Life of a Lyness Wren (original) (raw)

Project Title: Fortress Orkney

Exhibition: Life of a Lyness Wren

The story of Petty Officer Wren Rita Jones who served in the WRNS (Women's Royal Naval Service) at HMS Proserpine, Lyness, Orkney, from May 1943 until September 1945.

Assets in this exhibition:

The arrival of Wrens at Lyness

Taken from ‘The Role of Women in Lyness During WWII’ by S2 Izzy Whitford, Stromness Academy, 2005.

Wrens began arriving in Orkney in 1939, but not in Lyness as the housing barracks were not quite ready. The first ones arrived in January 1943. Women with great potential in telecommunications were selected from all over Britain and sent to Orkney, as the base was so important. Numbering 500 to 700 the Wrens were completely outnumbered by men but they did not seem to mind. The arrival of the Wrens was certainly welcomed. Although many of them were disappointed by Orkney’s bad weather, the Wrens were working closer with the Navy than most Wrens in Britain.

Wrens arrived promptly after the barracks were completed. Exhausted from the tiring Jellicoe Specials train journey and usually a rough sea crossing across the Pentland Firth, their first impressions of Orkney were not as they expected. It was cold, damp and very windy. Some of the Wrens in Lyness suffered from first year depression, known as ‘Orkneyitis’.

The Lyness Wrens carried out jobs such as cooks, stewards, secretaries and clerks. Many women had jobs as drivers, chauffeuring chiefs around the Base, and they made up the majority of the staff at Naval Headquarters and Communications Centre at Wee Fea. They also fixed the anti-submarine netting for the Boom Defences.

The Wrens’ quarters on the side of Wee Fea hill was called Haybreak Camp. The camp was made up of five quarters – one for the sixty-five officers and the other four for the six hundred and fifteen Wrens. The Wrens always had an Admiral and Rear Admiral who were in charge of them. They went through four different Admirals during the time they were there. There were also Chief Petty Officers and Petty Officers who saw to the Wrens more directly. Many Wrens recall that the Navy always treated them with respect.

Lyness Naval Base

Exhibition Image One

Description

WRNS (Women’s Royal Naval Service) on parade at HMS Pomona, Lyness.

Source

Location: Lyness, Orkney
Original Source: Orkney Library and Archive, Ref. L7544/2

Life of a Lyness Wren

Exhibition Image One

Play oral history

To view this resource you will need to download the latest version of flash player.
get flash player

Description

Rita Jones was posted to Lyness in 1943 and served in the Fleet Mail Office 1945. She met her husband John Marsden, a ship's postman, at Lyness and has many fond memories of her time there.

Transcript

On the 12 of May, 1943, I was drafted to 'H.M.S. Proserpine', Lyness, Orkneys. I travelled on the Jellico Express, as it was known- express it never was - for a 24 hour journey to Thurso. We left Euston early in the morning and reached Perth round about 6.00 p.m. that evening. Here it waited for connections from other parts of the country before leaving about 8.00p.m. for Thurso. At Perth all female service personnel were moved to separate carriages, which were sealed off from the rest of the compartments. There were so few [of us] we could have had a compartment to ourselves, which meant we could lie on the seats and get some sleep.

Arriving at Thurso, soon after 7.00a.m. we were taken to the local WRNS quarters for breakfast and then by lorry, with all our gear, down Scrabster to catch the daily boat, the 'St. Ninian', for the sail to Orkney. Although it was my first sea crossing, I remember little about it compared with some of my latter crossings when we saw sailors being seasick.

As we were among some of the early Wrens to be drafted to Lyness, the many servicemen making the same journey, made something of a fuss of us and assisted us with our gear. As I look back it must have been quite an experience for an 18 year old girl.

The Wrens Quarters were on the side of a hill, long wooden huts, with twenty beds on either side, ten lower and ten upper. There was a small wooden three-drawer chest to put your clothes in and a space at one end of the hut to hang our coats. At this time our quarters were heated by radiators and were quite warm most of the time. A washroom, with toilets and four baths were in an adjoining hut, with several huts being linked together by a covered passageway. We were to find that this passageway gave little protection from gale force winds and driving rain. Initially each cabin was shared by both watchkeeping Wrens and those on day duty, so noise was kept to a minimum so that those on night duty could get some sleep.

There was a large dining room where the lower ranks queued to collect their food from a service counter. Petty Officers and Chief Petty Officers were waited on by Wren stewards. The meaIs were basic but ample. A white ensign flew from a flagpole outside the WRNS quarters, with the usual routine of colours, morning and evening.

ln one room in the Admin block a kind of NAAFI-like store opened at set times. Here we could purchase cosmetics, toiletries, etc. We received a free issue of sanitary towels - also used to put a high polish on our shoes. There were also sharp clothing stores, where we could purchase underwear, skirts and jumpers and shoes 12/11 [shillings] I recall. I always sent my shirt collars home to Liverpool, to be cleaned and starched in the local Chinese laundry.

Our small WRNS clothing store at Lyness did not stock pyjamas so we could be issued with a clothing chit, worth 16 coupons, to obtain a pair in Kirkwall. The shops would gladly allow us coupons to the value of our chit to to use whenever we wished to purchase dresses, blouses, skirts or some other item to wear out of uniform. On Hoy we were never allowed to wear civilian dress at any time but of course a girl always needed civilian clothes when on leave. Dozens and dozens of chits for pyjamas were issued to the WRNS at Lyness during those years and it must have been good for the shops in Kirkwall.

Myself a Wren and Jean Pringle, from Kilmarnock, were posted to the mail office in 'H.M.S Prosperpine' Admin offices, to take over from sailors. At first the Chief Petty Officer in charge, an elderly man, called back [for] his wartime service, didn't seen too happy at having us move in, but he soon became like a father figure and couldn't have done more to look after us.

Our duties were normal office hours unless the 'St. Ninian' had been delayed by bad weather and the mail was late reaching us - we would then stay to clear it. There was little else for the servicemen to look forward to in those days to make a difference. This meant that our evenings and Sundays were on our own. Especially as there was hardly a female to be seen on the island so arrival of a few girls was obviously a great lift to the thousands of soldiers, airmen and sailors, both ashore and afloat.

Soon regular dances were organised at the large tin cinema. Various outlaying army and airforce camps were quick to invite parties of Wrens to arranged social gatherings at their camp. Those of the 19th Battalion of the Royal Marines and the R.A.F. at Balloon Camp, were quick off the mark. A notice would appear in the WRNS quarters inviting so many Wrens to attend one of these functions and you added your name if interested. The party would assemble outside the WRNS quarters, always with a PO Wren in charge, the inviting camp would send a lorry to pick us up. If you had a particular partner for the evening there was no way he could see you home!

Obviously some of the girls managed to find a regular boyfriend among these thousands of servicemen on the island, they could hardly fail with so few of us to go round. He could take us to the cinema or to the regular dances which were held in the cinema, but due to the acute shortage of girls almost every dance became an 'excuse me' dance and we could find ourselves having a new partner every few steps. Even a date at the cinema could be a difference at Lyness as one of my friends discovered, when a notice appeared on the screen for the ship’s company of her date to return home forthwith, leaving her sitting alone.

There was also the Garrison Theatre at Longhope, not far from where the battleship 'Iron Duke' was aground. It had an imposing concrete front, based on a modern civvy street cinema, with the crest of the Royal Marines who had built it, over the entrance. The auditorium consisted of a large Nissen type hall which had a cosy atmosphere and was also used for dances. Apart from the weekly film shows and the dances, well known stars from the entertainment world came to Lyness to give a show. I recall Evelyn Laye, Yehudi Menuhin, Flanagan and Allen. I hardly need to say that such shows were rapturously received.

We found ourselves being invited to visit the large warships out in the Flow. These invitations always came from the Chief or Petty Officers and I should add that WRNS ratings were strictly forbidden to fraternise with Naval officers. Sometimes on a day off we could catch a drifter for a visit to Stromness or Kirkwall - it was a real treat to be able to get away from the base and wander round the shops and visit a local restaurant for a meal.

By the middle of 1944 the number of servicemen on Hoy was being reduced, as some of the outlying camps closed down. Warships began to leave, particularly during the build up to 'D' Day. The day came eventually for me to leave Lyness. It was one of the most glorious days that occurred from time to time in Scapa Flow and as I boarded the 'St. Ninian' for the last time some half a dozen servicemen, regular visitors to the Mail Office, were on the quay to see me and my friend from the Mail Office leave.

Source

Date: 2009
Contributor: Rita Marsden

'St Ninian'

Exhibition Image One

L-R: Wren Dorothy Rowlands, WRNS Petty Officer Rita Jones.

Source

Location: Lyness, Orkney
Original Source: Orkney Library and Archive, Ref. L214-3

Mail Office, Lyness

Edited from Rita Jones' recollections.

Rita Jones was posted to the mail office in 'H.M.S Prosperpine' Administration offices, to take over work from sailors. This office dealt with all incoming and outgoing mail for the offices, all shore based sailors in the Haybrake and Burn camps, and the Wrens' quarters. It acted as a normal post office, and she particularly remembers hundreds of bundles of washing, tied up in pillow cases, which went backwards and forwards from the crews of the small wooden drifters to their homes. Occasionally a sad telegram arrived to tell of the death of one of a serviceman's family and outgoing telegrams when a serviceman couldn't get leave to attend a funeral, a wedding, or to see a new baby. On only one occasion did a registered parcel go astray.

Towards the end of 1943 Rita was moved to the large Base Mail Office, situated close to the main drifter pier. This mail office was a long asbestos-clad building with living quarters at one end, where the Chief Petty Officer Leader, and some of the staff, one Marine and three sailors, lived. The opposite end had two counter areas, one for ordinary mail and the other for registered mail and normal post office facilities, stamps etc. These two areas had the large mail sorting area behind them, with hundreds of pigeon holes into which the mail for various camps, ships etc. was placed for collection.

Most camps had their own bands and held regular dances. At Lyness, parties of WRNS (Women's Royal Naval Service) were always invited, and were much in demand as dancing partners.

Beryl Turner, Communications Wren at Twatt aerodrome, dancing

Exhibition Image One

Description

There were so few women compared to the thousands of men stationed in Orkney that servicewomen were much in demand at dances and other social occasions.

Invitation from Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser

Exhibition Image One

Description

Description

An article from the June 1945 edition of Hoy Polloy, the WRNS (Women’s Royal Naval Service) magazine.

Transcript

COTTAGE CORNER

If you want to get away for a while form “galleys” and “decks” and “mass mess feeding”; if you want practice in running a home, a kitchen and a garden of your own, then bring your friends and come any day, any time, to the “cottage” at the top of Balloon Camp Hill.

The “Cottage” was built as a W.R.N.S [Women’s Royal Naval Service] Officers’ Wardroom, but was never used for that purpose. It has a sitting room with an open fire, comfy chairs and a piano; a dining room with wardroom furniture, a fully equipped kitchen, larder, pantries, etc. The walls of the sitting room are going to be hung with pictures painted by Wrens – some watercolours, some oils. Crochet mats and painted lino mats are being made by others to go on the polished dining room tables. Outside the front door we are planning to have a border of Orkney flowers – irises, orchids, primroses, sea pinks and any other flowers which will surve [sic] an Orkney blast! We still urgently need material for curtains and seeds for the garden and are trying to find a mat with “Welcome” on it for the front hall!

The “Cottage” has already had an eventful history since it was opened by Mrs. Brock and Miss Sutherland from Atholl Crescent in early April, when the sitting room was strewn with felts of pink, mauve, petunia, pale blue and rust as a dozen Wrens cut out slippers; when the kitchen table was lined with eagerly sniffing noses as Mrs. Brock demonstrated how to make girdle scones and chocolate fudge cake and lemon pie piled high with dazzling white meringue.

Since that day many Wrens have cooked their lunch or supper, doing various odd jobs about the house while the pudding was in the oven and the soup simmered on the range. It has been suggested that we might acquire an Orcadian baby to look after at the “Cottage” during the day, to give its mother a rest. It would certainly add the realistic touch to the hectic housewife attending to two or three things at once!

Source

Date: June 1945

Leaving Lyness

Exhibition Image One

Description

Rita Jones (centre right) and Dorothy Rowlands leave Lyness.

Source

Location: Lyness, Hoy
Original Source: Rita Marsden