The Women’s Royal Naval Service, a history of female military exclusion and inclusion

Dr Hannah Roberts

For the past seven years I have been writing my PhD part-time alongside a full-time teaching career. The thesis covers the history of the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) in the First and Second World Wars. It explores the reasons why the service was created in 1917, disbanded in 1919 and reformed in 1938. Of the three women’s military auxiliaries the WRNS is the only one whose history has not been traced, academically, in any detail. Having discussed the work with a publisher, I intend to publish it as a book next year in time for the WRNS centenary. The work will provide new insight into this fascinating organisation that pushed the bounds for the role of women in British society.

My thesis addresses the military, cultural, economic and national security conditions that made it possible for women to assume roles in the Royal Navy (RN). In the First World War, the declining manpower situation was key in prompting the inclusion of women in the military. This was only possible in the RN because of an ideological shift that had occurred in the leadership of the Admiralty in 1917. I make the argument that the creation of the service was not the result of a suggestion by Lady Rocksavage (Sybil Sassoon), as has been argued in the history of the service by Ursula Stuart Mason. Instead, it was the consequence of Sir Eric Geddes, the renowned bureaucrat, being appointed as First Lord. His experience of utilising female labour in the munitions industry alongside his widespread restructure of the Admiralty, including removing First Lord of the Admiralty Sir John Jellicoe, from post led to the creation of the WRNS.

The formation of the service in the First World War has been the most neglected area of the auxiliary’s history. Nonetheless its existence for the two years spanning the end of the war established a distinct identity based on hard work and dedication. Its first Director, Dame Katharine Furse, was not interested in appointing women based on who they knew. Rather, she wanted women who were capable and able to undertake roles suitable for their level of experience.

The WRNS has often been assumed to have been the more middle class of the three women’s auxiliaries. However, this hides the true reality as throughout the Second World War it was built on meritocratic principles – relying on skills and ability, rather than social connections – in order to climb the ranks of the service. All Wrens from early on in the Second World War had to serve on the ‘lower deck’ as ratings, with no woman being able to join directly as an officer. One of my interviewees felt that her experience of having served on the ‘lower deck’ gave her perspective, allowing her to introduce improvements for the working lives of her Wrens when promoted to a third officer at Great Baddow (where she had served as a rating earlier in the war).

The WRNS had a distinct identity, marking it out as different to its army equivalent (the ATS) that was often regarded as the ‘Cinderella’ service. Built on class-lines initially, the ATS was always dogged by a negative image that meant, quite unfairly, that it was seen to attract a rougher type of young woman. In fact, the interaction of women from different social backgrounds working directly alongside each other had more to do with this. As did placing inexperienced middle class women in positions of authority. The WAAF, on the other hand, always had a more positive image as women worked equally alongside their RAF counterparts.

The WRNS did much to foster their positive image, which can be seen in how individuals have memorialised it. Daphne Coyne, for example, was discouraged from going to the WAAF recruiting office by her mother because the WRNS was seen as ‘THE service’.[1] A husband to a WRNS officer noted: ‘without being snobby the WRNS was a better class of girl, on the whole, having been in the army for seventeen years myself I know the sort of people that were in the ATS and WAAF…’.

The WRNS was always a separate service to the RN, and would be so until 1993, which meant it developed its own leadership structures. Its second Director, Vera Laughton-Mathews, had a career before marrying her husband and employed women with relevant the qualifications, work experience and capability to learn. Much was done in the initial training of Wrens to provide a levelling process, focusing on the unity of service women, rather than differences in social background. Daphne Coyne came from a single parent family and had been working in a nursing home as a cook before joining the WRNS in 1940. Her expectation when going for interview was that she would become a cook or steward, as these were the only categories open at the time and mirrored her work experience. However, after beginning work as a messenger in a cypher/signals office she became one of the first Wrens trained to interpret radar signals.[2] The WRNS was more concerned about the ability of the people it employed than their social background. It was also not opposed to challenging the combat taboo that meant women were excluded from combative roles. Instead the independence afforded the leadership of the World War Two WRNS meant the service stepped over this line, with Wrens often taking on combatant, if not front-line, roles as part of their many and varied service to the Royal Navy and the war effort.

The overarching history of the service, placed within its social and military context, is also counterpointed throughout the book with an exploration of the individual experiences of women who were Wrens from original interviews and archive sources. These provide important points of reminiscence that bring to life the nature of this very important British military service.

Dr Hannah Roberts, November 2016

[1] IWM, Coyne, 93/2/1.

[2] IWM, Coyne, 93/2/1.