Women’s Royal Naval Service: Uniforms, Bravery and Independence

In 2024 I was invited to present at the annual conference of the Barbara Pym Society at St Hilda’s College, Oxford. The theme of the conference was ‘So Very Secret: Barbara Pym and Her Society at 30’ celebrating the work of the author Pym when she served as a Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) officer in the Second World War. Pym, like other Wrens (as they were known) with exceptional language skills, was involved in intelligence work only recently revealed due to constraints of the Official Secrets Act 1939.

The delegates were devotees of Barbara Pym’s shrewd social comedies and of her as a diarist, whose love of fabrics, clothing and fashion also spoke through the voices of her characters. My question to my audience was how did uniform influence Wrens during their Second World War military service and to what extent did it lead to  their social liberation? 

The complex answer to this question was underpinned by the proposition that the clothes we wear present a narrative of our lives and that material objects, on close examination, reveal important signs of use, experience and attachment. The uniforms are often viewed with nostalgia having silently survived a great deal like their owners. We know that this is attested to in the diaries and writing of Wrens and in oral histories from those women who took over increasingly varied and dangerous roles from late 1939, until gradual de-mobilisation after VE Day (Victory in Europe Day) on the 8 May 1945 and when the war against Japan ended in August 1945. 

‘My hat is lovely, every bit as fetching as I’d hoped’, begins Pym, no longer a Pro (Provisional) Wren but fully fledged Rating, in the entry made in her diary on 20 July 1943. She and ends it with a comment on the approach needed to make standard issue uniform fit properly ‘but my suit is rather large though it’s easier to alter that way’1.  

Figure 1: Wren Pym pictured wearing a revised pattern Ratings hat, with a rakish Beatty tilt. 

Source: https://denniscooperblog.com/spotlight-on-barbara-pym-a-glass-of-blessings-1958-2/ https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=857153013124498&id=100064894204052 

The Wrens’ hat patterns were seen as glamorous and proved to be an effective recruitment device, ‘I only joined for the hat and the hat defined me’ extolled Christian Lamb 2. 

During the 20th Century there had been dramatic changes made to clothing and dress; as described by fashion historians such as Elizabeth Ewing (1975), Julie Summers (2016) and Emma Trealeaven (2018). A number of which changes, including style and proportion, had come about through the esteem given to the uniform-clad contributions of the brave, stoic, and practical First World War Wrens, the 438 Officers and 5,054 Ratings who served, exploding contemporary myths of women’s lack of capability and aptitude to serve in roles that demanded a great deal 3.  

The uniform navy-blue wool serge narrow skirts severely impeded movement as they were set at a demure regulation 9 inches (23 cm) off the ground in 1918, illustrated in a recruitment poster held in the Caird Library, Royal Museums Greenwich (DAU/70). This did not help when one was trying to fix a lorry or ambulance especially when combined with wearing a corset as Julie Summers observed in 2016. In interviews I carried out with Wrens who served in the later part of the war and decade that followed, the raised hemline of the Second World War Ratings skirt (now 14 inches – 35 cm - off the ground but still a polite length, sitting below the knee) was fortunate. However, the clean shape of the revamped contemporary pattern remained a little restrictive, especially when marching (to some embarrassment) and when travelling, hitch hiking and clambering into vans, lorries, or cars, remembered with some hilarity by interviewees Sybil and Margaret in 2022. 

Paula Byrne alludes to how everyone admired Barbara Pym’s uniform and Pym’s positivity about her made-to-measure Officer’s service uniform pattern, and promotion to the desired tricorne hat, is echoed in memoirs and contemporary accounts by those who could afford to access Savile Row stalwarts Gieves and Hawkes and other tailors working by Royal Warrant to Admiralty regulations 4. Now a Third Officer, Pym comments on its ‘rather beautiful naval badge, blue and gold and crimson’, and her pleasure at moving on to a tailored garment in better quality wool, rather than the universally reviled rough scratchy wool serge with its poor dye fix that often transferred to petticoats and shirts to the chagrin of Ordinary Wrens 5. 

Figure 2: Second World War Uniforms By Gieves Ltd Catalogue.

Source: Peter Tilley, Photograph: Joanne Horton.

Although not all Pym’s war time experiences offered glamour, as noted by Paula Bryne, and ‘a more colourful or thrilling way of life’, her enthusiasm for the ‘fore and aft rig’ Officer uniform, with its double breasted tunic with gilt buttons and light blue lacing at each cuff, box pleat skirt cut in neat lines in navy blue, worn with a white shirt, detachable collar with studs attaching at front and back, black tie, black opaque stockings and black lace up shoes was evident 6.   

The Second World War uniform pattern was devised by British fashion designer and First World War veteran Captain Edward Molyneux, with later iterations by Victor Stiebel 7. Molyneux’s couture sensibilities were jealously remarked on by other services as the design was noted for hiding deficiencies while the wide belted tunic of the Auxiliary Territorial Services (ATS) and Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) exaggerated hips 8. There were no breast pockets to give a lumpish look, although the masculine cut of the jacket when worn on a generous bust meant that it gaped and often Wrens kettle-steamed and stretched them over the knee to help, interventions mentioned several times by Wrens I interviewed. 

It was unsurprising that the glamour associated with a uniform designed by a high society and Hollywood favourite, whose aesthetically subtle elegant collections were often featured in women’s magazines and newsreels of the period, meant the Wrens were a military service in demand 9. However, this was conflated by being the smallest, with volunteers and conscripts mostly drawn from women with links with Royal Navy families. At its maximum strength in 1944 there were only 74,000 Wrens compared to 170,000 WAAF and 198,000 ATS 10.

In letters home and to friends, Wrens write about respect for one’s uniform and its role in signifying clearly to others they were ‘socking it to Adolf’ 11. Indeed, in an interview Margaret talked about going a step further than wearing the standard loan uniform by buying a ‘tiddly suit’ out of her own savings, tiddly being a colloquialism for smart 12. From a history point of view this is fascinating as we can glean much about how Wrens felt about serving and freeing a man for the fleet, as the ubiquitous poster extolled, from the number of purchases of replacement regulation uniforms mentioned in the many memoirs listed in Further Reading.   

Figure 3: POSTER: WOMEN’S ROYAL NAVAL SERVICE join the Wrens AND FREE A MAN FOR THE FLEET.

Image credit: IWM (Art.IWM PST 8286). Found here:https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/29092. 

The tiddy suit was made to measure, often by a port tailor, in soft barathea, fine quality serge or superfine wool, all being textile materials with proven resistance to hard and salt water, important qualities given the location of many naval bases. This was a serious financial investment, imbued with benefits such as enhanced appearance and sensory experience and therefore increased comfort in roles with exponentially increasing responsibilities. Indeed, a number of my interviewees talked about a lively second hand market in these good quality second hand uniforms that were exchanged between those who were about to leave the service of the crown and those Wrens still serving. 

Wrens valiantly employed skills, illustrated in contemporary handbooks like Weldon’s Encyclopaedia of Needlework, in mending, dealing with tearing and wear of the armholes of jackets (most often found to be under stress as were overstuffed pockets), reinforcing and patching, even by those who were not patient with needlework and their unisex ‘hussif’ (housewife)  sewing kits. Indeed, the interventions, tricks and tools Wrens used to help their professional appearance and maintain their, to our modern eyes, very basic wardrobe are intriguing. They reflect ingenuity and patriotism in the face of adversity to make uniforms look good and the clothing to last, and Wrens’ attitude towards military rules and their community.  

Nancy Spain, writing in 1940, explains more of challenges of the loan best uniform concluding that ‘the only thing that fit were the gloves’ 13. She had to ask the men with whom she worked to help her to lace and bull 14 her ill-fitting shoes and was delighted that the bow of her cap could meet military expectations, by putting a small coin into the bow with the two ends sticking outwards. Memoirs recount that hats were stamped on in puddles to make them more flexible as tap water did not work (allegedly) and countless Wrens tried to deal with the ‘badge of honour’ marks left on their necks by running candle wax along heavily starched collars and studs. 

Beyond formal duties that demanded wearing the couture designed No 1 best uniform, women were active, particularly from 1941 onwards, in crucial demanding roles relating directly to: ships and troop carrying, transport and maintenance, aircraft handling and target practice work, heavy repair work like splicing wire antisubmarine net, radio and communications, and naval barrage and weather balloon operation, to name but a few. The nature of this work and gender did not constrain Wrens and one of the fascinating aspects, from a material culture point of view, was the workwear uniform loaned to women for dirty work. Weapons maintenance and transport mechanics wore men’s fly fronted one-piece working overalls, supplemented by two-piece twill trouser suits, black shirts and dungarees (Harris, 2013; McBride, 1996).   

The all-female Tugboat and Harbour Boat Crew’s, an initiative introduced in 1941, wore: men’s square neck vests (white fronts) underneath a WRNS double breasted tunic, men’s bell-bottom matelot front flap opening serge trousers and white plimsolls with black rubber soles, for sure footing on board, worn with or without socks. A seaman’s knife was issued, and Boat crews were allowed to wear a distinctive white lanyard like the male Ratings 15. 

Figure 4: The Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS): Three WRNS River Pilots at Plymouth Naval Base studying charts before sailing. Left to right: Pat McGinnis, Pat Turner and Patricia Downing.

Image credit: IWM (A 24948). Found here: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205193239. 

From the 1930’s onwards, girls were taught in schools how to mend, reinforce, and make their own clothing 16, but despite the high level of skill evident in this generation of women,  the challenge of making garments designed for men’s bodies fit women’s hip to waist ratio and chest shape, was widely documented by redoubtable Wrens 17. Supreme efforts were made - to put darts in the back of bell bottom trousers, pulling money belts tighter, altering the positions of buttons, trying to attach braces - but often failing as naval base seamstresses were rarely available to address difficulties in construction and fit 18. 

Regulation knickers worn over home sewn or department store lingerie were used to create a barrier, to assuage the brutal rub of the matelot bell bottom trousers, Shown in the illustration below sported by the athletic but petite Wren Inches Trewin. 

Figure 5: Wren boat crews. 20th November 1944, Plymouth. Wrens ratings have manned most of the duty boats, some as large as 60 ft long for the past three years. Wren coxswains have been at the wheel of the boats which ply between ship and shore in all weathers and at all hours. " Inches" Yvonne Trewin, of Paignton, the smallest member of the crew makes a big leap ashore to make fast as the boat comes alongside at Devonport dockyard. 20th November 1944.

© Mirrorpix https://www.mediastorehouse.com/memory-lane-prints/mirror/1400to1499-01447/wren-boat-crews-20th-november-1944-21886670.html 

The attempts to adapt the clothes was significant as Wrens were wearing their uniforms , not only carrying out hard physical activities and climbing rope ladders on board but, sleeping in their bell bottoms and Mae Wests (life vests), at risk of being torpedoed or shelled when serving on boat convoys often involved in evacuating the wounded 19.

Women were not only fulfilling men’s roles but offering creative solutions to problems of the bitterly cold weather British winter with aplomb. Layering and restructuring closed-at-the-knee (boy baffler) knickers to become sweaters, worn over the shirt but hidden under the regulation jacket was one solution recounted by one of my interviewees. Unsurprisingly, it appears there was great demand for hand knitted balaclavas, scarves and sea boot socks to supplement the loan clothing associated with outdoor working roles (DAU/220). 

There are many other stories of the interaction between Wren menders, dress makers, tailors, and the equipment and the fit of the objects they made or adapted. However, a recent interview brings to the fore how little we have learned in terms of women’s war time uniform and how the fit and availability of combat uniform is hastened by the arrival of war. In an interview in 2023 Ukrainian MP Iryna Nyorak revealed that women in the Ukrainian Armed Forces were forced to wear oversized men’s clothing, not just rubbing skin raw but ultimately life threatening because of unsuitability, with loose fabric at the wrist getting caught in rifles when reloading 20.

Finally, what can uniform tell us about women lives and those seeking independence. In the words of Jean, the feisty daughter of a Tiller girl 21, the effect of ‘not being tied down anymore’ by not having to live at home was liberating 22. At first, women were usually confined to one location, they then became mobile, located at naval bases and base stations in Wreneries and lodgings across Britain and later, in parts of Europe and the Far East in their distinct tropical kit. Volunteering or being conscripted into military service meant uniform, and the visibility, identity, confidence and opportunity that this brought to individuals was profound.  

From ‘slip party’ Wrens, scrubbing and painting a 72 feet (22 m) motor torpedo boat and smaller motor gun boats, in sturdy hard wearing outdoor wear, as recounted by Waller and Vaughan- Rees (1989),  to ‘code and cypher’ Wrens in their professional ensemble outfits operating out of Station X (Bletchley Park), other bases and on ships, the design and variety of uniform ultimately enabled women’s ability to fulfil new roles within the complex reality of war 23. These roles could be mundane, practical, technical, physical, medical, expert, tactical, dangerous, or secret but were critical to the survival of servicemen and the public. 

Given the means and opportunity many women would have continued the independence that wearing uniform gave, however post war there is another story to be told of reuse of uniformed clothing, attachment to uniform (as the heyday or memento garment), the adoption of work clothes and trousers into fashion and as signifiers of untold stories, achievements and trauma, and the problems of post war Britain, with not all gains long lasting. 

Adlington, L. (2019). Women’s Lives and Clothes in WW2 Ready For Action. Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Books Ltd. 

Baden-Powell, D. (2004). They Also Serve, an SOE Agent in the WRNS. London: Robert Hale & Company. 

Bigland, E. (1946). The Story of the Wrens. London: Nicholson & Watson. 

Brayley, M, and Ingram, R. (2021). World War II British Women’s Uniforms in Colour Photographs. Marlborough: The Crowood Press Ltd. 

Bryne, P. (2021). The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym A Biography. London: William Collins. 

Douie, V. (1950). Daughters of Britain. Oxford: George Ronald Publishers. 

Ewing, E. (1975). Women In Uniform through the centuries. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. 

Griffith, E. (1944). A Manual of Plain Needlework. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

Hardy, C. and Linton, D. (2021). Women in Wartime Britain 1939-45. Manchester: iNostalgia. 

Harris, C. (2013). D-Day Diary: Life on the Front Line in the Second World War. Stroud: The History Press. 

Hore, P. (2021). Bletchley Park’s Secret Source Churchill’s Wrens and the Y Service in World War II. Barnsley: Greenhill Books. 

Horton, J. (2024). I Joined for the Hat. Liberation, Bravery and Glamour in a Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) Uniform. In Green Leaves, The Journal of the Barbara Pym Society. Autumn/Winter 2024. pp-11-12. 

Howell, G. (2019). Women in Wartime Dress Studies from Picture Post 1938-1945. London: Bloomsbury.  

Lamb, C. (2007). I Only Joined for the Hat Redoubtable Wrens at War…their trials, tribulations and triumphs. London: Bene Factum Publishing Ltd. 

Lamb, C. (2021). Beyond The Sea a Wren at War. London: Mardle Books. 

Mack, A. (2000). Dancing on the Waves: Wartime Wren at Sea. York: Benchmark Publishing Ltd. 

McBride. (1996). Never at Sea: Life in the WRNS. Educational Explorers Ltd. 

Nicholson, D. (1995). A Living Tapestry. Edinburgh: The Pentland Press Ltd. 

Nykorak, I. (2023). ‘This isn’t about fashion-it’s about survival’. Interviewed by Louise Callaghan. The Sunday Times Style. 1 October, pp 22-23. 

Oxford English Dictionary, “glamour(n.) sense 2.a,“. March 2025. 

Raynes, R. (1971). Maid Matelot. Lymington: Nautical Publishing Company. 

Sladen, C. The Conscription of Fashion. Aldershot: Scolar Press. 

Smith, Sheridan, J. (2014). Square Peg: my life in the WRNS. Dorcas. 

Spain, N. (1945). Thank You, Nelson. London: Hutchinson & Co. Ltd.  

Summers, J. (2016). Style In The Second World War Fashion On The Ration. London: Profile Books Ltd. 

Trealeaven, E. (2018). ‘Standard and Supremely Smart: Luxury and Women’s Service Uniforms in World War II’, Luxury History, Culture, Consumption, Volume 5 (2), pp 107-128. 

Unwin, V. (2015). Love and War in the WRNS. Stroud: The History Press. 

Waller, J, and Vaughan-Rees, M. (1989). Women in Uniform1939-1945. London: PAPERMAC 

Weldon’s Encyclopaedia of Needlework. London: The Waverley Book Co. Ltd. 

Interviews: 

Far, J. (2022). Interviewed by Joanne Horton. 6 June, telephone. 

Berrecloth, S. (2022). Interviewed by Joanne Horton. 24 June, online. 

Guscott, M. (2022). Interviewed by Joanne Horton. 23 June, telephone. 

Middleton, P. (2022). Interviewed by Joanne Horton. 21 June, telephone. 

Moorcraft, M.(2022). Interviewed by Joanne Horton. 28 June, telephone. 

Tate, P. (2022). Interviewed by Joanne Horton. 29 June, online. 

Wycherley, J. (2023). Interviewed by Joanne Horton. 23 May, telephone. 

Objects: - 

The Caird Library, National Maritime Museum, Royal Museums Greenwich and the Prince Philip Maritime Collections Centre, Royal Museums Greenwich. 

DAU/70. Furse Papers-poster, ‘Quoth the Navy” Never More”, re: WRNS uniform regulations, 1915-1917. 

DAU/220. WRNS Scrapbook-large, loose-leaf scrapbook of newspaper and magazine cuttings, 1940-1945, miscellaneous subjects re: the WRNS. Also some drawings and photographs of WRNS in uniform. 

Gieves and Hawkes Ltd, 1, Savile Row, London.