SOUTH-WEST DIVISION

DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR: 1918, MISS C. NOEL: NOV. 1918, MISS H. M. BEALE.

The lot has fallen to the South-West Division in a very fair ground; from Torquay, on the South, to Westward-Ho! on the North, its stations lie along the coast, and bear the names that mean so much to lovers of the sea and of the West Country, and to the shareholders of the Great Western Railway - Plymouth and Devonport, Falmouth and Penzance - Drake's Drum still sounds in these names.

During the War, fresh fame has been added to the seafaring traditions of this coast, by the work of the Navy with the Auxiliary Patrols; and, as a foot-note to it, there is the record that for the first time women were invited to take a direct, if small share in the work.

 One gathers that the opening chapters of the Women's Royal Naval Service were breathlessly busy. Substitution was made very rapidly, and by October 1918, 750 officers and women were enrolled. From a knowledge of the division, gathered since the comparative calm of armistice conditions, we can only look back with admiration and a sympathy born of similar struggles elsewhere, to the immense and unsparing effort which achieved so much in so short a time. This account must necessarily suffer from being written by one who was not here from the first.

Up to 31 October, eight companies of W.R.N.S. attached to Air Stations were included in the Division, and made up about half its total strength. Their record should form a separate chapter in the history of the Division. Women of all categories were employed, and in all cases they seem to have taken a full share in the life of the station. The largest company was at the Seaplane Base of Cattewater, Plymouth. Members of the W.R.N.S. were at work also at the R.A.F. Headquarters, Plymouth, and on the Air Stations at Newlyn, Penzance, Torquay, Padstow, and Westward-Ho!; and, most remote of all, they had their huts at "Seaplanes, Scilly," on the shore of a little bay at Tresco.

 The substitution of women for men began first in the Commander-in-Chief’s office, Plymouth, in September, 1917. In March 1918, the civilian staff became absorbed into the W.R.N.S.; and eventually naval officers were replaced by eleven officers, W.R.N.S., three of whom were employed in the confidential book room, while eight were on day and night duty for coding and de-coding.

It is, of course, almost impossible to exaggerate the importance of this work, where the least error may lead to the gravest disaster. All messages by land line, from and to ships, stations, and naval ports, as well as wireless messages received from ships, and intercepted, came through to the de-coders. Submarines sighted on the surface; destroyers warned and given orders to proceed to hunt; S.O.S. messages; tugs sent to the assistance of torpedoed vessels; convoys given their route - these were a few of the types of signal which kept the de-coders busy. At the same time, orders from the Admiralty, and dry technical messages, sometimes very lengthy and faulty in the transmission, had to be dealt with.

The work of this station culminated with the armistice message from the Admiralty, when at 0815, on November l lth, the signal was received and de-coded, and the news went out to the port in the form of a general signal.

Near the Commander-in-Chief’s office, perched on a promontory overlooking the Hamoaze and the Sound, is the Signal Station, a little turret containing on its upper deck the R.N. pensioners, and below, the Naval Telephone Exchange, staffed by "Wrens." "Wrens" were first employed here in May, 1918, to help the Chief Signal Boatswain. Since August, they have had entire charge of both exchange and message room, by day and night, and have had the sole responsibility, under the Communications Officer, for this very delicate and vital part of the machinery of the Naval Headquarters.

The largest body of "Wrens" in Plymouth is the Royal Naval Barracks Company, which at one time numbered close on 200 women. They work in many offices, in the War Room, and the Warrant Officers' Mess, the bakery, the sausage factory, and the stores. They are seldom on show, but when mustered, as on the occasion of Miss Weston's funeral, when they fell in and marched with the R.N. Barracks Company, they are an impressive body. A less sombre picture would show them in order, well supported by the Navy, during a memorable paper-chase of officers and ratings, R.N. and W.R.N.S.

The R.M.L.I. Barracks, Plymouth, has the next largest company of "Wrens." They also work in the offices, in the Officers' and Sergeants' Mess, and under the Quartermasters as clerks and storewomen; and in these capacities do not fall too far short, we hope of the tradition smartness and esprit de corps required of Marines. They share also in the life of the Barracks, and are always well represented at the bi-weekly concerts and entertainments given at the R.M.L.I. Theatre.

 Perhaps the most nautical establishment of "Wrens" in the port is the company in H.M.S. Apollo, the depot ship for the 4th Flotilla of Destroyers. Women are working here as sail makers, turners, fitters, and clerks. H.M.S. Indus and H.M.S. Powerful, moored out in the stream, also have "Wrens," on board; and there are two who are by no means "never at sea." They go the rounds of H.M. ships and vessels, collecting what are politely called "bye-products."

In the out-ports, there are, in most cases, small companies of "Wrens." At Newlyn and Penzance they are employed on clerical work. At Falmouth they numbered twenty-three in all, two being depth charge workers and the remainder clerks. The "Wrens" here had the opportunity of coming closely in touch with the force of fishermen and others who manned the drifters and trawlers of the Auxiliary Patrol. To these "very gallant men" they pay the following tribute: "Everyone knows how they kept the seas clear of mines, patrolled the coast, escorted merchant ships, and attacked the enemy submarines; but everyone does not know that in all their dealings with the ‘Wrens,’ where possibly a little roughness in manner might have been expected, nothing but courtesy was received."

One of the new Naval Bases on the coast was that at Torbay, with its parent ship H.M.S. Onyx, and fifty-four other vessels, destroyers, mine-sweepers, drifters, M.L.'s, etc., attached. Here an officer W.R.N.S. acted as the captain's confidential clerk, while an officer and ratings were employed on coding duties. In the summer of 1918, as the Base was enlarged, eleven more ratings and an administrative officer were added to the complement. As in the case of other small companies, they were generously accepted as part of the Base, and shared both its work and play.

There were only eight ratings and an officer at Scillies, but that they were a well-known feature in the life of the Naval Sub-Base may be judged from the fact that A.B.'s came to be spoken of there as "Male Wrens." The officer W.RN.S. lived with the mobile ratings in the hotel, taken over as the Officers' Mess, and acted as a kind of hostess to the Base, keeping an eye on its manners, morals, and socks. It was she who so thoughtfully arranged a nursery upstairs, where the younger officers could play without disturbing their seniors.

Life in the Scillies during the War did not lack excitement. In a heavy gale, parts of the house would fall in; German submarines could be sighted at work at intervals; shipwrecked people would be brought in at any hour of the day or night; and nobody knew what might be washed ashore, from a German mine to a cargo of powder puffs and ribbon. The "Wrens" shared in all this excitement. They received much kindness; and in return may claim the honour of having been able to contribute something to the general comfort and well-being. When at last a marauding officer W.R.N.S. carried the mobiles away, the drifter's siren gave a salute to each departing "Wren," and, while all that was left at the Base waved from the pier, the "Wrens" wept into the sea.

No account of the Division would be complete which did not make some mention of Wingfield Hostel, where almost all the officers W.R.N.S. in Plymouth live together. Perhaps some of our most vivid memories of the W.R.N.S. will be of "make and mend" parties round the fire, or of pleasant days of convalescence in the Sick Bay, with our V.A.D. to look after us, or nocturnal gatherings in the galley when we returned from the dances with a healthy appetite for ship's cocoa. The Hostel, too, reminds us of other times of off-duty, and especially of the various ways in which our naval education was taken in hand by members of the Senior Service, till we began to discriminate more or less successfully between ship and ship, and to avoid the grosser errors of the landsman's speech.

In sending a farewell salute to the rest of the Service, the South-Western Division can make no better signal than the verse long ago composed on its shores:-

 "Cherish merchandize, keep the admiraltie,

That we bee masters of the narrow sea.

The ende of battaillie is peace sikerly,

And power causeth peace finally."