointed by the President of France to the rank of Chevalier in the Legion d’Honneur, the highest order of merit in France. This award is given as thanks from the French nation for her work in the preparation for the D-Day landings and the subsequent liberation of France three quarters of a century ago. Marjorie describes those turbulent times in a brisk matter of fact tone in her room in her son’s house in Grove Hill, Dedham, looking onto the large garden that she used to tend. A copy of today’s Times lies on her table as she recalls the dreadful news in 1942 that caused her to leave her job at the Post Office and join the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS). At the age of 21 she learned that her husband Ted Graysmark, an RAF Spitfire pilot, had been killed while defending the island of Malta against German attacks. Ted Marjorie West was also 21, and they had been married for only six weeks. Photo: Roy Laverick “I decided I needed to do something to help the war effort. The WRNS wouldn’t employ you then unless you had a skill. However they needed teleprinter operators, and that’s what I had been trained to do by the Post Office, so I was able to get in.” The Navy sent her to Southwick House, near Portsmouth, the nerve centre from which Generals Eisenhower and Montgomery and Admiral Bertram Ramsay were planning the D-Day invasion of France. Teleprinters were then used for sending and receiving secure communications by wire. “We didn’t see much of the top brass. They were all upstairs, we teleprinter girls were down in the basement. Montgomery had a caravan in the park – he was always there – and we lived in huts in the beautiful grounds.” Secrecy at Southwick was paramount, not least because British spies were successfully deceiving the German High Command about the time and place of the landings. Marjorie and her fellow workers saw all the communications coming in from ships and other forces as well as the commands that went out from the centre. So they were subject to an almost Trappist regime: absolutely no contact with people in the outside world. “We could never go out alone. On our days off we would be taken to a beach on the coast about 20 minutes away in an army lorry. No other visitors were allowed to go there.” Was such isolation difficult for a girl in her early 20s? “No, I didn’t mind. At that time you didn’t think you were important and you did not chat about your work,” she says. In the days before the Normandy landings (planned for 5 June 1944), there was tense anxiety on all floors of Southwick House “The bad weather put it off for a day. I just thought it was a very brave thing that they were going to do, so I hoped the weather was not going to affect them, or the planes - they needed good weather as well.” After the success of the D-Day landings, Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) was moved from Southwick to the French coast. Marjorie hated the sea crossing and stayed in her bunk all the way. “But I didn’t mind, it was part of my duty,” she says. Once in France, they were billeted in a school where they slept on the hall floor, waiting for Paris to be liberated. When that great day came in late August, 1944, SHAEF was relocated again to Versailles near Paris, and the girls were housed in a nearby nunnery – “They sent the nuns away; we moved in.” However, the Navy was no longer enforcing Trappist discipline, and Marjorie was able to socialise again. In Paris in 1944 she met and fell in love with Victor West, then serving in the RAF as a radio operator, also serving with SHAEF. Three years later, soon after she had been demobbed she and Victor married. They had two children: Colin, who lives in Dedham with his wife Lyn, and a daughter Christine who lives near Dover.

Article with permission from Dedham Parish magazine The Wren 31 100 Lives: Natalie is on board to support fellow veterans Despite facing challenges of her own, Royal Navy veteran Natalie McCombe knew she could help ex-Forces men and women in South West Wales find a way back into employment through her work as an Employability Consultant with The Poppy Factory. Here Natalie tells her story in her own words.

“I was born and raised in Swansea. Half-way through my A-levels I saw an advert in the local paper for the Royal Navy Reserves. I joined in 1990 and loved it so much, I decided to join the regulars. I signed up for the WRNS/ RN the following year. “After going through basic training as a weapons engineering mechanic, I won the Owen Cup for the best new entry out of 130. My first sea draft was on HMS Battleaxe, a type 22 frigate based in Plymouth. This wasn’t a happy time as I felt isolated and bullied. Instead of accepting redundancy at the time, I changed to an operator mechanic role and went back for more training before joining my second ship, HMS Invincible. “I had my first son in 2000 and my second son came along seven years later. I returned to work briefly after maternity leave but the financial sector was in chaos due to the global financial crisis. My ex-husband was working away on the oil rigs and I decided to resign from my job to concentrate on supporting my family, becoming a stay-at-home mum for eight years. A new support network “I decided to go back to university to study health and social care. I also joined the local branch of the Association of Wrens in Swansea and one of the ladies told me about volunteering opportunities with SSAFA, so I signed up to be one of their case workers. “Soon afterwards my ex-husband and I separated after 20 years of marriage. It was a complete shock and I was floored for months. My fellow Wrens were amazingly supportive, and I picked myself up and decided to get on with my life and went on the RBLI Lifeworks course for veterans. I realised I had years of professional experience and lots of transferable skills. My love of the Armed Forces and volunteering experience with SSAFA made me want to help other veterans. Supporting veterans into work “I’d asked The Poppy Factory for support to help me get back to work. My Employability Consultant, Suzanne, was moving away – she told me that her job was being split into two posts and she felt I would be perfect for the role. I applied and became an Employability Consultant covering South West Wales in 2017. “It was a tough time on several fronts. Along with the pressures around work, my health and my divorce, my mum had cancer and she sadly passed away in 2018. My mental health took a battering but my employers supported me and I went through counselling. “I was very proud to be chosen to represent Wales in the Help for Heroes 2019 winter games. I also did the Royal British Legion’s Battle Back course, which helps veterans improve their physical and mental wellbeing through sport and outdoor adventure. Both experiences helped build my resilience and pushed me out of my comfort zone, which helps me be more effective in my work. I can really relate to most of my clients and I feel proud and privileged to be a veteran supporting other veterans in my community. “It really feels like my stars aligned when I got the job at The Poppy Factory. It’s the perfect role for me.” This has been taken from an article on the Poppy Factory website. 32 The Wren

Coalhouse Fort by Christian Lamb When I was suddenly invited to visit Coalhouse Fort I was extremely surprised because I had not given it much thought since I worked there about eighty years ago. It was a very historic old building which I was under the impression had been built by Henry Vlll. His idea was to protect the entrance to the River Thames estuary which tempted the French and other would-be invaders towards his capital London. The present incumbents of the Fort were now researching its interesting history and planned to make a museum there. They knew that a group of WRNS had worked there during WWII and my name must have been mentioned among them. I had indeed been appointed Degaussing Recorder in Charge – aged about 20 – and it had been my unusual job to set up and organise a degaussing range across the Thames. The Oxford Dictionary describes degaussing as to ‘neutralize the magnetic field of a ship by encircling with a conductor carrying electric currents,’ thus enabling the ship to sail safely over a magnetic mine. When I was appointed, I had no idea what that meant but was eager to find out. I had been working at the Wren HQ in London and on being promoted Leading Wren I proudly wore the badge with the blue anchor on my left upper arm. I had left school at 18 and gone to France to stay with a family to learn French, planning to go on to Oxford where my sister already was, and not having read a paper for ages was surprised to have a telegram from my father (an Admiral) telling me to come home as war was imminent. I crossed the channel from Dieppe on one of the last ferries before war broke out. I went up to Scotland to stay with my Grandmother who lived in Speanbridge, near Fort William;. She took the trouble to continue my education by getting her chauffeur to teach me to drive, also teaching me Bridge which I greatly enjoyed. One of her Bridge friends was a Colonel Laughton whose sister had just been made Superintendent of the WRNS, she being just old enough to have served as a Wren in WWI, was the ideal person. This of course inspired me, while wondering how I could ‘do my bit’ for the war effort, to volunteer as a Wren and Colonel Laughton gave me a reference to send with my application. With my valuable reference I travelled south to an interview and met a three striped Wren Officer called Nancy Osborne, who was extremely nice and offered me a job at the Wren HQ. Such an occupation among all these old biddies (as I described them to myself) was not how I envisaged my career in the Royal Navy, having expected to serve alongside sailors surrounded by glamorous Naval ships. So I politely declined her offer and was appointed to the WRNS training establishment in Kensington which I arrived at in about September 1939. We had no uniform at that time but were given an armband with WRNS on it. I realised I had made a bad mistake when they tried to teach me to type (with a cover over the letters so you could not see them), the only one I could make sense of was MR which I thought meant ‘mister’, but which actually meant ‘margin relief’ whatever that defined. I was soon to discover that the large, well-endowed lady, Hilda Buckmaster, who ran this establishment and was known in her youth to have sailed before the mast in a windjammer, and who had greeted me with: ‘How nice to welcome a breath of sea air’, presumably referring to my father’s Admiral status. She was soon to discover that I was often in trouble over being late – one had to be in by 9 o’clock – one had scarcely gone out by then – and other dreary misdemeanours, - when by luck I met Nancy Osborne in the coalhole through which we had to go on our way to lunch. I asked her if by any chance the offer of a job was still open? She rescued me and I settled down to a useful job at last, recruiting other girls to join up. Among these I found my English teacher from my old school, trying to sneak her way into the WRNS as an officer, without going through the ranks; I did my best to keep her file out of sight but she won in the end. To return to my career and my invitation to Coalhouse Fort: my appointment as a Leading Wren to run the establishment at the Fort was a terrific compliment and I was dying to know what I would have to do. Being invited to revisit all these years later set me thinking of what I could remember; there was a picture of the Fort that I had found to illustrate my Wren book (“I only Joined for the Hat”) but it did not ring any bells. All I could remember was our office somewhere in the Fort, and the desk with filing cabinets. The Thames, I believe was the first of these river ranges, which ultimately were laid as protection for shipping where any shallow port in the British Isles had such an estuary. I could remember our office was somewhere in the Fort, and the desk with filing cabinets. I do remember that our accommodation was nearby in an old, cold Vicarage, (without the Vicar); sleeping four to a room in camp beds with only linoleum on the floor; we never had enough to eat and used to pick mushrooms before breakfast to improve it. Ruth Ashcroft, one of my Wrens became a great friend, she was very good at alterations and after much sewing for our sailors, and smartening up their best, (tiddly) bell bottoms as tight as possible round the top, she got the leg to flare out in an elegant manner. Sailors are very vain! Ruth was very adventurous and one day bought an old car from one of the sea scouts for £11, soon discovering how to drive with very inexpert help from me, after which we went all over the place in it. One day it died so we left it in the dockyard and forgot about it; years later when Ruth was married to a Naval Officer they came to see if it was still there – and it was! So, her husband did it up and they sold it for £40. The Wren 33

Our visit to Coalhouse Fort was a very historic day and staff who are in charge of it now could not have been nicer to us. We enjoyed ourselves enormously and will look forward to going to visit again and admire the progress with the Museum. After I had worked at the range for a year or so, I was promoted Third Officer WRNS, thus earning my tricorne hat at last, and was sent to the Officers Training Course at Greenwich, still on the river Thames to which I had become quite attached. Sailing down by ferry to arrive and disembark at the pier – a familiar landing place for people of such renown as Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Drake, Raleigh, Queen Anne and Pepys was a landmark in my career. The contrast between the Fort and Greenwich Palace was considerable. To my surprise I passed the Officers Course exam and was appointed to be Plotting Officer at the HQ in Plymouth. Plotting was something I had longed to do but had no knowledge of – luckily I managed to slide into their efficient organisation without causing any alarm; the huge semi underground operations room consisted of a radar plot – a big table with four Wrens at the sides keeping the picture of the whole west coast plotted up to date; my job was to help with this and plot the whole Atlantic on the wall of the room with various convoys, escort groups, large liners (which had been turned into troop ships), and any U boats whose positions we knew. Information of the position and movement of ships was sent to us by signal or teleprinter. I had never heard of Radar but was fascinated to visit one of the coastal stations and see how it worked. I had a good knowledge of the Royal Navy, having followed the Fleet with my family after my father to various places such as Malta, when I was about ten - where I remember seeing the whole Royal Naval Fleet arrive in Grand Harbour – some sight in those days (about 1930). After about a year in Plymouth the whole station was moved to Liverpool and I was appointed to plot at Belfast. Just north of this port was the point at which many of the ships would gather to join the convoys crossing the Atlantic. Here I was in charge of a watch in the operations room at Belfast Castle where the Navy was based. Many of our ships taking part in escorting these convoys were damaged by the atrocious weather in the Atlantic Ocean and some were sent into Belfast for repairs. A Fleet Destroyer HMS Oribi arrived expecting to be several days in dock – any opportunity for enjoyment was seized upon and the Captain telephoned the Castle and invited half a dozen or so Wrens to come aboard for a drink. Several of us accepted with pleasure and climbed aboard to the Wardroom. It hardly seems possible that fate should play such a part in my life, but sure enough, on that day I met Lieutenant John Lamb DSC, the First Lieutenant of HMS Oribi. It took us exactly ten days to decide that we could not live without each other! We became engaged to be married which immediately called for a memorable celebration which hardly finished in time for the ship to be recalled back to sea on April 29,1943 to escort a very slow convoy – the famous ONS 5. She was famous because there was the headline in the Daily Express – War’s Biggest U-Battle – Navy Beats Off 25 - 4 Sunk – 6 Likelies. From that first report, the operations room at Belfast Castle and the plot in particular became the focus of attention. Signal after signal came in and the teleprinter whirred on relentlessly. Oribi was obviously heading for the wolf pack and the tension grew but of course the anxiety became acute especially after we heard that Oribi had rammed a U boat. If only television had been available! After what seemed an age a signal came to say Oribi was on her way safely to Newfoundland where she was fitted with a new bow. Out of the convoy of 43 ships 12 had been lost, but of the 40 U Boats involved 8 were destroyed and 12 damaged. The best news was that Hitler was furious and his Admiral Raeder resigned, It was quite a drama for me and all my friends, who had tried to keep me from being glued to the plot, but of course I had to see what was happening. John and I were married in London with the assistance of my mother who excelled herself using the date of Oribi’s possible boiler clean – 15 December, she booked the Church, St James. Spanish Place, the English speaking Union for the Reception, collected dried fruit from friends and had a wedding cake made by Searcys of Sloane St (I believe it is still going), bought me a white velvet wedding dress for £7 from an advertisement in the Country Gentleman’s Association Magazine, (untried on of course as I was still in Belfast, and no coupons required for second hand goods), sent out invitations and then sat back with her fingers crossed and hey presto by the greatest good luck the bride groom appeared. We were lent a small green baby Austin for the honeymoon and our send off, driving away in style, was spectacular. Ever since the retreat of our forces from Dunkirk it had been the total focus of our operation to reinvade France. Churchill had ordered Mountbatten to forget about the defensive and concentrate on the offensive. His HQ was now at Richmond Terrace, Whitehall and my new job was to be working there under the Command of Rear Admiral HE Horan and I was to be working on the actual maps of the planned landings. My small office below stairs was for me alone; there were many of us working on individual pieces ofthe enormous jigsaw, none of us knew or ever discussed what the others were doing. The real chosen landing places for the invasion on which my task was based were pinpointed for me on the large scale maps of France in my office, and my particular brief was to delineate everything that could be seen on every compass bearing from each landing position visible from the bridge of an approaching landing craft. The big scale Ordnance Survey maps were spread out on the wall and showed railways, roads, churches castles, and every possible feature to an incoming invader and from every angle. It was intense and exciting w,ork and obviously important to be detailed and accurate. D -Day happened on June 6 1944 and when at 6am I heard the announcement on the radio I was thrilled to know that at last we had managed to carry out the plans which had been envisaged for so long by so many brilliant brains. We were there! It was the beginning of our campaign to get back France for the French. Christian Lamb 34 The Wren WWI Feeding the Royal Navy and Summer Make and Mends on the Cliff-tops above Dover! Jessie Macleod PO Cook WWI HMS President, Attentive & Pembroke

Rescued by granddaughter Janet Tierney, here we have a lovely WWI story featuring her grandmother Janet (known as Jessie) Macleod together with some unique photos. Read on …. Dear Celia, I have been working on my family history, and in particular that of my grandmother, Janet (Jessie) Annabel Macleod, who enlisted in the WRNS on 18 March 1918. Having extracted her war record from the National Archives, I was a little confused by her service, and wondered if you might be able to shed some light on it. The first three months of her service were spent at HMS President, which as far as I can discover from the internet was actually a drill ship moored in the Thames in 1918. She was rated Cook, and by June 1918, she was a CSL Cook at HMS Attentive lll, where she remained until August 1919, when she was transferred for the last two months of her service to HMS Pembroke. As far as I know, she spent her service in Dover, but I can find no record of the location of Attentive or Pembroke, which I assume were shore establishments. There are several photographs (which I attach) showing her at work, but I really can make very little sense of the bare bones of her service record, and wondered if you might be able to suggest where she was and what she was likely to have been doing! I appreciate that you must get a great many requests of this nature, so I do not expect a quick response, but if you were able to shed any light in due course on my grandmother’s (brief) naval career, I would be most grateful! There was a family story (which I suspect was just that) that Jessie Macleod (PO Wren) on cliff my grandmother was one of the first six women to enlist in the service, above Dover but I cannot see any way of confirming or otherwise the tale. A number 1918-19 G527 was on one of her Service documents. She told me the following story about arriving in Dover - the taxi driver taking her to the base asked her where she came from. She replied, Ross-shire. Whereupon the taxi driver said ‘My, you are a long way from home’, and then continued talking to her very slowly and very loudly. It eventually dawned on her that her rather impenetrable Highland accent (which she never lost) had led him to make a rather unfortunate mistake, and she didn’t dare disabuse him! Dear Janet Here are a few facts that I hope will help you to understand the various RN terms and activities. HMS President III was used as a recruiting base where potential members of the WRNS joined, together with RN personnel, who worked at the Admiralty or in London. She is currently moored on the Thames, one of the few surviving WWI ships - now a venue for corporate events, etc. It may have been that ‘Jessie’ spent her initial training period there before being drafted to HMS Attentive III, which was the parent ship/accounting base for Auxiliary Patrol vessels operating from Dover. Jessie’s transfer to HMS Pembroke towards the end of WWI (Aug 1919) may have been because it was a larger shore establishment than Attentive, where the demobbing of Wrens back to civilian life was managed. She may even have been one of the Wrens who took part in an end-of-war Peace Parade! I have only found one reference, to date, for the rank CSL which was used when describing WRNS personnel as a group (‘Officers, CSL and Ratings’) so I am presuming that it could signify a non-commissioned Senior Rate, such as a Petty Officer, or Chief Wren. Will keep looking. Dear Celia I would be delighted to have good quality digital copies of the photographs made for you. I am so pleased that you are interested in them – my mother tidied the albums away which I surreptitiously rescued when she wasn’t looking! Dear Janet, your photos are an absolute delight and quite unique. Each one tells a story; a rarely seen image of Wrens using butchery skills, a unique view of her in off duty time taken on the cliffs presumably above Dover, wearing a PO’s cap, blouse and jacket, and the one of Jessie either having borrowed a rating’s uniform and cap (perhaps belonging to her fiancé) or using one that was kept at the photographer’s studio. Plus the unusual group of Wrens in ‘sleeping bags’ outside their cabins (huts) and a group photo with Jessie centre in the back row. How lucky you are to have them for your family archive and thank you very much for sharing them with the Association. The Wren 35 Kingston-upon-Thames Association of Wrens - Silver Anniversary Lunch On 13 July 2019, Kingston-upon-Thames Association of Wrens celebrated its Silver Anniversary. A celebratory lunch was organised at Warren House in Kingston-upon-Thames, a 150 year old Victorian, Grade II listed building, set within four acres of landscaped gardens. The lunch started at 1230 with reception drinks and at 1320, we were called to be seated for lunch. The Standard was marched on by Bunny Taylor and the Remembrance Candle was lit by Jacquie Sadler and Shelagh Denny, followed by a welcome from the Kingston-upon-Thames Branch Chair, Anne Marks. Grace was then spoken by the Chaplain to the Branch, Canon John Wasley. All guests were delighted to find a ‘housewife’ as a gift, and many thanks are due to Carol Booker for these. The lunch was a very jolly affair with lots of delicious wine and food; a favourite choice amongst the members and guests appeared to be the ‘Trio of Desserts’ – a mini champagne and rhubarb jelly, a green apple mousse and a passion fruit panna cotta. Many comments of “I wished I had had that” were heard! During the meal we were treated to beautiful music from harpist Glenda Allaway (AMus TCL MISM) and, her many lovely renditions included a much gentler version of ‘Heart of Oak’ than that we have been used to from our Royal Marines Bands, whilst on Division. Susan Roberts had made a very splendid cake and it was very ably cut by Joyce Garner and Susan. Particular note was made of the Royal Marine, signifying Kingston-upon-Thames’s close association with the RMR Barracks at Wandsworth, where we are fortunate enough to be able to hold our meetings. The cake cutting was then followed by speeches from Anne and also from Jill Stellingworth, the Chair of the Association of Wrens. At the conclusion of the meal, the Standard was marched out and then the raffle took place! Many, many items had been donated and nearly everyone left with at least one prize! There was definitely some swapping of the prizes going on as well! Thanks to all the organisers of this event for a fantastic and memorable day for all concerned. Also thanks to the Swindon Branch for sending us a card for our anniversary. Special thanks are also due to Karen Fisher for the design of the logo for our anniversary. Ann Marks 36 The Wren

MY RETIREMENT? IT’S SORTED Enjoy a worry-free and active lifestyle with all the chores done for you. The all-inclusive rental model covers your weekly house keeping, property and garden upkeep, all fine dining and refreshments daily, plus all your heating and hot water. It even includes your Council Tax, internet access and daily activities, all with only 30 days’ notice. Hospitality’s assured, and there’s always a warm welcome and new friends to make.

• Sector leading Well-being Programme • Studio, 1-bed and 2-bed apartments • Library • Coffee lounge • Landscaped gardens • Exercise classes & activities • Great amenities on site • Safe & secure with staff on hand 24/7

Call 01603 895417 Search ‘Hawthorns Retire’ online or on

Braintree, Essex | Clevedon, Somerset | Eastbourne, Sussex | Northampton, Northamptonshire The Wren 37 From an Aircraft Engineer to Bookbinder Joining the WRNS in 1988 as an Aircraft Engineer (AEM(M)) I had, like most of us a great career full of fun, laughter, challenges and experiences that I’ll never forget. In 2005 after a 17 year career it all came to an end. I was facing a medical discharge due to my previous diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS). What was I going to do with the rest of my life? First things first and my resettlement. What could I do? I didn’t want to remain in engineering, but it had to be something practical. I had an old book of my Grans, tatty and falling apart but the memories it held, to me, were priceless. I decided to attend a course on bookbinding for my resettlement. It just so happened to be with my aunt who was a bookbinder and lived in Canada, just perfect. I returned from this experience with an unquenchable thirst to learn more about this fascinating trade. This is where my journey to become a bookbinder first began. Unable to find any suitable courses outside London I practiced repairing old family and second-hand books from home. I searched the web, discovered the ‘Society of Bookbinders’ website and contacted a bookbinder in Hampshire to seek some advice on how I could learn more. I later discovered that this lady ‘Maureen Duke’ was the President of the Society of Bookbinders. There wasn’t anything or anyone that Maureen didn’t know in the world of bookbinding. She truly was the oracle of all knowledge. I left the meeting with advice, ideas and a way forward. I attended both an evening class and a short residential course but neither of these were local. Over the next few years I continued to search, hoping to find somewhere relatively close to my home in Southampton. Finally, my luck changed and in 2013 an established bookbinding firm ‘Shepherds Bookbinders’ began to run bookbinding courses in Woodborough, Wiltshire. I attended the 5-day beginners’ course, C&G Level 1 part 1. A year later I attended the C&G Level 1 part II. Bookbinding was something I could do. Working from home, being in control of my day and adjusting it to suit any challenges that my MS produced. On the wall of the workshop was a poster advertising the charity ‘Bound by Veterans’. This charity ran bookbinding courses for Wounded, Injured & Sick (WIS) Service personnel who were facing medical discharge from the Services. I thought at the time what a wonderful opportunity it was. As a military veteran, I was introduced to Jonathan Powell the founder of the charity. I was later informed that the charity would sponsor me to complete the Bookbinding Course I was attending. Before long, not only had I completed the C&G Level 1 but also the Level 2. As a ‘thank you’ for the opportunities that the charity had given me, I offered to be a volunteer and undertook the role of ‘Course administrator’. I took over the admin for all current and future veterans attending the courses. A busy, continuous role but worth it seeing other veterans getting as much enjoyment out of the courses as I had and achieving a C&G qualification as well. In 2017 alongside the apprenticeship scheme through the Royal Collection Trust at the Queens’ Bindery, Shepherds introduced the C&G Level 3 Diploma in hand bookbinding. This would be the first scheme in the UK for this qualification. I was approached by Shepherds to see if I would be interested in also undertaking this two-year study. How could I refuse! I began the program covering some 13 different aspects of Bookbinding these included various box designs, cloth & leather re-backs, paper repairs, vellum bindings, gold leaf finishing to name a few. Each course brought its own challenges, learning new skills. Alongside which I continued to do the administration for the courses, assisted in designing and creating all the necessary assessment forms for each unit, booking students onto the courses, planning the training program for the following year. My experience of working with tables, creating forms & lesson plans for the Part II Air Engineering Training during my time at HMS Sultan was of great benefit for this! The timescale of two years to complete kept my life shall I say, crazy hectic! Studying, practising the skills learnt as well as continuing my seasonal work as a Sales Manager for the Photography at University Graduations was challenging and exhausting. On 27 August 2019 I had the assessment of my practical bookbinding work carried out by the Authorised Examining body of bookbinding ‘Shepherds Bookbinders’. This was followed by the City & Guilds assessment which was booked for 31 October. From the start of this journey I was aiming for a Distinction, but I was unsure if the work I was producing would be good enough to achieve this. The assessment took place and I was given the news that not only had I passed but it was with the grade of a ‘Distinction of the highest level’. Euphoria with a big smile spread across my face; I had done it. The first person to achieve this in the UK and more importantly the first (WIS) military veteran through the Bound by Veterans charity. Many of the veterans who come to the courses are from the Army and do so through the Rolling Recovery Programme (RRP) run by the Phoenix Centre at Tedworth House which includes a bookbinding session run by BBV. Keen to have a member of the Royal Navy to present me my award, I approached Captain Alison Towler, Royal Navy and President of the Association of Wrens. I was utterly delighted that she agreed. The presentation took place at the Bound by Veterans Workshop, Woodborough, Wiltshire, on the 10 December 2019. Along with representatives of the charity’s sponsors, work colleagues, fellow bound by veterans’ students and a few of my closest ‘Jenny Wren friends’ Crissie Proudley, Kelly Lease & Sara Moseley, I was presented with my Diploma. The first student to be awarded the City & Guilds Level 3 Diploma in the UK with the grade of a Distinction. This made the event a proud day that I will never forget. My true passion still lies with the restoration aspects of bookbinding. I continue to mainly repair leather and cloth backed books from my small business that I run from home ‘Southampton Bindery’. Repairing a tatty old sentimental book so it can continue to bring joy and fond memories to the owner does as we say ‘float my boat’ and I love it. The experience over the last two years has been fun, challenging, creative and therapeutic and I would say to anyone ‘why not just give it a go?’ From an Air Engineer to Bookbinder, who would have thought! Wendy Lagden 38 The Wren “Life on the Edge” the tale of RP Wren Pat Gander at HMS Harrier, Kete, Pembrokeshire. 1949 - 51 In 2015 a chance conversation with a Royal Navy friend took me to the home of Wren Pat Gander. It was the first of many meetings during which Pat reminisced about her, fascinating life as an RP Wren. In 1949 Pat trained for 6 weeks as a Radar Plotter at HMS Harrier, Kete, Pembrokeshire, then stayed on and served on the staff, training RN personnel in Radar Plotting and Air Direction until 1951. At that time, on a remote cliff top in West Wales overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, RNADC (Air Direction Centre) Kete was renamed HMS Harrier, the sister establishment to HMS Goldcrest visible across the cliffs at Dale Airdrome, a conveniently located pilot training school. At its height of operation, the cohort of some 400+ Wrens formed a goodly portion of the Harrier teaching staff on the base and I have been told, independently, that they were all held in very high esteem by those they taught, for their competence, efficiency and professionalism. I’ve also been told, privately, that their very presence, in almost equal numbers to the men made life at Kete “a delight for all the RN personnel” serving there! Harrier was set up with Model Rooms which replicated Ships’ radar rooms, and a Plotting room where trainees learned how to find and close in on enemy ships or aircraft. Pat worked with simulators and models which were the standard training vehicles used at the time. She became adept at writing backwards with a chinagraph pencil on a huge perspex screen, to indicate the positions of aircraft and ships which were being used as a part of training exercises, to be read and interpreted from the other side by the trainees. As well as simulated training situations there were live flying exercises using aircraft from Brawdy and Culdrose to help Officers under Training identify and locate aircraft. Famous for its weather, the Western Approaches provided their own challenges to both pilots and trainees on the ground thanks to frequent poor visibility and high winds. Pat described how the Wrens were a diverse and flexible lot – they each wore a range of different “hats” during the working week. As well as teaching AD and RD, Pat would listen in and log live comms between pilots and AD officers, which was very interesting work. She worked to update training documentation, prepared Mess Accounts and was a trusted member of the Trials Team. Radar was in its infancy and at the time they were doing trials with a new radar dish set on the base. Wrens worked from Monday to Friday 0830 to 1600, with weekends off. They walked from the Wrennery to the Model rooms in the mornings, and back at lunchtime as well as at the end of each working day. The sailors and those under training would all be marched to their classrooms and back to their Messes so clearly the Wrens were trusted to their own self-discipline. It was telling that the ratio of Wrens to WRNS Officers / NCOs was far lower than the ratio of Sailors to RN Officer and NCOs, which inferred that they needed less supervision and management! Pat recalls the Wrennery as a series of spartan Cabins - Nissen Hut style buildings - laid out initially with bunk beds, and later, with single beds. 10 Wrens shared a single skin cabin, which were absolutely freezing in winter. Heating came from a huge coal-burning stove which the Wrens had to clean, fire up and keep burning themselves – it would be the first job they did on return to their cabin after work. Many a Wren slept with her greatcoat over her bed blankets in the cold, noisy, wind-swept nights of the Pembrokeshire winters. Before weekly rounds the Wrens would Clean Ship, on a Thursday night. If they missed anything, or their clean- up didn’t pass muster they would be reprimanded. The Regulator Wrens would maintain discipline around the base, and the Chief PO Regulator would patrol around with her corgi, Jaunty. The lady was much feared by all but Pat thinks she was probably not quite as austere as she may have appeared! Everyone loved Jaunty so making a fuss of the dog provided a good way of endearing themselves to his owner! Pat described how one day during rounds the Wrens’ wardrobes were searched for bottles (which had to be well concealed) thanks to the vigilance of Jaunty, who led his boss to the booze-trail by sniffing around a wardrobe door! On Saturdays there was a weekly bus into Haverfordwest, 12 miles away and Pat and her friends would enjoy browsing the shops and the indoor market at the top end of the town, which sold nylon stocking at £1 a pair. In those days that was a great deal of money, Pat remarked. They would enjoy a lunch of egg and chips for 2/6d (two shillings and sixpence.) The Mariners Hotel was THE place to go, where, Pat explained, the girls would only be taken if they had a wealthy boyfriend! Being so far from anywhere, entertainment was essentially “home grown!” but there was a lively social scene at Harrier. Pat was involved in a number of Amateur Dramatic Productions: “See How They Run,” “Little Lambs Eat Ivy.” “Dangerous Corner” “Blithe Spirit,” and “Love in a Mist” were some such shows put on. Variety Shows were popular too, performed by anyone with a talent to share, for the entertainment of all and Pat recalls dancing the Can-Can in a Variety Show production. The afore-mentioned Corgi, Jaunty, would be allowed in to theatre productions for half price! Every Sunday evening there was a musical evening where classical and light music records would be played, and staff and students would also present live music Concerts. The Griffin Pub, two miles away, was also available for Harrier staff when off duty if they were brave enough to navigate the cliff path or the steep hill down to the village and back. There were dances each Saturday night, and sometimes during the week and each Wednesday afternoon the whole Base would attend a talk on some general knowledge topic of interest. There was a bar in the mess and Pat recalls the sailors used to drink Double Diamond beer. None of them had much money so socialising was on a modest scale, she said. Pat explained how much of the socialising took place with staff of all ranks and rates in together. She said that side of life at Kete was very relaxed so everyone mixed very easily and readily without compromising the rank / rate structure, and that the social life was very enjoyable. It’s interesting how many of Pat’s fellow Wrens have told me that HMS Harrier was nicknamed “The Marriage Bureau” because so many of those who served there met and married their future life partners. It was clearly a very special place to serve, in spite of, or maybe because of its remote position. The Wren 39 Pat said that she had a wonderful time at Harrier. Cover Girls She described it as a lovely little community all on its own, which, for her, centred largely around her work, the Am-Dram productions and dancing. “Simple pleasures.” she said with a smile. Author’s note: I have enjoyed spending time with Pat, enormously, and am glad we have kept in touch over the years. Inspired by her joie de vivre, energy and sense of fun, and her incredible recall of details after so many years. It’s clear that Pat, and her fellow Harrier / Kete Wrens are a generation of amazing women. They blazed a trail which others of us could then follow with more ease. Thank you, Pat, for enriching my life through sharing part of your life with me. Pat Gander’s story was captured by Pam Haines in Pat’s home in Devon, on behalf of the Coastlands Local History Group, Pembrokeshire.

Calling all Wrens who served at Kete, Dale, Pembrokeshire. If you served at RNADC Kete, HMS Goldcrest II, or HMS Harrier, at Kete, the Pembrokeshire Pat Middleton has sent in a couple of covers of The Coastlands Local History Group would love to Wren magazine from the early 60s from her cover girl hear from you. We are collecting the Memoirs days!! They were both taken in Malta at the same time of any lucky ladies who had the privilege of but appeared on different issues of The Wren which serving in this great place. Even if you don’t was 9d at time. The first one was taken on the balcony think you have much of a story to tell, we know of one of the cabins at Whitehall Mansions with Pat you will have fun remembering and sharing reading a book, together with Margaret Rogers and your memories or photos, and if we can put Paddy Ogilvie. The second one is of Pat and Margaret you in touch with other Wrens who served Rogers walking through an archway in Valetta. They there at the same time, we will do so. Please had just come off the forenoon watch at Lascaris contact the Editor, in the first instance, who will Comms Centre, down in the tunnels, when the Chief put you in touch with us. Thank you so much. Wren says – “you lot are going to have a photo session”, so off we went with the Phot guy from Halfar. Pat Middleton (née Jacobs) 40 The Wren 100th Birthdays Book Reviews Voices of Scotswomen In Peace And War by Ian MacDougall The author has recorded the stories of five Wrens – it is fascinating to read their stories of before they joined up, what inspired them to join the WRNS and the different experiences they went through. Don’t be put off by the inaccuracies on the cover! e.g. referring to the WRNS as the ‘Naval Service’ and one of his interviewees as a ‘naval officer’. These ladies were proud to be Wrens. Margaret Campbell became a Cypher officer on the Ile de Enid Dorothy Coxon (née Young), Amy Shaw, a member of Portsmouth France, Isa Allan joined as Third Officer Greenwich 1946, Branch celebrated her 100th birthday a typist, Christina Millaney celebrated her 100th birthday on 5 in March and three members of the became a Steward, Elizabeth December 2019. She received her branch visited her to take flowers Stewart also a Steward, Olga birthday card from The Queen and and a cake. Amy is unable to get Matthews joined quite late in the celebrated the day with her family, to meetings now but her mind is still war, in early 1945 and became including 5 great grandsons, at active and she remembered many an Aircraft Direction (AD) Wren. The Old Hall, Temple Balsall, of the things we did while she was This is the spoken recollections an active member. For many years of Home Life, Employment and Knowle, Birmingham. 1939-45 War Service. Amy was the branch treasurer. ISBN:978 1 910900 32 1

Backing Bletchley-The Edna Courtney’s 100th Codebreaking Outstations birthday celebration - From Eastcote to GCHQ 16 February 2020 by Ronald Koorm l to r Jan Robinson, Edna, Christine A fascinating book which covers Senior all aspects of the work at Bletch- ley and the outstations but also describes the amazing work done by the Wrens and the prej- 90th Birthday udices they had to overcome as females in such a technical and special and secretive workplace. The author has devoted a cou- 99th Birthday ple of chapters to the Wrens and this is a fascinating read. He in- cludes the names of some of the Wrens including Dorothy Killick (née London) who was involved in the intelligence cyphers of the Normandy landings and Barba- ra Linton who attended the Yalta Conference with Winston Chur- chill in March 1945. He spent a long time research- ing the Bombe Registers at the National Archives, which contain the history of many of the code- Joy Fenton celebrating her breaking machines, as well as 99th birthday with her children, other extensive research. grandchildren and great Published by Amberley Books th ISBN 978 1 4456 9652 2 grandchildren in November 2019. Sue Gee celebrating her 90 birthday with the Isle of Wight (hardback)ISBN 978 1 4456 The family enjoyed 99s as dessert 9653 9 (e book) at the celebration! Informal Group. The Wren 41

A Move in the Right Direction Wedding Anniversaries February was a very busy month for HQ, as everything had to be packed up and shipped to Platinum our newly refurbished building in the heart of the Historic Dockyard. (see front cover photo) We are SEARBY-MURPHY on 18 February 1950 at Our now based close to HMS Victory and the Mary Rose Lady and St Thomas Church in Ilkeston Derbyshire. Museum, behind South Office Block, sharing space John Searby to Leading Wren Marie Doreen Murphy. with our Royal Naval Association colleagues. You Living in Nottingham. may remember it as the Main Signal Office (MSO). We are now based in one large office instead of the two small offices at Semaphore Tower. We also have Diamond a store room for the merchandise, a small garden HUNTER – VINCENT on 7 May 1960 at St Paul’s area and shared facilities with the RNA. Anglican Cathedral, Valletta, Malta. SA(S) Stuart This was inevitably a huge upheaval and there have been many challenges along the way. We apologize Hunter to Wren Writer (G) June Vincent. Now living in to anyone who was inconvenienced by the office Thornford, Sherborne, Dorset. closures and any delays as we settled into our new surroundings. Golden Please note our new address: Building 1/87, Scott Road, HILTON - THOMAS HM Naval Base, Portsmouth, on 22 August 1970 at St PO1 3LU. George’s Church, HMS Mail to Semaphore Tower will be redirected. Terror, Singapore POREL Telephone and email remain the same. Jeff Hilton to PO Wren RS Lin Burton Janet Thomas. Now living in Cornwall.

SAPPHIRE

TODKILL - CROWE on 19 April 1975 at Yeovil Registry Office, reception at The Dolphin Ilchester. Leading Aircraft Handler Thomas ‘Toddy’ Todkill to Leading Wren Pam ‘Jo’ Crowe l to r: Administrators Lin Burton and Katharine Lovegrove enjoying the new office space

Pearl

BORRETT - CECIL on 21 April 1990 Sgt Anthony Borrett to CPO(Ops) Ruth Cecil who met at RAF Shawbury when on course. Now living in Rugby, Warwickshire.

RUANE - LIONET on 24 February 1990 in Exeter. WO2 John Ruane RM and Chief Wren (RS) Sandy Lionet. Now living in North Devon. 42 The Wren Garden Rendezvous I found this on yellowing copy paper in a file where it LETTERS had been for 60+ years. Does any reader recognise it? Praise for The Wren I don’t remember where it came from or who gave it to After being in the Association for over 30 years,The me but it would have been between 1957-58 perhaps Wren magazine, Winter 2019 has been the most at Dauntless or Victory. informative for me both in a good and sad way. I On the back it says: “Reg Office Caledonia by PO joined in November 1965 and was in Theseus 156, Emerson, Reg now at Excellent.” and celebrated my 18th birthday whilst in training at Yes, you must come and see my garden, it’s looking very Dauntless. I shared a cabin with Virginia McMillan who lovely, though of course you really ought to have seen it went on to RP training and myself to RO. Her parents last month when the Drafts were in flower. lived nearby and as I was from the North East, I spent These are the Standeasies, a pretty pale tea shade, a few lovely weekends with Virginia and her family. The don’t you love them? We do, but they tend to get too last time I saw her was when I joined HMS President long, though they show up well beside the Defaulters – after being on my Killicks course. She was leaving that such beautiful shades of blue and deep purple. same day to be married in a few weeks time. Sadly We’re not fond of the Divisions, yet they make a good she is listed in the obituaries having passed away in show as long as none of them falls over. We don’t much August 2019. like the Pussers’ Rounds either; they’re quite shiny I read with great interest the article ‘1960’s Wren’ really, but apt to look dusty, you’d almost think they were written by Tina Lowe, all so very true about training at polished wouldn’t you? Dauntless. Coincidentally I was at Mauritius the same Now here we’ve put the Ensigns, we’re proud of these, time as Tina and although we were in the same cabin they’re so hard to raise. Nice sunset colours, aren’t they? didn’t see much of each other socially as we were on – and with them we’ve got the really rare ones – the Red different watches. Recommends, they’re very seldom seen, though much The last piece of information was gleaned from sought after. The border flower is the Burghfield Bloom, the ‘Personal Memoir - Wren Margaret Elizabeth sometimes called Virgins’ Paradise, very pure and white, Campling’, a fascinating article that mentions HMS but too much of it is rather overwhelming. Widgeon. My husband (ex Royal Signals) and I, attend The Televisions are getting very popular – a nice sight – two Veterans Breakfast Clubs in our area. An ex Royal there are several varieties, the very big ones are Dimbles, Military Policeman now working with the Manchester these queer ones with the whiskery petals are Jimmies, Police attends them often. He brings his ‘Drugs Dog’ and the tall handsome ones are Ronniwalds – puzzling named Widgeon with him. She is a lovely black shape, but lots of people like the look of them. Labrador. Hopefully he is coming to give us a talk and The little dull blue blossoms are the Trainees, we have bring her with him to our Manchester Branch. We are lots of them – you must pick a bunch before you go – a thriving Branch and have a diligent committee, with they’re rather difficult to rear. We try to train them to run lots going on. up the wall and round the bend, but some of them don’t Like Tina said in her article she ‘loved it’, her time in come up to scratch and quite pass out and go home. the WRNS and myself likewise. My various drafts, life Now the Killicks are good this year, though they do after Wrens and my experiences of living abroad in spread themselves and need watching, while the Peos different countries are, as the saying goes stories for are all over the place, and always seem to be bigger than another day. they really are. Ann Matthews (née Hariday) Let’s go into the Shrubbery. Those queer spreading things are Blox, it’s impossible to keep them tidy, they WWII Wren Officers get into an awful mess. The Current Affairs bushes are I read in The Wren (Winter 2019) an appeal by 3/O not much liked, though they are really quite interesting, Kitchener for more about jobs undertaken by Wren and the rust-red African Jackson Laws are Rather fun. Officers in WWII. My late sister Audrey Martin (née Everyone admires the Pay Musters with their papery Broughton-Thompson) joined the WRNS in 1941 and leaves and silver flowers, delightful things. They’re hard was one of a small group (maybe 6 or 7?) selected to grow and we never get enough of them. We have a to train as Torpedo Attack Teacher Operators. They splendid crop of little Drips; pity they’re so common, but were all commissioned and by means of a land based we all rather care for them. I think the most popular are machine trained FAA aircrew to drop torpedoes. When the Shipsco variety, but the Old girls and the Dutyhags are trained, the men practiced by dropping dummies close favourites. The pleasant Standoffs and Weekends from the rather flimsy open swordfish aircraft and the do so very well in this soil – the leaves are particularly girls flew with them. Audrey served entirely on Naval sweet and everybody likes them, it is a pity we haven’t Air Stations of course. (Arbroath, Crail, Isle of Man, more of them, aren’t they jolly? Orkney and Halesworth) and seems to have been I’ve kept the real treat until the end. We’ve come to the fairly well known and popular. I joined the WRNS Dauntlesses, Aren’t they simply wonderful? They stand in 1944 and served first at Bletchley Park. Later I up so smartly and so tidily and they grow in time- in such extended my service and was commissioned in 1948. straight lines. The round flat ones that will curve over – so When my surname appeared in the C W List I had annoying are the Jennies, while those odd – shaped ones numerous telephone calls from unknown men whose are the Tiddly Tricornes, very expensive and exclusive. conversation usually started “You must be Audrey’s The few in the front that look rather dull are the Chiefie sister – is she married?”! species. They’re going off a bit now I’m afraid. I think my sister must have known Kenya Kitchener as Still on the whole, the garden does look quite nice, don’t I remember her mentioning the name. you think? – but you must see it when the Directors in full bloom; it’s really ship shape then and worth seeing. Margaret Mortimer Dorothy Hook (née Jamison) (née Broughton-Thompson) 3/O The Wren 43 OBITUARIES Janice Abbots (née Orton) 23 May 1947 – 21 October 2019 Janice joined the WRNS on 18 July 1967 aged 20. After part 1 training at HMS Dauntless she then went on to trained as a Radar Plotter at HMS Dryad. Very early on in her career her talents were spotted, and she was recommended to be part of the joint RN/RAF Tactical Polaris Operation which involved working with nuclear submarines and tracking Russian submarines using their Sonar. She did her training for this at HMS Excellent in partnership with HMS Dolphin the submarine establishment. From there Janice went to London and worked at Admiralty Research Facility at Bushey Park, Teddington and lived at Furse House, the WRNS quarters at Queensgate Terrace. She then went back to HMS Dryad from March 1970 until January 1971, then went to HMS Drake from January 1972 until October 1972 when she left to go on maternity leave. In May 2010 Janice joined Swindon Branch. We were delighted to have Janice as a new member. Very quickly we got to know her warm, friendly and lively character. She certainly brought some good humour to our group and soon established herself as a loyal and committed member, who participated fully in everything that was organised for the branch. She was always smart in her appearance and was a fine example of what a Wren should be. Her strengths lay in her friendliness and compassion for those who weren’t quite so able. Janice regularly went to see some of our older members living on their own and helped them out with some of their affairs which they really appreciated. She took the trouble to meet with them to record their service details, which she then passed on to The Wren Magazine for publication. Janice and her daughter Kathryn worked tirelessly on the fundraising campaigns for the branch and raised a huge amount of money. They put so much work into the various events. Janice took on the role of Chairman of the Branch and once again put her whole heart into it and she worked enthusiastically as a committee member. I persuaded Janice that her talents needed to be used more widely for the Association and that she should apply to become a Trustee which she did eventually do. I was very fortunate to have her working with me for a year when I was Chairman. She was encouraging and supportive of my role and was always ready to give advice when needed. She would tell it to me straight and wasn’t averse to telling me where I was going wrong, thankfully that wasn’t too often! As always, she was conscientious and committed, volunteering often to help with the sale of Association goods. She was excellent in this role and managed to persuade many members to part with their money for the good of the Association. Sadly, as her health deteriorated, she was not able to complete her term of office and reluctantly had to resign. She made many friends amongst the Wrens because of her lovely personality. She was fun to be with. She will be very much missed, her energy and encouragement in volunteering was inspiring, she was a good leader and we all wanted to help under her direction. Her funeral took place on 2 November and it was a mixture of sadness but also a celebration of her life. I felt very privileged to carry our branch standard for the service which was Janice’s wish, in fact during her final weeks she and Kathryn planned her funeral together and her wishes were carried out. It was certainly a day to remember and a day to celebrate the life of a very special person. Carol Gibbon Jean Barbara Blake (née Sleep) Died 1 October 2019 Served 1940 –1945 HMS Drake, HMS Fledgling, HMS Pembroke III 1940 Jean was extremely proud of her service in the WRNS especially the visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to HMS Drake and her time at HMS Pembroke III based in London where her job was to escort returning prisoners of war to the trains. On one occasion in the compartment reserved for them, a lady refused to move, so the Guard took her luggage, forcing her to follow him. These were the type of memories that she would recount to her family. The Spring 2018 magazine has an article about Jean’s visit to HMS Drake at the age of 97, something she never stopped talking about. A very redoubtable lady who enjoyed her life to the full and will be missed greatly by her family and those who knew her. 44 The Wren Patricia Jarvis (known as Pat) Prim Blower (née Campbell) Served 1940 – 1945 18 July 1936 – 21 December 2019 Pat Jarvis, a member In 1956 Prim joined the WRNS and fairly quickly of Exeter Branch for became a Wren driver using utility vehicles, 3 ton many years also a lady lorries and official cars. with many interests. In 1956, Soviet leaders, Bulgarin and Kruschev paid Her time in the WRNS an official visit in their new Cruiser the Sverdloff which during the war, which was berthed in Portsmouth. One morning, Prim’s she recounted over father, Ian Campbell was in the train from Guildford the years to the on his way to London when the person opposite him branch with lots of opened his newspaper. On the back page, there was stories, became part a large photograph of two smiling Russian sailors, with of the Imperial War their arms round a smiling young Wren – it was his Museum’s oral history daughter! sound archive. Her Prim served in Naval Air Stations at Londonderry, ability to write poems for all occasions, Culdrose and Abbotsinch (now Glasgow Airport), including numerous where as a Leading Wren Driver she became the poems for HM The captain’s driver, gauntlets and all. Pat Jarvis at Buckingham Palace Queen celebrating During this time Prim and friends, led by a splendid important events, officer called Dorothy Talma went on many camping always acknowledged, were one of the branches expeditions in Scotland, privileges to hear. The photo shows Pat at a Buckingham In 1961, after five happy years as a rating, she was Palace Garden Party courtesy of the AOW. She read the sent to Greenwich Naval College to take the officers’ lesson in Exeter Cathedral one Trafalgar Day Service course. This was quite a change – breakfast in the and regularly laid wreaths on Remembrance Sunday in Painted Hall and all that! Her career developed in a the village where she spent her last 35 years. Most of different direction, and she became a WRNS Aircrew the Branch own a handwritten copy of the Wrens Prayer, Safety Equipment Officer and served at Naval Air pasted onto a card, with the Association Badge on the Stations at Lee on Solent, Culdrose and Lossiemouth outside and it was one of those copies that was used to in the North of Scotland. read the Wrens Prayer at her funeral by a member of It was at Lossie that we met, when I went there as the branch, our way of paying tribute to a remarkable a student on the advanced flying course. After our lady. The family recounted one article that did not make arrival, one of the first things our course had to do was it into the IWM collection, this was one of her favourite carry out a wet dinghy drill which she supervised. I brooches spelling out in International Signal Flags “I was in full flying kit and she pushed me into the Elgin am coming alongside to inspect your bottom” those of swimming pond, threw a parachute over me, and then us who knew Pat laughed as it was the kind of cheeky supervised my escape and survival. comment that you would expect to receive from her. A I was away in the Far East for fourteen months after lady who fundraised for various causes including baking that, but we kept in touch, and eventually we were cakes, making cards, singing in the church choir, WI married at Bramley in 1966. and Mothers Union member and, as to be expected, Chris Blower (husband) a Calendar Girl! An endless list that reflected a life well lived and a lady most certainly missed by the branch, her family and extended friends. Nancy Hill Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Hardinge (née Stuart) 1918-2019 Betty was in South Africa when the war started and returned to England to join the WRNS She trained as a cypher officer and served at many Naval stations, sometimes in dank subterranean tunnels where she developed pleurisy. Like everyone else, she endured the bombings and destruction, rationing and generally abysmal food. While in Rosyth, on Saturday 24 May during the hunt for the German battleship Bismarck, it was Betty who deciphered a fleet code message marked ‘Immediate Secret’. It told of the tragic loss of the famous battlecruiser HMS Hood. There were only three survivors. She remembers going to church the next day, praying for the lost seamen and thinking of all the congregation who might have friends or family in the Hood. She was the only one among them who knew. On one occasion her cypher unit was visited by Winston Churchill. It was filmed and watched on Pathé News. Another time at a wardroom party, she met the American film star Clark Gable then serving as an officer in the USS Wasp. He asked Betty where he could buy his wife ‘roll on’ as they were called then. Perhaps more indiscreetly he announced his ship was about to head out on a ‘hush hush’ mission. Betty already knew it was one of the frequent sorties into the Med to fly off Spitfires for the defence of her beloved Malta. Betty herself never mentioned her secret work as a cypher officer for at least 40 years. During the preparations for Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa, Betty had to deliver top secret messages by hand to the allied flagship. She remembers being left in the pouring rain on the quarterdeck by a less than considerate young Officer of the Watch. Betty had kept touch with Peter Hardinge, a friend from South Africa, and by 1942 they were married at Brompton Oratory in Knightsbridge. Peter was to become the gunnery officer of the heavy cruiser HMS Berwick. The Berwick spent much of the latter part of the war as part of the distant heavy cover for the Russian convoys. Betty left the WRNS as a Second Officer to give birth to her daughter Sue in September 1945. The Wren 45 Brenda Forward (née Fordham) 20 June 1934 - 17 November 2019 Brenda will be remembered by her friends in the WRNS and in the Association. Some of these friendships go right back to 1953, when Brenda Fordham, as she was then, joined the WRNS. After initial training at Dauntless she went to RNAS Culdrose to train to be a Range Assessor. From Culdrose she went to Lossiemouth. She was a quiet, modest girl, not a great social butterfly, but with a great sense of fun. One evening when everyone in the cabin except Brenda had gone out, they returned to find her fast asleep having made all of them apple pie beds! She persuaded some of her friends to go to the Baptist Church in Lossiemouth with her. They remember being made very welcome, and being invited to church members’ houses for meals, which was much appreciated. From Lossiemouth she went to RNAS Brawdy, in Pembrokeshire. Brenda had never been one to talk about her private life, so imagine the surprise, when, at the end of one leave, meeting up at Euston Station for the return journey, her friends saw her kissing a clergyman, and wearing a handsome diamond ring! While at Brawdy Brenda discovered that she had a talent for rifle shooting, and she was delighted to do so well that she was selected to represent Plymouth Command to shoot at Bisley in the Inter-Services competitions in 1954. She was very proud of her shooting achievements, which made the national press. She was mortified that, as a pretty girl, she was patronisingly described by the press as a “powder puff” rifle shot! In 1956 she left the service to marry Ernest, and we hear that some of his parishioners were slightly alarmed that their Minister’s wife was an expert rifle shot. Many years later, in 2004, Range Assessors Reunited were trying to find former colleagues, and someone remembered that Brenda had left to marry a Baptist Minister, and that his name was Ernest Forward. From there, some smart detective work located the Reverend Forward, and Brenda was found! She became a regular at RAR reunions in different parts of the country, found old friends and made many new ones. She then joined the Association and became a member of the Kingston Branch, later joining the Committee. She is remembered very fondly by her friends at Kingston Branch. Only a year or two after she had lost Ernest she heard of another of her former Wren friends who was recently widowed, and she went out of her way to visit her and often phoned her. After Brenda became ill, many of the Branch members kept in close contact and visited her regularly. She was described as “a fantastic lady, friendly, caring and helpful to others”. We shall miss her very much. Julia Clark APOLOGIES - the Editor regrets there was an error in the obituary for Di Turner on page 45 of the last issue. Catherine “Iris” Jones (née Jeffreys) Her son’s name should read ‘Toby’. 28 July 1925 – 27 November 2019 Served 2 May 1944 – 16 February 1945 Wren 94433 Iris Jones trained in 1944 as a telegraphist at HMS Cabbala. She was trained to transmit and receive messages at speed and still used her “Morse” skills a few years before she died when she had to tap SOS on a wall to attract attention when she fell and was unable to get up. She talked lovingly about her Wren days in HMS Shrike (Northern Ireland) and HMS Condor (Scotland). Her final service before discharge was at HMS Vulture in Padstow, Cornwall where she and fellow Wrens worked from small gypsy style caravans and guided young pilots out over the channel. Some did not return. Her post Wren years were also an adventure for this girl from Barry, Wales. With engineer husband Graham she moved to Australia and lived in isolated rural and mining towns in Victoria and Tasmania. Iris volunteered her time to social causes as well as caring for two children and extended family who followed from Wales to join them. They settled in Melbourne and she lived there until her recent death after a short illness. She was an avid reader and The Wren magazine was always read cover to cover. She entertained many young staff at her nursing home with tales of adventure and the great camaraderie found amongst Wrens worldwide. Bronwen Jones (daughter) 46 The Wren FENN Florence May (née Tate) 1943-45. Wren Wtr (P). Served HMS DEATHS Pembroke, Cochrane and RNAS Donibristle. Died 10 December 2019 With all our notices of members passing away, there will be aged 96. many who have shared years of friendship and others only FLETCHER June (née Cassel) a short acquaintance. Each one will be sadly missed by WWII. Wren. Served RNAS Eglinton. family and friends and the Association would wish to record Died October 2019 aged 94. our appreciation of the loyalty and commitment given to the Association. FOLBIGG Lilian Una 1942-69. Chief Wren. Served HMS Roseneath, ADLAM Norma (née Greenslade) CAIRNCROSS Eleanor Elizabeth Lochailort, Anthorn, Collingwood, (née Leisten) 1941-45. Wren M/T and WWII. Served HMS Wildfire. Died 20 South Africa, Malta, Devonport, 3/O Cypher. Served Dover, Glasgow, January 2020 aged 94. Arbroath and Faslane. Died 2019 Arromanches, Calais, Brussels aged 97. BAILEY Audrey (née Todd) 1947- and Hamburg. Awarded the Legion 50. Wren Steward (G). Served HMS d’honneur April 2019. Died 4 November 2019 aged 99. FORWARD Brenda Joan (née President I, Drake II and Gannet. Died Fordham). L/Wren Range August 2019 aged 90. CASSAR TORREGGIANI Heather Assessor. Served RNAS Culdrose, Mary (née Herbert) 1941-52. 2/O. Lossiemouth, Brawdy and Yeovilton. BARNARD Jennifer Ann (née Died 17 November 2019 aged 84. Nicholson) 1956-66. PO Wren Wtr Served RM Lympstone, HMS Highflyer, Drake, Dryad, RNAS Culdrose and (P). Served Arbroath and Malta. Died GARNER Betty (née Thurlow) 12 October 2019 aged 80. CINC Med. Died 12 January 2020 aged 97. 1943-46. Wren Wtr. Served HMS Pembroke. Former member of Heather Muriel de BARTHELMAS CHARLTON May (née Crowley) 1944- Clacton and Frinton Branch. Died 27 Wend (née Hunt) 1949.71. 1/O. Died 46. Wren SDO. Served HMS Merlin. October 2019. 3 April 2019 aged 92. Died 9 January 2020 aged 93. GLASS January (née Shearburn). BEHAN Annie Elizabeth (née Taylor) COUPER-JOHNSTON Barbara Wren Radio (AR). Served HMS Ariel, 1947-50. L/Wren Wtr (P). Served HMS (née Lawford) WWII. Served HMS Heron and Gannet. Died 2 October President I, Ceres and Drake II. Died Flowerdown. Died 23 October 2019 2019 aged 84. 27 November 2019 aged 90. aged 94. GOODERSON Bertha Joan (née BLACKALL Jean Mary (née CRITTENDEN Eileen Miriam (née Fairall) 1943-46. PO Wren T/P Anstruther) 1943-46. 2/O. Served Bonnett) 1943-46. Wren Aircraft Operator. Served Portsmouth, Harwich, Plymouth and Liverpool. Checker and Drawing Duties. Southampton, Plymouth, Mombasa, Died 3 January 2020 aged 98. Served HMS Dipper, Daedalus and Colombo and Durban. Died 21 Collingwood. Died 8 October 2019 November 2019 aged 96. BLAKE Jean Barbara (née Sleep) aged 94. 1940-45. L/Wren Wtr (G). Served GREENLAND Kitty Nora (née HMS Drake, Fledgling and Pembroke DANCE Patricia Beryl (née Juddery) Dorken) 1944-46. L/Wren. Served III. Died 1 October 2019 aged 98. 1949-53. Wren Wtr (S). Served RNAS HMS Pembroke III and Lynx. Former Culdrose, HMS Angelo and Excellent. member of Dover and Shrewsbury BLEBY Jean Alma (née Harris) 1939- Died 13 November 2019 aged 91. Branches. Died 22 October 2019 45. 3/O. Died 25 December 2019 aged 93. aged 98. DAVIS Edna Margaret 1953-65. PO Wren Wtr & Regulating. Served HMS GREENWAY Marion (née Nelson). BLOWER Primrose Margaret (née Raleigh, Victory and Birmingham. Died Vice President. Died 1 December Campbell) 1956-66. L/Wren M/T Driver 30 November 2019 aged 88. 2019. and 3/O Aircrew Safety Equipment. Doreen Jessica (née Terry) WWII. Served RNAS Londonderry, Culdrose, DEW GRENSIDE Lilian Anne, known as Served Isle of Wight and HMS Hornet. Anne (née Lawton) 1943-45. Wren Abbotsinch, Lee on the Solent, and Died 21 August 2019 aged 93. Lossiemouth. Died 21 December Radio Operator (Morse). Served 2019 aged 83. HMS Flowerdown, Mill Hill, New DRENNAN Barbara Kathleen, known College and Soberton Towers. Long- as Babs (née Fraser) 1942-47. PO BRAMICH Alma Mary (née Vizard) standing member of Chester branch. Wren. Served India. Died Bellevile, ON, Died 20 January 2020 aged 95. 1953-56. Wren Stores Air. Served Canada 22 September 2014 aged 91. HMS Dauntless, Ceres and Heron. Died June 2019 aged 83. GROVES Yvonne Hastie (née Parker, EMMERSON Gillian Patricia (née formerly David) 1941-45. PO Wren Horne) 1959-63. L/Wren RP. Served T/P Operator. Served HMS Forward, BURDGE Pauline Mary (née Stevens) HMS Sea Eagle, RNAS Halfar and Osborne, Victory and Squid. Died 18 1941-44. L/Wren SDO. Served HMS Yeovilton. Died 16 December 2020 December 2019 aged 98. President III, RNH Barrow, Gurney aged 78. and Avonmouth. Died 17 February Doris Edna (née Betty (née Hough) 1942-45. GUTTERIDGE 2020 aged 96. EVANS White) 1942-46. L/Wren Wtr. Served Wren Radar. Served Sheerness. Died HMS Victory. Died 11 January 2020 8 November 2019 aged 99. aged 96. The Wren 47 HALL Elisabeth Benson (née JACQUES Elizabeth Holligan (née MORISON Hilary Patricia (née Bellwood) 1943-46. Wren Plotter. O’Donnell) WWII. Wren. Served HMS Maguire) 1939-45. Wren Cypher. Served Portland, Harwich and Dover. Carrick, Daedalus and Condor. Died Served HMS Lanka and Kestrel. Died Died 29 December 2019 aged 95. 14 October 2019 aged 94. 4 December 2019 aged 99.

HARDY OBE JP Lavender Susan JARVIS Patricia Doris Mary, known as NORRIE Annie Dickson, known as Mary, known as Susan, (née Ponting) Pat (née Lipscomb) 1940-45. L/Wren Nancy (née Drysdale) WWII. Wren. 1943-46. L/Wren. Served HMS Comms. Served HMS Clio. Died 22 Served Northern Ireland. Died 10 Pembroke V (P5), Loch Lomond, October 2019 aged 97. November 2019 aged 97. Chelsea, Eastcote and Bletchley Park. Died 1 January 2020 aged 94. JOHNSTON Ruth Margaret (née OMER Ann (née Hyde) 1942-45. Cowley) 1943-46. L/Wren Writer. Wren Wtr. Served HMS Lucifer. Died HARLAND DEVENPORT Rosemary Served RNAS Evanton, Crail, 27 September 2019 aged 94. Bertha Elaine 1942-45. Wren. Served Dunfermline, Headingly, Lowestoft, HMS Drake, Raleigh, Defiance, Blyth, Pitreavie, Chatham and Minden. PEACOCK Virginia Dawn Wendy (née Glenholt, Plymouth and St Merryn. Died 7 December 2019 aged 95. Drane) 1954-57. Wren Wtr (P). Served Died January 2020 aged 97. Portsmouth, Chatham and Malta. Died JONES Catherine Iris (née Jeffreys) 25 September 2019 aged 84. HAWKINS Jean Mary Dymott (née 1944-46, Wren Telegraphist. Served Spence) 1942-46. Wren Coder. HMS Shrike, Condor, Vulture, Cabbala PECK Irene Lilian Edith (née Served HMS Cabbala, Skirmisher, and Maydown. Died 27 November Thompson) 1944-47. L/Wren Special Tana and Portsmouth. Former 2019 aged 94. Duties P5 and Writer (P). Served member of Tunbridge Wells Branch. Bletchley Park. Beloved member of Died 16 November 2019 aged 96. LEAKE Elizabeth, known as Bromley Branch for many years. Died Paddy (née Burns) 1939-45. Wren 10 February 2020 aged 94. HIGNETT Martha (née McRoy) WWII. Hairdresser. Served HMS Strike, Wren Cook. Served HMS Collingwood. Jackdaw and Godwit. Died 2 July 2019 PERRY Betty Eileen (née Jenner) Died 30 October 2019 aged 96. aged 98. WWII. Died 10 November 2019 aged 97. HOCKING RD* Muriel (née Cutts) LEATH Dorothy (née Robertson) 1963-69 WRNS. 1969-2000 WRNR. 1942-45. Wren Steward (G). Served POCKETT Eileen Margaret (née Commodore. Served HMS Dauntless, HMS Jackdaw, President III, Excellent Williamson) 1943-45. Wren M/T Dryad, Scotia, Calpe, Vivid, RNAS and Ambrose. Died 3 May 2019 aged Driver. Served HMS Beaver. Died 15 Lossiemouth, Culdrose, Greenwich, 95. December 2019 aged 100. Arbroath and RAF Brampton. Died 26 February 2020 aged 75. LEIPER Marjory Craig (née Watt) RAPP Margaret Eleanor (née Hamlin) 1944-46. Wren Cook. Served HMS 1943-46. L/Wren Wtr and Special HOLDEN Mary (née Danbrook) 1941- Britannia and Eglinton. Died 8 January Duties (PV). Served HMS Pembroke 46. L/Wren T/P Operator. Served HMS 2020 aged 93. I/III, Lanka, Highflyer and Bletchley Eaglet, Cormorant and Nightjar. Died Park. Died 2 December 2019 aged 96. 2 December 2019 aged 97. LETLEY Ethel May (née Pritchard) WWII. Wren Steward (O). Served RATE MBE Patricia Elizabeth, known HOLMES Dorothy (née Taylor, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and as Pat (née Buxton) 1944-49. L/Wren formerly Broadbent) 1945-47. Wren Sandwich. Died 29 October 2019 96. General Duties (Groundsman), Fleet Cook and Wtr (S). Served HMS Mail Clerk and Supply (V). Served Eaglet, Nuthatch, Blackcap and Ariel. LIPPIETT Katharine (née Langstone- HMS Pembroke III (Mill Hill and Died 18 July 2019 aged 94. Jones) 1939-46. 1/O. Served HMS Reading), Victory III, Marlborough, Buzzard, Daedalus II, Greenwich, Dolphin, Tormentor, Newton Ferrers, Dumbarton, HMS Christopher, HORTON Elsie (née Campbell). WWII. HMS Landrail, Brontosauras, Wren SDO Watchkeeper and Coder. Excellent, Caroline and QE Mansion. Lochinvar, President III, Ceres, Founder of Bognor Regis Branch. Died Served HMS Victory and Wagtail. Osprey and Victory. Died 25 October 8 November 2019 aged 103. Died 21 October 2019 aged 95. 2019 aged 93. Jessie Hamilton 1943- Georgette Ann (née MACINTOSH Gillian Hilary (née HOULBROOK 46. Wren. Served HMS Owl, Condor, RAWLINGS Johnson) 1963-67. Wren SA. Served Cochrane and Spartiate. Former Bennett, formerly Garnham). Died 13 RNAS Culdrose. Died 27 February member of Glasgow Branch. Died 5 November 2019 aged 83. 2020 aged 74. November 2019 aged 96 . SANDFORD Irene (née Parkinson) WWII. PO Wren. Served HMS HOWES BEM LEGION D’HONNEUR MARSH Maureen Ethel. Wren Bomb Mabel Ena, known as Bobby, Range Marker/Assessor. Served Mercury. Died 10 February 2020 aged (née Mallett) 1940-46. PO Wren RNAS Culdrose and Eglinton. Died 26 99. Telephonist. Served HMS Ganges, October 2019 aged 88. Beaver, Raven, Southwick House, SCARROTT E Yoma (née Hundley) France and Germany. Died 10 October MAYNARD Betty (née Croft) 1942- 1947-50. L/Wren Air Mechanic. Served 2019 aged 100. 45. Wren. Served HMS Cochrane, RNAS Evanton, Donibristle, Yeovilton Byrsa, CinC Med and Naples. Died 25 and Culdrose. Died November 2019 HUTCHINSON BEM Elizabeth Glen October 2019 aged 97. aged 91. (née Booth) 1943-46. Wren MT Driver. Served HMS Roseneath, Landrail, MIDWORTH Molly (née Roberts) SHADE Brenda Lawn (née Burchell). Ringtail, Isle of Man and RNAS 1943-46. Wren Boat’s Crew. Served Wren Comms and Supply. Served Anthorn. Died 6 October 2019 aged HMS Vernon. Died 23 January 2020 HMS Victory and Tullichewan. Died 5 99. aged 95. September 2019 aged 94. 48 The Wren SHARP Olive (née Taylor) 1948- VAUGHAN Doris Edna (née Russell) HARGRAVES Valerie, known as Val 51. Wren Telegraphist. Served HMS WWII. Served Lee on Solent. Died (née Fawcett) 1957-60. Wren Wtr (P). K Law Solicitors Authorised and Regulated by the Dauntless, Mercury and RNAS St November 2019 aged 96. Served HMS Dauntless, Ceres and The Old Court House Solicitors Regulation Merryn. Long-standing member of Heron. Died 26 October 2019 aged 79. Authority Number 445546 Sydney Branch. Died 16 October 2019 VERNON-BROWNE OBE Wendy Ascot SL5 7EN aged 90. Patricia. Chief Officer WRNR. Died 23 HOLDEN Penelope Maude (née September 2019 aged 87. Rose-Casemore) 1942-46. Served The Solicitors Code of Conduct SIVIOUR Joyce (née Fowler) 1943- Portsmouth and Fort Southwick. Died t +44 (0) 1344 620 344 is accessible from www.sra.org.uk 46. Wren Wtr (G). Served HBLO WILSON Rosemary Claire 1950- 5 January 2020 aged 96. Bournemouth, HMS Northney, 54. L/Wren Wtr (G). Served HMS f +44 (0) 1344 297 344 VAT registration number Hopetown, Port Edgar, South Dauntless, Ceres, Fulmar, President, Anne (née Chadwick) 1950s. JACK 889 9271 41 Queensferry, Roseneath and Gare Pembroke and RNAS Lossiemouth. Wren Air Mechanic. Served HMS Loch. Died 1 April 2019 aged 96. Died 17 November 2017 aged 86. Dauntless and RNAS Yeovilton. Died [email protected] 8 November 2019 aged 89. SLABBER Patricia Henrietta (née WOOD Marian (née Andrews) 1949- www.KLaw.biz Green) 1962-66. L/Wren Quarters 55. PO Wren SA. Served HMS KING Cuchlaine Audrey Muriel Assistant. Served HMS Dauntless and Dauntless, Collingwood, Drake, (Professor) WWII. Served Met Victory. Died 25 February 2020 aged Eaglet and Malta. Died 11 October Office, Belfast and well known 82. 2019 aged 90. Geomorphologist. Died 17 December 2019 aged 97. SMITH Margaret Doreen (née Mitchell) WOODS Barbara Louise (née 1943-48. Served HMS President Loveland, formerly Lane) 1944-45. III, Braganza, Lanka, Wildfire and Wren Cook. Served HMS Victory and LYON Rosie, known as Roz (née Roseneath. Founder member of Daedalus. Died 11 November 2019 Allchin). Died 16 August 2019. Bedford Branch in 1948. Died 3 aged 93. October 2019 aged 95. MALEK Jean Lavinia (née Stevens) WRIGHT Harriet Edith (née Prosser) 1944-47. Wren Stores. Served HMS SMITH Miriam (née Olney) 1942-46. 1943-46. Wren Switchboard Operator. Spartiate II, Royal Arthur, Isle of Wight ON THE BALL PO Wren Wtr (P). Died 15 February Served HMS Spartiate, HBLO RM and Drake. Died 14 August 2019 aged 2020 aged 97. Ilfracombe, RNAH Barrow Gurney, 94. HMS Tern and Sparrowhawk. Vice STEPHEN Sybil Erica, known as Erica Chairman of Cheltenham Branch. MCLAREN Halcyon (née Hummel (née Palmer) 1940-46. PO Wren. Died 15 November 2019 aged 95. 1943-46. Served Rosyth and Blyth. Served Bletchley Park, Colombo and Died 2 January 2020 aged 99. Trincomalee. Died 13 January 2020 YATE Elizabeth (née Oliver) 1943- aged 97. 45. Wren W/T. Served HMS Cabbala, MORTON Edna (née Fenwick) 1952. Since 2006 Arbroath, Yeovil and Shropshire. Died WRNVR. Served HMS Calliope. Died K Law has been a private practice English law firm STRANGE Margaret Joan Cameron 31 December 2019 aged 94. 18 January 2020 aged 88. (née Douglas) WWII. 2/O. Served Off the field the K Law Team takes the winning rules of polo into the heart of client’s Liverpool, Basra and Trincomalee. YOUNGMAN Margaret (née PRITCHETT Tatiana Esther (née Died 2 January 2020 aged 98. Maughan) 1944-47. Wren Wtr Served Brown) 1943-54. 2/O Secretarial matters, picks a good line and drives it forward hard until the goal is reached. Our aim HMS Copra, Europa and CINCNORE. and Safety Equipment. Served HMS is to get there fast and skillfully, for you. SYKES Edith Lily Georgina (née Died 16 January 2020 aged 94. Excellent and Siskin. Died 15 October Wright) 1942-44. Wren Special Duties. 2019 aged 94. Served HMS Victory III, Aggressive We do conveyancing for agricultural, equine and high end properties in the South of and Drake II. Died 4 November 2019 REINHOLT Geraldine (née Standing). England, we do tax planning for individuals and family offices, we give sound aged 96. NON-MEMBERS L/Wren Steward (O). Served HMS commercial advice, we specialise in Emplyment Law, Landlord & Tenant matters, Wills, ALLEN Patricia (née McDermott) Dauntless and Raleigh. Died aged 72. TEMPLAR Joan (née Pailthorpe). 1943-46. Wren T/P Operator. Served probate and legal issues concerning private clients. Died 2019. HMS Pembroke, Jackdaw and SKERMER Eunice Mary (née Sisson). Merganser. Died 3 September 2019 Served HMS Ariel. Died 21 August We will always look at your problem and see how we can help. TEMPLE Jocelyn Mary (née Jump aged 96. 2019 aged 87. formerly Jenkins) 1961-65. Wren Radio Operator. Served HMS BARTLETT Jean 1944-46. Served TEASEY Sylvia Daintry (née Norris) Dauntless, Mercury, Seahawk, Rooke HMS St George and Inverness Naval and President. Died 16 January 2020 1941-42. Wren. Died 25 February Base. Died late January 2020 aged 2020 aged 98. aged 78. 93. WAKE-WALKER Lady Anne (née TIER Kathleen Anne (née Richardson) COX Freda 1943-46. Wren. Died 16 1944-46. L/Wren Air Stores. Served October 2019 aged 95. Spencer) Born 1920. Died 25 February HMS Urley, Gannet, President and 2020. Served WWII as 3/0 WRNS. Bournemouth. Mother of the late DAWES Edna Myfanwy. WWII. Wren. Aunt of Princess Diana. Elaine Bray. Died 3 February 2020 Died 7 October 2019 aged 94. aged 93. WALKER Enid (née Simmons) WWII. DICKISON Clarice, known as Claire, Served Truro. Died 27 December 2019 TILLING Marion Reid (née Birrell) Diana 1940-41 and 1944. Died 16 aged 93. 1947-50. L/Wren Air Stores. Served February 2020 aged 98. Portsmouth. Died 1 February 2020 WILLIAMS Pat (née Britton) 1977-99. aged 94. DUNCAN Sarah (née Hignett) 1945- PO Wren Wtr. Served HMS Dauntless, 48. Died 8 December 2019 aged 92. Pembroke, Drake, President, Rooke, TUKE Frances Mary (née Harvey) Osprey, Warrior, Seahawk, Heron, 1941-45. 3/O. Served Yarmouth, HMS GLIDEWELL Lady Hilary WWII. Died Raleigh, and RM Stonehouse. Died 30 Daedalus and Peewit. Died 5 October aged 97. October 2019. 2019 aged 98. K Law Solicitors Authorised and Regulated by the The Old Court House Solicitors Regulation Authority Number 445546 Ascot SL5 7EN The Solicitors Code of Conduct t +44 (0) 1344 620 344 is accessible from www.sra.org.uk f +44 (0) 1344 297 344 VAT registration number 889 9271 41 [email protected] www.KLaw.biz

ON THE BALL

Since 2006 K Law has been a private practice English law firm

Off the field the K Law Team takes the winning rules of polo into the heart of client’s matters, picks a good line and drives it forward hard until the goal is reached. Our aim is to get there fast and skillfully, for you.

We do conveyancing for agricultural, equine and high end properties in the South of England, we do tax planning for individuals and family offices, we give sound commercial advice, we specialise in Emplyment Law, Landlord & Tenant matters, Wills, probate and legal issues concerning private clients.

We will always look at your problem and see how we can help.