Themes
1917 - 1919
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Covering the country
Covering the country
WRNS units were set up throughout the country. The WRNS unit at Crystal Palace in London was one of the first to be established. The Wrens based here covered a disparate number of duties.
Naval towns needing male recruits, such as Bristol, Chatham and Portsmouth, also set up divisions of the WRNS. Ratings were originally immobile, living at home in or near these ports. A need for mobile ratings developed and many volunteers who lived in areas nowhere near the ports also offered their services.
Photograph of Wrens standing outside Miller's Hotel in Portsmouth (RNM)
One of the earliest duties of the newly appointed Wren officers was to find buildings suitable to accommodate mobile ratings. The Wrens took over the Lion and Miller's hotels in Portsmouth for instance. The immobile ratings also had to have facilities such as a mess room near where they worked.
Katherine Furse sent the WRNS Divisional Director off to Scotland in January 1918, marking her departure with the words:
'You are pioneers. Go to your work. Uphold the dignity and honour of the Service.'
Further divisions were set up in other ports around the country, such as the Bristol Channel, the Humber, Gorleston and Great Yarmouth. The last of the original divisions started in Liverpool during March 1918.
Photograph of WRNS ratings relaxing (RNM)
The Tyne, Ireland and the Mediterranean established three further divisions. The Tynemouth Division ran for one year and chiefly employed clerks, telephonists, motor drivers and mine net workers.
They were located in small units at a number of different offices scattered over a wide area including Newcastle, Tynemouth and Middlesborough.
The Divisional Director of Ireland established her headquarters at Kingstown near Dublin. Other bases spread from Buncrana, Belfast and Larne in the north, to Queenstown in the south.
The final division was located in the Mediterranean. WRNS officers and ratings employed in Malta, Gibraltar and Genoa, mostly worked on cypher duties.
To read about the Wrens in Malta , follow the link
Photograph of WRNS staff working in Ostend, Belgium (RNM)
