Issue 31 Page !1 Brave Report Join the WRNS and free a man for the Fleet ! The Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) was founded in 1917, during the First World War, when the Royal Navy became the first of the three services to officially recruit women. Northern Ireland - Service in the Royal Navy - In Remembrance Issue 31 Page !2 On 10 October 1918, nineteen-year-old Josephine Carr from Cork, became the first Wren to die on active service, when the RMS Leinster was torpedoed. By the end of the war WRNS had 5,500 members, 500 of them officers. In addition, about 2000 members of the WRAF had previously served with the WRNS supporting the Royal Naval Air Service and were transferred on the creation of the Royal Air Force. It was disbanded in 1919. The WRNS was disbanded when the war ended, but was re-founded in 1939 with the realisation that women would be needed to assist the Royal Navy if war broke out again. Vera Laughton Matthews, who had served with the WRNS during the First World War, was appointed as Director and by December 1939, there were 3,000 personnel. Those who served in the WRNS were nicknamed 'Wrens'. Wrens were initially recruited to release men to serve at sea. This was reflected in the recruiting slogan 'Join the Wrens today and free a man to join the Fleet.' As the wartime navy expanded, the WRNS followed suit, taking on tasks that the Royal Navy had previously considered beyond their capabilities. WRNS responsibilities included driving, cooking, clerical work, operating radar and communications equipment and providing weather forecasts. The Naval Censorship Branch was staffed by WRNS clerks and censor officers either worked in mobile units or in London. Many Wrens were involved in planning naval operations, including the D-Day landings in June 1944. Wrens with language skills were drafted to stations around the coast to intercept and translate enemy Northern Ireland - Service in the Royal Navy - In Remembrance Issue 31 Page !3 ! signals. Wrens also worked at the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park where German and Japanese codes were broken. Although few served at sea, Wrens did operate small harbour launches and tugs close to shore. Some Wrens were trained to serve as pilots on D-Day, taking the smaller ships across the Channel and towing disabled vessels back into port for repairs, which were often carried out by WRNS mechanics. As well as the Home Front, thousands of Wrens served in overseas units. They also worked in the different branches of the Royal Navy, including the Fleet Air Arm and the Royal Marines. Australia, Canada and New Zealand formed their own Royal Naval Services. The Women's Royal Indian Naval Service (WRINS) Northern Ireland - Service in the Royal Navy - In Remembrance Issue 31 Page !4 contributed significantly to the running of Royal Indian Navy shore establishments. In December 1941 the government passed the National Service Act which allowed the conscription of women into war work or the armed forces. Women could choose to join the WRNS or its naval or air force equivalents, the ATS and the WAAF. Initially single women and widows without children between 19 and 30 were called up, but later the age limit was pushed up to 43. Women who had served in the First World War, including Wrens, could be conscripted up to the age of 50. As in the ATS and the WAAF, women from all backgrounds learnt skills and took on responsibilities in the WRNS that would have been unheard of before the war. The WRNS reached its largest size in 1944, with 74,000 women doing over 200 different jobs. 303 Wrens were killed on wartime service. After the war the WRNS was made a permanent part of the Royal Navy, but women did not serve in Royal Navy ships until the 1990s. Belfast’s Aquila WRNS In August 1941 Third Officer Alix Bruce from Belfast was amongst the first draft of 22 WRNS who were permitted to serve overseas. They boarded the SS Aquila in Liverpool. At that time members of the WRNS were not permitted to take passage in a Royal Navy ship of war, and were obliged to travel on one of the unarmed merchantmen sailing in the convoy. Aguila (Master Arthur Firth) was a 3,255 ton steam passenger ship. She sailed on 13/08/1941 with Convoy Northern Ireland - Service in the Royal Navy - In Remembrance Issue 31 Page !5 OG71 as the Commodore ship, with 22 ships bound for Gibraltar. During the approach to Gibraltar on August 19, the SS Aquila was hit amidships by a torpedo from U-201 (Schnee) and sank in under two minutes, taking with her 152 souls, amongst whom were most of the Wrens. There were only 16 survivors, 10 were picked up by HMS Wallflower and 6, including the surviving Wrens, were picked up by the Empire Oak, a 484 ton steam tug. Three days later, on 22 August, the Empire Oak itself was torpedoed and sunk by U-564 (Suhren) with the loss of 19 lives, among whom were the Wrens. In all, eight ships from convoy OG71 were sunk and none of the twenty one Wrens survived. It was this incident that persuaded the Lords of the Admiralty to change Fleet Orders to permit future groups of Wrens on draft to overseas stations, to take passage in British warships. Alex Bruce was the daughter of a well known Belfast family. Her name is recorded on the family memorial in Clifton Street cemetery. The RNLI Aguila Wren As a tribute to their memory, an Aguila Wrens Memorial Fund was established, with all serving Wrens donating a day’s pay, which raised over £4,000. The fund was administered by the co-trustees Edward Benjamin and Canon Ogle, both of whom had lost daughters on the Aguila. Part of the fund was put towards the construction of HMS Wren a new anti submarine Black Swan class Northern Ireland - Service in the Royal Navy - In Remembrance Issue 31 Page !6 sloop, to be commanded later by Captain John Walker. The cost of the sick bay equipment was subscribed by friends and relatives of the 21 Wrens, and a plaque was placed in the bay commemorating them by name. HMS Wren was launched in 1942 and became known as the Wren’s ship. The balance of the fund was donated to the RNLI to build a new lifeboat the Aguila Wren (no. 892). At its launching ceremony in Aberystwyth on 28 June 1952, Edward Benjamin, in formally presenting the lifeboat to the RNLI, said "It was most fitting that these women who gave their lives should be commemorated in a boat whose sole purpose is to save life". Attending the ceremony was Arthur Frith, the Aguila’s former Master, and Dame Vera Laughton Matthews, the former Director of WRNS at the time. The lifeboat was stationed at Aberystwyth until 1964 when, after a refit, she went to Redcar, North Yorkshire. On 22 November 1972 it was sold to the Scunthorpe Sea Cadets as a training vessel, who kept it for the next twenty years. There is, in the National Memorial Arboretum, a memorial to the Aguila Wrens and a book titled "Nightmare Convoy: the Story of the Lost Wrens", by Paul Lund and Harry Ludlam. Wren who saw the U boats surrender on the Foyle A former Wren, Muriel Nevin, remembers the day comedian and actor Bob Hope visited Londonderry, and Northern Ireland - Service in the Royal Navy - In Remembrance Issue 31 Page !7 Muriel Nevin, Women's Royal Naval Service Veteran, now aged 91 with a photo of her in Wren uniform in 1941. ! the German U-boats surrendering on the River Foyle. Muriel was stationed at the base at Maydown. On May 14th 1945 the first of the German U-boats made their way up the Foyle to the port of Lisahally, where they were formally ordered to surrender by Admiral Sir Max Horton, Commander-in-Chief (CinC), Western Approaches. The surrender on the Foyle was a testament to Derry’s pivotal role as a strategic allied base, with over 100 military ships docked here from 1943, facilitating the Allied domination of the Atlantic sea lanes and playing a key role in the invasion of France in 1944. Northern Ireland - Service in the Royal Navy - In Remembrance Issue 31 Page !8 ! Muriel’s Wedding in Liverpool, surrounded by fellow Wrens who served under Max Horton. “I was born in Liverpool and I joined the Wrens in 1940 during the Battle of Britain because I wanted to serve my country,” she recalls. “As I wasn’t 18, I had to get my father to sign, but he didn’t see that I put down 17 instead of my real age, which was 16! First I had to go to the training college, then I went to work at Western Approaches at the Liver Buildings in Liverpool. That’s where Admiral Max Horton masterminded operations during the Battle of the Atlantic. He was a marvellous man. He came over here specially for the surrender of the U-boats at Lisahally in 1945.” Northern Ireland - Service in the Royal Navy - In Remembrance Issue 31 Page !9 “I quickly came over to Northern Ireland and was posted with the A36 and A37 Fleet Air Squadron in Maydown. The atmosphere was great. Everybody helped everybody, no matter who you were. “I remember the dances and all the lovely music. There were of course sad moments when you heard of people being killed and ships going down, but you had a job to do and you did it.” While not on duty Muriel would leave the camp and visit towns nearby, sometimes crossing the border to the neutral Irish state.