GLADYS ROSEMARY HYMNS
My mother served at HMS PEMBROKE III as a pay writer. I believe this was also known as Woolley Park but have not managed to find out anymore about this name.
I understand that she looked after the records and payments to families of Royal Naval Prisoners of War.
I have been told that she knew that her bestfriend鈥檚 father and brother were missing in action. The family were planning a homecoming party for them and my mother was not able to tell her friend that they were missing. It must have been dreadful.
She was a Londoner and told of a time during the bombing when she took refuge in a shop doorway, only to realise afterwards that it was the doorway of a Bottle/Liquor Store鈥 Imagine if that had been hit?
She met my father, JOHN STRACHAN ROSS, a South African, serving in the Fleet Air Arm. They got engaged but she wouldn鈥檛 tell anyone as many people who鈥檇 got engaged to overseas servicemen did not always hear from them when they returned to their native lands.
However, my father was sincere. In order to secure her release from the Wrens and obtain a Red Cross assisted passage to Cape Town, they had to be married by proxy 鈥 she in London and my father in Cape Town.
She then set sail for the Southern Hemisphere. She hadn鈥檛 seen her fianc茅 for seven months. Her boat docked at 12 noon and she was in church and married by 4.00 p.m. on the 21st June, 1946.
Recently I found a letter written to her in Cape Town from a Wren friend, Elsie ?. She is quite envious of my mother鈥檚 new life in South Africa especially as England was still suffering from severe shortages. She asks my mother to send her 鈥渁 couple of pairs of decent stockings鈥︹ especially as she is about to be married.
She mentions other Wrens, namely EILEEN WICKS; ELSIE WALTON; JOYCE DARK and RENE PATERSON from Glasgow.
My mother had a good life in Cape Town though she always longed for London.
Sadly she got Multiple Sclerosis and died in 1984.
Ironically I have lived in the UK for 32 years!
Recommended story
Story with photo