Jeanette was one of the few Wrens I interviewed near to home, as she lived in a village just up the road from me. In this photo we met in 2017 when I gave a talk to the Chilworth historical society about the WRNS. It was lovely to meet her again and she bought her WRNS uniform hat to show everyone. 

Early life

Jeanette was born in Romsey on 2 February 2023, grew up in Wiltshire until the age of ten and then the family moved to Guildford. At fourteen she left school and went to secretarial school for two years. Her mother was a seamstress and worked for the Duchess of Argyle at Kensington Palace and her father was the manager of Frisby’s Shoe Shop and later worked in the office at Dennis’ in Guildford, which was where he was working during the Second World War. He had served in the Royal Army Medical Corp in the First World War. Before World War Two her mother passed away.

Joining up

Jeanette was twenty in 1943 when she joined the Wrens. She had received her calling up papers in March but had to delay for two months on account of getting mumps. Her main reason for picking the WRNS was the uniform, she said ‘I didn’t know anything about it at all really, no! Quite a shot in the dark!’ Which for a lot of younger women joining the service was very typical. Initial training for Jeanette was held at the WRNS depot in the requisitioned Pendragon Hotel, Southsea for two weeks. As it was just her and her father, she was posted to nearby locations so that she could visit him at the weekends.

I asked her what the initial training was like:

‘Very hard work. Very early morning rising! Several of us got food poisoning and we were in and out of bed all night. That was terrible. There was such a lot to learn and to take in, in those two weeks and it was really hard, and I know I was feeling homesick and thinking, what have I done? But I knew I’d got to do it.’ As a single child she found it very different being away from home this time and this was a consistent memory in her interview, the homesickness she felt. 

She reflected that there were some class differences in the WRNS: 

‘Well, we had some girls there from private schools and more upmarket girls, you know.  They all seemed to get on all right, but you, you sort of could tell the difference. The girls who were stewards and did all the cleaning and the cooking and stuff, you know. We had a girl, in the cabin, she was lovely. And she got on very well with everybody, but you could tell she was more upper class, as we say. You know?’ She felt that everyone got on well together despite their differences and that they had to learn to get on with others. Asked about a positive memory of the service Jeanette said: ‘camaraderie amongst the girls and– I mean it was difficult at times, but on the whole, you know, it was, it was a good time.’

Working role

Given her background as a secretary, having worked in the Ministry of Health and other ad hoc typing work, she saw it as inevitable that she would end up being a writer in the WRNS. After her two weeks initial training she was stationed to HMS King Alfred in Hove as an Ordinary Wren. As there were so many Writers it was very hard to get a promotion: ‘Well there were so many Writers that it took ages to get up to a Leading Wren, you know. I don’t think I got there. But I did find a badge, but I don’t think it could have been mine [laughs].’ HMS King Alfred was a training establishment for RNVR Officers. Jeanette recalls it having a lot of people and being very busy. Initially she started in the general office, logging letters and taking dictation, and then later worked as the personal secretary to the Training Commander. He was June Whitfield’s father-in-law, which she saw as a claim to fame! 

She was billeted to a boarding house for Wrens overlooking the sea: ‘You’d pay the earth now I’m sure, to stay in that room, overlooking the sea! [laughter] It had a balcony and… I was in a room, cabin as we called it, with ten people, ten of us were there. And after being an only child on your own at home, it was very, very different!’ She made some good friends there. Her social life mainly consisted of going to films and the local Methodist church, she didn’t really enjoy dances so rarely went to them. 

Following HMS King Alfred, Jeanette was posted to HMS Mercury in Petersfield in July 1945. She did not remember much about her time at this posting, only: ‘where we were billeted, we had to go in a lorry, to the billet, and it was so cold.  And if you wanted a nice hot bath or a shower, all the water had gone by the time you got there. Other people had done it first, you know! [laughter] Oh, it was so cold there!’

She married her husband in December 1945, a man she had known all her life. He had been a prisoner of war for three years. Jeanette did not go into details about his experience but told me he had been in the Army. Following their marriage, she was demobbed in January 1946. Following the war Jeanette went back to secretarial work part-time, had her son and then returned to work when he was a bit older. Her husband had a breakdown when he came home, finding his work at a builder’s merchant too much. He later set up a gardening business, so Jeanette supplemented the family income with part-time work.  

Reflections on the WRNS 

Jeanette’s best memories about being in the WRNS was working for the Commander at HMS King Alfred. She said there was a good atmosphere, people got on well with each other. Her interaction with Wrens in other categories was minimal, working predominately with other Writers and living with women who worked as cooks and stewards. She wasn’t interested in other roles more typically linked to the navy: ‘I don’t know what I’d have done if they’d sent me to sea, because I don’t like the water! [laughter]And I couldn’t have resigned! They wouldn’t have let me!’

I asked her about her perception of being in the WRNS and she said: ‘being an only child it helped me to gain confidence, independence, things like that. Stand on my own feet, as it were. And, I had some lovely, lasting friendships.’ She found being a Wren a positive experience in her life that helped her become more independent.