THE CHATHAM DIVISION.

DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR: MISS IVY MATHESON.

In addition to Chatham itself, this Division includes the important stations of Dover, Deal, and Sheerness, as well as several small Sub-Divisions which will be touched on later. In Chatham, the Divisional Headquarters and W.R.N.S.

Hostels are situated in Watts Avenue, the residential part of the town, and the ratings work at three places - the Royal Naval Barracks, Royal Marine Barracks, and Royal Marine Engineers.

At the Royal Naval Barracks some 150 women are employed as clerks, stewards, messengers, cooks and bakers. The bakery is one of the outstanding features of the Sub-Division, for the fifteen women employed here have entirely replaced men on the day shift, and make bread for 6,000 men. On the social side everything that can possibly tend to the comfort and wellbeing of the girls has been done by the kind help of the naval officers concerned. The swimming bath is open to them twice a week during the summer, the miniature rifle range is also available, and in the dinner hour the gymnasium is open for games, etc.

At the Royal Marine Barracks the W.R.N.S. ratings are mostly clerks. The entire work of the Officers' Mess was for some months done by women, but men have now returned. Women are still employed in the Sergeants' Mess, as well as in the canteen and the rations stores. At the Royal Marine Engineers, except for three tailoresses, all the women, fifty-seven, have been clerks.

 A great deal of interesting work has been done at Dover. The mine net workers at the Dover Drifter Patrol were absorbed, and did very good work making the nets for the mines, and a few of them working the mines themselves. These women were all demobilised on the signing of the armistice. At the experimental base there were gas mask workers, and the W.R.N. S. officers in charge were very successful in teaching the men, going on the ships and giving demonstrations on the uses of the masks.

The women porters of the victualling stores have always been rather a feature, as they have done very heavy work loading the vans with potatoes and so on . There have been eighteen motor drivers at the Naval Motor Transport Office, including three despatch riders, who proved very satisfactory. "Wrens" have also been employed as life-belt scrubbers on the Admiralty Pier.

There have been two hostels, one in Maison Dieu Road, which has been opened since April, and "Westmount," which only opened about the time of the signing of the armistice, and was never full, and has now closed. Had the armistice not been signed then, this would have grown very much, as there were two larger demands for the 4th Battalion Royal Marines and coastal motor boats which were never fulfilled.

 At the Sheerness, with the exception of three writers, all the forty-seven women have been cooks and stewards, in the Officers' Mess, where they have been since April, 1918, and have done very well. As a hostel they have used Admiralty

House, the old residence of the Commander-in-Chief, the Nore, situated in the Dockyard.

Deal is a quaint little town with few amusements, and the most important feature is undoubtedly the Marine Depot. This consists of three main barracks - North, East, and South - with church, school, and theatre in the grounds, in addition to the usual recreation fields, gymnasium swimming baths, and infirmary.

On February 1lth, 1918, the first officer arrived, and the number of W.R.N.S. steadily grew, until now the numbers are twenty-three mobiles and sixty-four immobiles. The mobiles live in groups of three to five in five different sets of lodgings, fortunately fairly close together and within very easy reach of the Depot.

As regards the work done by the W.R.N.S. members, there is nothing unusual to mention. Clerks form the great majority, a few work, singly, but most are in groups in different departments. At one time twenty-seven were attached to the Separation and Allotment Office. The work here is very heavy at the end of March and September, and the women are there on duty till nine at night, with good intervals for dinner and tea. All the clerks have the usual "Stand easy" in the morning. They assemble opposite the W.R.N.S. quarters and march to their offices.

 Quite a reasonable amount of recreation is available for the W.R.N.S. Hockey is played several times a week if teams are forthcoming, and social evenings for singing and dancing and games have frequently been arranged.

Of the smaller units in the Chatham Division, Broadstairs had from April to December, 1918, four officers and four ratings working day and night shifts on anti-submarine work of an extremely interesting nature; Ramsgate has four ratings and Hastings two. At Folkestone, there were fifteen women - clerks, telephonists, and life-belt scrubbers.

This Division was fortunate in only losing seventy members to "Air," so that numbers did not greatly decrease on the formation of the W.R.A.F.

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