News, Articles and Comment

Ed. It was timely that Dr Nina Baker’s book on the brave Scottish Merchant Navy women who lost their lives in World War II should cross our desks the other week and I am grateful to Lt Cdr Helen Taylor RN for reviewing it. It generated the question, what about the 75,000 members of the Women’s Royal Naval Service known as the WRNS? It was a less enlightened era so their primary purpose was ‘to free up manpower to serve at sea’ but that meant that they got to serve in many important roles across the war effort from parachute packing, to ammunition technicians, photographers, coxswains, drivers, photographers and coders. Our grateful thanks to Dr Jo Strange for the following taken from her book on the history of the WRNS published in 2016.

Ed. Reproduced from the NR’s archives for Merchant Navy Day, the author in this article from 1931 [19/4, p. 641] engaged with an ongoing discourse then popular in the NR regarding the future of the Royal Naval Reserve, that Service having been vital to the conduct of the First World War at sea. A 10 minute read.

Ed. Our correspondent proposes a challenge for the NR’s readership: The author, who is aged 89 and has contributed many articles over the years to the NR, more in a humorous vein than a serious one, takes a look back at the Royal Navy in war and peace over the past century and ponders some of its lighter social changes. A 5 minute read.

Ed. An extensive and personal investigation into the microhistory of HMS Wager, a W-class destroyer that operated with the British Pacific Fleet (BPF). Written for the 80^th Anniversary of VJ Day.

Ed. This article, originally published in 1988 for the NR’s 75^th anniversary, examined the then current state of the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) during a transformative time for women serving in the RN. Reproduced here from the NR’s archives for International Women’s Day. A 20 minute read.

Ed. Remembrance is not something we should consign to one day a year. The initiative to have a National focus for year round remembrance outside of London is now a living maturing reality. The author provides an update on how the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Merchant Navy memorials are progressing. A 10 minute read.

Ed. Originally presented at St. Nick’s Church, Liverpool, on International Women’s Day, 8 March 2023, as part of the 80th Anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic NR Chairman Vice Admiral Sir Clive Johnstone examined the conflict in Ukraine today, and emphasized how the WRNS of the Second World War were vital to the defeat of the U-boat threat. A 10 minute read.