“Whilst there, there was an epidemic of German measles and as the sick bay was full, we were taken to Portsmouth Isolation Hospital and two of us were treated most royally. In the Solent were moored funny square objects. I imagine these may have been parts of what was afterwards the Mulberry Harbour.
“Having spent my childhood in east London, that walk from Hillhead to Lee-on-Solent, the airfield, along the coast road on a sunny winter’s day after a frost, with the sea so calm, I never forgot. I also brought my bicycle down, so was able to cycle into Fareham and even round to Portsmouth. One wouldn’t do that on the M27!
“In April 1944, I was transferred to Lancashire and then to Combined Ops in Scotland. I heard afterwards that all were soon transferred to Midhurst in Sussex. I would imagine that this was because the cottages on the shore and Seafield Park would be used for D-Day personnel.
“I never went to sea during the war. I am constantly told that the WRNS were all volunteers. Actually, I was lucky to be in the WRNS as I went for an interview when I was called up in 1943. The WRNS was closed at that time, but I went for an interview and was accepted although the girl I went with had to go in the ATS. This may have been because I had credit in Maths from school, because I found myself in the Pay Office. The WRNS at that time until some time after the war was not under naval discipline and to a certain extent had its own rules, e.g. one could walk out only if calling-up age, would be forced into something else and not back into the Navy. Those who volunteered, especially earlier in the war, had more choice of the category they wished to be in.
“I am now 79. I was able, last year to attend the yearly reunion of the LST and Landing Craft Association. (I was eligible because of Combined Operations Pay.) Last year’s was at Mill Rythe, Hayling Island - we really enjoyed it there, the position and the food - and our service was in Chichester Cathedral.
From D-Day - a Day To Remember, published by Borough of Havant, June 1994 and used here by courtesy of Mrs Marshall.
“It was amazing that with so many preparations going on, and all that was known by so many people, the Germans remained convinced that the invasion force would land in the Calais area and were totally unprepared for the landing in Normandy. In this, the discretion of the people resident along the south coast must have played no small part. We all knew what was happening, but we didn’t talk, not even amongst ourselves.”
Dr. Chris Howard Bailey interviewed members of the WRNS for ‘The Vital Link’ exhibition at the Royal Naval Museum, which told the story of WRNS participation in D-Day. Many of them were stationed at Southwick House.
Miss Hester McClintock was one of a good many WRNS who worked on boats, but few worked as stokers, as she did. She recalled serving on HMS Vosper, taking officers up and down to various naval establishments along the Hamoaze river. Occasionally she was lost in fog. She recalled being used as a decoy in a storm when sent to fetch Winston Churchill from HMS George V. She also collected four of Rommel’s generals who were brought to England as prisoners of war. The latter appeared ashamed at being rowed by Wrens.
Mrs Elizabeth Carter was a despatch rider in the Wrens during the time of D-Day. Some of the time she was at Fort Southwick:
“And I had a very interesting time because of having to carry dispatches. We worked from Portsmouth to Plymouth to Dover to Birmingham and we never knew where we were going until… we had to build up for the Dieppe dispatches; we were very busy, and after and up to D-Day, and then when there wasn’t much work, I went to HMS Boscowen at Weymouth and I was there for D-Day.
Edna Foxon, a Signal Wren, told her story, a strange mix of war-time action and a peaceful maritime setting. She organised the signals (at Medina?) Isle of Wight. She was a wireless operator and visual signaller with flags and Aldis lamps, Morse and radio telephones. A lot of small ships had no wireless operation, she says. Her training was at HMS Cressy (or Cressey?) in Dundee and HMS Cabbala at Leigh, Lancashire, each for six months. Flags were run up a mast. One flag might mean a whole sentence. She worked on the Isle of Wight, at Culver Cliff, near Sandown, during the war. The Wrens lived in old coast guard cottages.
“We worked at Fort Bembridge, worked with air-sea rescue. We sent messages in code, but we did not know what we were sending. We would be involved in sending messages to X-craft on D-Day. Our call sign was a coast guard operation - GQQ. I was in the Wrens four years, at Culver just under two years.
“Social life? The Army was there as well and the Army put on concerts and dances. Ours was only a small station - about 20 in it, all in the WRNS. We had a cook and a Petty Officer. It was a lovely place to be stationed, a beauty spot. We had to keep watch through 24 hours.
“There were more signals flying about just before D-Day. The Royal Marine Commandos used to practise on the cliffs. It was noisy when the Royal Artillery fired six-inch guns. They would let us know when they were going to practise, so we could tie things down, but when they fired in anger, everything fell off, ornaments off the mantelpiece.
“After D-Day we could wear civilian clothes when we went into town, in 1944.”
Mr Ellis, born 1902, also shows how peacetime occupations coexisted with the war: his hairdresser’s shop was at the Naval Club, Portsmouth. While the Wrens were stoking boilers and sending signals, somebody had to keep up appearances at home.
“The Navy had taken over the old Sailors’ Home Club in Queen Street. They made it into a naval club and the Commander was resident. The committee was elected by various establishments - Vernon, the old Victory … the naval establishments and the ships all had a representative, and they decided one of the things that they wanted was a hairdresser’s.”
He kept his own shop open but started a new shop at the club and was there for 16 years. “I got to know all the people coming to the club to meetings. The Royal Yacht, the Victoria and Albert, was it? The one before used to have concert parties in the club. The outcome was that they used to say ‘We’re not coming in for a haircut, but you can come on board and do it.’ and I said ‘Yes, I’ll come on board.’ Over the years, I went and cut several Commander in Chief’s hair.”
Rear Admiral Sir M Morgan-Giles recalls a rather different type of war effort made by the women of Portsmouth. He was away serving in the Mediterranean for most of the Second World War, but recounts the following:
“There were a lot of one ring chaps - sub lieutenants - doing courses in Portsmouth early in the war and, in those days, the Pompey Hippodrome was allowed to have young ladies stand naked on the stage, provided they did not move. But one evening, a mouse appeared on stage. Well, pandemonium broke out and the ladies were climbing the curtains and so on. I wouldn’t say that the mouse came on stage, I think it was probably put there …
“The manager arrived and when the lights went on in the auditorium he saw that the front row was full of clergymen, and the second row… and the third row. They were all sub lieutenants with their collars turned back to front!”
Chief Petty Officer Desmond Townley-Jones, BEM, born 16th February 1922, interviewed with his wife, Muriel, recalled the days of training the Wrens:
DTJ:”I was down here in Portsmouth and met a man whose girl friend was in Chatham” [where he was stationed]. “We [Desmond and Muriel] were married, and she was in Portsmouth, so I did a swap with him and that was reasonably easy, wasn’t it, Muriel? I was training Wrens, but not my wife, at the Royal Naval Barracks while I was waiting for another ship. The tearful twenty, I used to call them, because, in those days, when you shouted, they used to be a bit nervous, weren’t they? Some of them were hard.
“It was no trouble training Wrens. They were excellent, they were, and they were