The Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS; popularly and officially known as the Wrens) was the women's branch of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. First formed in 1917 for the First World War, it was disbanded in 1919, then revived in 1939 at the beginning of the Second World War, remaining active until integrated into the Royal Navy in 1993. WRNS included cooks, clerks, wireless telegraphists, radar plotters, weapons analysts, range assessors, electricians and air mechanics.
The WRNS was formed in 1917 during the First World War. On 10 October 1918, nineteen-year-old Josephine Carr from Cork became the first Wren to die on active service, when her ship, the RMS Leinster was torpedoed. By the end of the war the service had 5,500 members, 500 of them officers. In addition, 2,867 Wrens, 46 officers and 2,821 other ranks who had previously supported the Royal Naval Air Service chose to be transferred to the RAF Royal Air Force. The WRNS was disbanded in 1919.
At the beginning of the Second World War Vera Laughton Mathews was appointed as the director of the re-formed WRNS in 1939 with Ethel (Angela) Goodenough as her deputy. [1] The WRNS had an expanded list of allowable activities, including flying transport planes. At its peak in 1944 it had 75,000 active servicewomen. During the war 102 WRNS members were killed in action and 22 wounded in action. [2] One of the slogans used in recruitment posters was "Join the Wrens and free a man for the Fleet".
Wrens were prominent as support staff at the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park; they were the direct operators of the bombes and Colossus used to break Axis codes and cyphers.
The WRNS remained in existence after the end of the war although Mathews retired in 1947 [1] and Goodenough had died the year before. In the 1970s it became obvious that equal pay for women and the need to remove sexual discrimination meant that the WRNS and the Royal Navy would become one organisation. The key change was that women would become subject to the Naval Discipline Act 1957. Vonla McBride, who had experience in human resource management, became the Director of the WRNS in 1976, and members of the WRNS were subject to the same discipline as men by the next year. [3]
In October 1990, during the Gulf War, HMS Brilliant carried the first women officially to serve on an operational warship. [4] That same year, Chief Officer Pippa Duncan became the first WRNS officer to command a Royal Navy shore establishment. [5] [6] The WRNS was finally integrated into the Royal Navy in 1993, when women were allowed to serve on board navy vessels as full members of the crew. Female sailors are still informally known by the nicknames "wrens" or "Jennies" ("Jenny Wrens") in naval slang.
Before 1993, all women in the Royal Navy were members of the WRNS except nurses, who joined (and still join) Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service, and medical and dental officers, who were commissioned directly into the Royal Navy, held RN ranks, and wore WRNS uniform with gold RN insignia.
A series of exhibits on the history of the WRNS are part of the Western Approaches Museum in Liverpool.
The WRNS had its own ranking system, which it retained until amalgamation into the Royal Navy in 1993.
| Flag officers | Field officers | Junior officers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 United Kingdom(1917–1919) [7] |  |  |  |  |  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Director | Deputy Director | Assistant Director | Deputy Assistant Director | Divisional Director | Deputy Divisional Director | Principal | Deputy Principal | Assistant Principal | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Women's Royal Naval Service |  |  |  |  |  |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (1939–1940) [8] | Director | Deputy director | Superintendent | Chief officer | First officer | Second officer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (1941–1945) [9] | Superintendent | Chief officer | First officer | Second officer | Third officer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Women's Royal Naval Service (1946–1951) | | | | | | | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Commandant | Director | Superintendent | Chief officer | First officer | Second officer | Third officer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Women's Royal Naval Service (1951–1993) | | | | | | | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chief commandant [note 1] | Commandant [note 2] | Superintendent | Chief officer | First officer | Second officer | Third officer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| NATO code | OF-10 | OF-9 | OF-8 | OF-7 | OF-6 | OF-5 | OF-4 | OF-3 | OF-2 | OF-1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rank group | Senior NCOs | Junior NCOs | Enlisted | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Women's Royal Naval Service (1917–1919) [7] |  |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chief Section Leader | Section Leader | Leader | Wren | Ordinary Wren | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Women's Royal Naval Service (1939–1952) |  | | | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chief Wren | Petty Officer Wren | Leading Wren | Wren | Ordinary Wren | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| United Kingdom (1953–1993) [7] |  |  |  | | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Warrant Officer Wren [note 3] | Chief Wren | Petty Officer Wren | Leading Wren | Wren | Ordinary Wren | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| NATO code | OR-9 | OR-8 | OR-7 | OR-6 | OR-5 | OR-4 | OR-3 | OR-2 | OR-1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ratings' titles were suffixed with their trade (e.g. Leading Wren Cook, Chief Wren Telegraphist).
Wrens wore the same rank insignia as their male equivalents, but in blue instead of gold. The "curls" atop officers' rank stripes were diamond-shaped instead of circular.
From 1939, Wren uniform, designed by leading British fashion designer Edward Molyneux, consisted of a double-breasted jacket and skirt, with shirt and tie, for all ranks (although similar working dress to the men could also be worn). Junior Ratings wore hats similar to those of their male counterparts (although with a more sloping top). Senior Ratings (Petty Officers and above) and officers wore tricorne hats. In tropical areas these had a white cover. All insignia, including cap badges and non-substantive (trade) badges, were blue.
Lieutenant Commander is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding rank in most armies and air forces is major, and in the Royal Air Force and other Commonwealth air forces is squadron leader. It is roughly equivalent to the Corvette Captain rank in central European countries and the Captain 3rd rank rank in eastern European/CIS countries.
Commander is a common naval officer rank as well as a job title in many armies. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries, this naval rank is termed as a frigate captain.
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Dame Elvira Sibyl Marie Mathews,, known as Vera Laughton Mathews, was a British military officer and administrator. She was the second Director of the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS), serving from its reformation in 1939 until 1946.
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Commandant Dame Jean Davies Lancaster, was a senior British naval officer who served as Director of the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) from 1961 to 1964.
Commandant Dame Nancy Margaret Robertson, was a senior British naval officer who served as Director of the Women's Royal Naval Service from 1954 to 1958.
Sara Vonla Adair McBride, was a senior British naval officer who served as Director of the Women's Royal Naval Service from 1976 to 1979. She was sent to advise Haile Selassie and later in life served as Chair of the Civil Service Commissioners' Interview Panel from 1985 to 1991.
Commandant Anthea Larken CBE served as Director of the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) between 1988-1991, while also acting as aide-de-camp to Queen Elizabeth II. Larken has since served as president of the Not Forgotten Association and the Association of Wrens. President, TS Dreadnought, Greenwich SCC
Superintendent Ethel Mary Goodenough, usually known as Angela Goodenough, was a British naval officer who was the deputy director of the Women's Royal Naval Service when it was reformed in 1939.
The Women’s Royal Indian Naval Service (WRINS) was the naval section of the Women's Auxiliary Corps (India). It was established during the Second World War as a branch of the Royal Indian Navy.
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