The Wren Magazine of the Association of Wrens (Women of the Royal Naval Services) Number 383 June 2015 Number 375 October 2012 No. 383 June 2015 CHAIRMAN’S The Association of Wrens Women of The Royal Naval Services Letter PATRON: Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal PRESIDENT: Cmdt. Anthea Larken CBE SENIOR VICE-PRESIDENT: Carol Gibbon Dame Marion Kettlewell DBE Mrs Patricia A Jenkin BEM Miss Eleanor Patrick Mrs Marion Greenway Mrs Janet Crabtree Mrs Mary E Brown OBE Mrs Pat Farrington Mrs Anne Trigg Mrs Beryl Watt By the time you read this report I hope that we will be having Mrs Elsie Baring RD Mrs Julia Clark Mrs Patricia Wall Miss Rosie Wilson OBE some better weather and looking forward to a good summer. Mrs Marjorie Imlah OBE JP Mrs Mary Hawthornthwaite I am writing to say that The Team behind the Scenes, Miss Penny Wright MBE Miss Julia Simpson BSc CEng MBCS namely the Association are working hard on your behalf to CHAIRMAN: Mrs Carol Gibbon represent the views and suggestions of all our members VICE-CHAIRMAN: Miss Jill Stellingworth who take the trouble to write in. Your comments are HON. TREASURER: Mrs Rita Hoddinott always appreciated and we do try our best to act on these HON. EDITOR of THE WREN: Mrs Georgina Tuckett suggestions wherever possible and whenever appropriate. PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER: Mrs Celia Saywell MBE ADMINISTRATORS: Mrs Katharine Lovegrove All the time we are looking to improve and modernise the Mrs Lin Burton Association so we do take your views very seriously and try to make good use of them. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Membership renewal for 2015/16 payable 1st April 2015 Annual membership for UK members £12.50 or 10 years for £90 Annual membership for Overseas members £15.50 or 10 years for £120 I feel very encouraged when reading the Wren Magazine Association of Wrens, Room 215, Semaphore Tower (PP 70), HM Naval Base, Portsmouth PO1 3LT Telephone: 02392 725141 by the wonderful letters and articles of how the Association All correspondence for the Association of Wrens should be sent to the above address. has put people in touch with one another, some of whom If a reply is required, please enclose a stamped addressed envelope. haven’t spoken for many years. This is what the AOW is all Registered under the Charities Act 2011 — Registration No. 257040 about. Speaking from personal experience, one member The contents of THE WREN are strictly copyright and all rights are expressly reserved. contacted me through the Association. Kate reminded The views expressed herein are not necessarily the views of the Hon. Editor or the Association, and accordingly no responsibility for these will be accepted. me that I was her training Petty Officer at HMS Mercury in Whilst the Hon. Editor has high regard for all her advertisers, readers are 1973 and although we kept in contact when we lived in the recommended to seek appropriate financial or legal advice before entering into any binding agreement. Portsmouth area, we lost contact for over 30 years. So as THE WREN IS REGISTERED AT STATIONERS’ HALL you can imagine I was delighted to receive an email from Kate and now we are in contact again and hope to meet up in the not too distant future. Don’t forget you can always Papers used in this publication are harvested from well post messages requesting whereabouts of former Wrens managed forests, those which are ecologically, socially and economically maintained through the Magazine, the website and also the official Facebook page. Front Cover Photograph: VE70 WWII FAA Wren Air We are fortunate to have such good means of communication Mech (E) Memorabilia Dorothy Mitchell. and information, as not only have we got the Magazine which I know members really enjoy reading but the website continues to improve and new information is being added WOMEN’S ROYAL NAVAL SERVICE all the time. Then of course the official Wrens Association Facebook page is an excellent means of sharing information, BENEVOLENT TRUST this has been proved by the number of new people joining through their connection with this social media site. The WRNS BT is your Trust and a registered charity, a completely separate organisation from the Association of After a fairly quiet start to the New Year, the work has Wrens, although both are now based in Portsmouth. now started to come in and Association matters seem To be a member of the Trust you must have served in the WRNS and transferred to the RN before November 1993, or to be increasing at an alarming rate. Apart from several served in the WRNS since September 1939. The Trust helps meetings which have taken place, invitations to events have both officers and ratings across the world. been forthcoming. We had an enjoyable meeting with our The Trust exists to provide relief in cases of necessity or counterparts from the WRAC Association which included distress amongst its members and their dependants and may their Regimental Secretary who is responsible for their twice also make grants for assistance with further education for yearly magazine and we also got to meet 2 members of the members. Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps. It was good to talk about our various Associations and compare notes, If you wish to apply for assistance or are aware of a former much of which are very similar but also some differences Wren who may need our help, please contact the General Secretary, WRNS BT, Castaway House, 311 Twyford are apparent relevant to the different Associations. Avenue, Portsmouth PO2 8RN At a recent Trustee Meeting it was suggested that we Tel 02392 655301 email [email protected], approach the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nursing website www.wrnsbt.org.uk Service Association to see whether they might like to send 1 a representative when we all hope to meet again in the summer. It would be lovely to include them in our discussions as we can all learn from each other. From the Editor I am looking forward to attending my first RBL Women’s Georgina Tuckett Section Annual Conference which this year takes place (nee Scott) in Bournemouth in April. This will include their National Warspite 268 Standard Bearer’s Competition which I know I will enjoy with my experience of being a Standard Bearer at branch level and of course my years as the National Standard Bearer for Celebrations of the 70th Anniversary of VE Day are really the AOW. gathering momentum and in our own way we are also contributing – Celia has been asked by the BBC and other This will be followed by the Naval Service Women’s Network forms of the media to find Wrens who are prepared to Annual Conference to be held at HMS Collingwood in May, share their memories and we have included some of them again I am sure it will be an enlightening experience meeting in this edition of The Wren. Memories amusing, revealing, up with service women past and present. poignant and for those post war Wrens like me full of interest. The following day is the WRNSBT Annual General Meeting, Readers of The Times will have noticed that their letters this year being held at Trinity House in London, again I am page has moved from the right to the left hand page which sure, as always, this will be a memorable day. To complete has generated a fair amount of correspondence – well the week’s events we are looking forward to the Out of anything they can do we can do just as well if not better. Town Meeting at the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton, I The last topic that produced a huge post bag and deluged know this is going to be an extraordinary event and a huge my in box was on the topic of friendships. I am hoping that amount of planning has gone into making it an enjoyable the next topic to grab your attention will be how to update occasion. The Wren. With this issue you will find an insert asking for your views on the AOW and as part of this we are The Project Team for WRNS100 continues to meet looking at ways to update The Wren. Sadly, we aren’t in regularly. Jill, my Vice Chairman, has now joined the group the same league as a commercial paper and we can’t pay so it is good to have her input. I know there is a report in our contributors, we can’t afford to commission journalists The Wren Magazine so you will have an update as to what to write articles for us, instead The Wren is written by is being planned for 2017. members for members so that what is published is entirely home grown. If you don’t write it, it won’t appear in print! If As I have mentioned before there is much going on behind you want a particular topic covered then please write it! I the scenes of the Association and it is through the hard promise we won’t ignore the traditional letters with their mix work of many people both nationally and locally that the of up to date events or the memories of service that are so Association continues to thrive. Our PRO is working quietly popular but there have been suggestions that The Wren in the background reaching out to as many people as she could do with some updating. can. She has got some amazing contacts and has built up This is the second issue of the magazine that our a good portfolio of organisations and individuals who have administrators Katharine and Lin have produced on the got so much to offer, how she manages to record all the computer in the office and they are going from strength to individual stories is quite outstanding.