大象传媒

THE WOMEN'S ROYAL NAVAL SERVICE
Wren Margaret Lightle, Service no. 82291- 4th August 1943 -18th December 1945

For some time, the call up for women into the armed forces had been in force. Women had to register for war work when they became nineteen. We had choices. We could choose to work in industry, possibly in munitions or aircraft factories, in the Women's Land Army, or in one of the
women's services - army, navy or airforce. Possibly, I could have claimed exemption, because I was already doing a mild form of war work, but I don't think I wanted that, I was ready to spread my wings.

Instead of waiting for my turn to register, I volunteered to enlist in the WRNS and thus 'free a man for the fleet'. I was a bit disgusted to find that they would only accept me in would be a cook or a steward. I did want a change from clerical work, but I had set my sights on a much more glamorous job. I rather fancied being a plotter. You stood by a huge table, with the battle area mapped out on it and pushed little symbols with a very long pole to represent the position of vessels and so forth as directed by the officer supervised by an officer. However, there was a little chink of hope. Having a credit in school certificate maths, I could apply to be a radio mechanic. So I decided I wanted to be a radio mechanic. There must have been no rush to avail themselves of my talents, because, it was not until five months later that my call up papers arrived. I had to report to Leeds to train as, guess what - a writer - the navy terminology for a clerical worker! So - I never did find out anything about the mysteries of radios.

Some friends introduced me to another girl, who was also enlisting at Leeds at the same time, so we travelled together.

It was July when we embarked on the adventure of a lifetime. We travelled by train to Leeds station and then took a tramcar to Headingley, to report to the Wesleyan College there. The college was at the end of a long drive. It had been a training college for Methodist ministers, so there were many rooms of all sizes. The first dormitory I slept in contained twelve double bunks, and one bathroom and toilet. There was quite a scramble every morning to avail oneself of the ablution facilities. We were summoned to the common room the next day and some of the perplexities of naval life were explained to us. We were told that we were now in a naval shore establishment, which had the name of HMS Pembroke, and consequently, everything in it was referred to in naval terms. We were not in the common room, but the 'fo'c'sle', our bedroom was a 'cabin', the dining room was the 'mess' and the kitchen, the 'galley'. The floor was the 'deck'. When we went out of the drive into the city, we were going ashore, when we paraded in a morning, it was called 'Divisions'. Naval time, we discovered was five minutes before time..

We were also given a timetable for the chores we had to do. There were floors to be scrubbed and beds to be made before breakfast, and washing up to do after breakfast. There was a notice board in the hall giving the rig of the day for Divisions. This caused little problem in the first two weeks, as all the uniform we were given, was a navy blue overall. All we had to do, if the notice said raincoats,was to wear whatever civilian outer garment we had we had brought with us. We must have looked a motley lot on parade, especially when some of us only had high-heeled shoes,
which we had to wear for our drill training as well. It is not easy to march in high-heeled shoes. We were indeed pleased that the grounds of the college were spacious enough for us to learn our left from our right and be put through our paces in privacy. Soon, we ventured out into the
neighbouring streets. What a treat for the residents!

One thing was instilled into us, and reinforced in many ways, the indisputable fact that navy time is five minutes before time!! Being confined to barracks was the favourite punishment for lateness. In later establishments, spells of floor scrubbing or wall washing were added to this punishment, but at Headingly, you were already doing that as it was.

We started on training for our future role in the Wrens after the first couple of days. The clerical procedures of work in a captain's office were explained to us. We spent almost four weeks on this training, working out the effects of punishment on leave and status of the ratings and how and
when badges of service were calculated. We also learned that files were called packs and the navy were antiquated in their method of fastening documents together with pins instead of paper clips or staples and used an implement called a marlin spike to make holes in paper instead of a neat punch.

After two weeks training, the great day came when we were provided with our uniforms. We were given two navy blue skirts and jackets, four white shirts, six stiff starched collars, a greatcoat, a gabardine raincoat, two pairs of flat, laced black shoes, two pairs of long-Iegged navy blue knickers, (a style known as directoire, and most unfashionable) two pairs of thick black stockings and a hat with a tally band with H.M.S. embroidered on it in gold thread. We were allowed to wear our own underwear and night attire, for which we later received an allowance after a kit inspection. This was a one off allowance of about 拢3.00. The navy nickers, which were rarely worn, were called blackouts. We did wear them if for any reason we went on board ship. We were allowed to wear more sheer black stockings most of the time, but for official parades we had to wear the issue ones (or' pusser' as all issue garments were called). The tally band on the hat did not have the actual name of the ship to which the wearer belonged, as in peace time, so that the enemy spies, whom we were assured were lurking around every corner,would not be able to find out the whereabouts of ships, etc.

Eventually, came the day of the passing out parade. I was now the possessor of a blue badge with a 'w' in the centre, which I had sewn on to my sleeve. I thought I looked quite smart, so I was horrified when the First Officer who was taking the inspection stopped right in front of me and asked what I had in my uniform breast pocket. I only had my pay book in there, which was where it was supposed to be, but it didn't fit the curve of my bosom. She said it was in an unfortunate place. I didn't know whether she meant the pocket or my bosom!

Eventually, the passing out parade was over. We were sent to collect our draft papers and the next day, we were on the train once more. I was drafted into the office of the Rear Admiral, Northern Naval Air Stations, where the work had nothing to do with ratings and their punishments and deductions etc. I was there for two years.

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