| ID | Description | Categories | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1922 | DRUMMOND, John D. Blue For a Girl: The Story of the WRNS. 207p., illus. London: W. H. Allen, 1960.
An anecdotal history. |
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| 1923 | FLETCHER, M. H. The WRNS: A History of the Women's Royal Naval Service. 160p., illus.London: Batsford; Annapolis: NIP, 1989. ISBN: 0713461853.
The author was a former Commandant of the WRNS. This profusely illustrated history is laced with snippets of reminiscences. |
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| 1924 | GREGSON, Paddy. Ten Degrees below Seaweed. [vii], 131p., illus. Braunton: Merlin Books, 1993. ISBN: 0863036600. The wartime life and loves of one of the elite Boats’ Crew Wrens. A light hearted account of service mainly in Devonport and Middlesbrough. |
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| 1925 | HARVEY, Elizabeth. Never a Dull Moment. 231p., illus. London: Excalibur, 1993. ISBN: 1856342530.
A WRNS autobiography. She joined up in 1940 and spent most of her war in the Middle East, and this is fully described. The cover gives her name as Elizabeth Whitelaw-Harvey and the title page as Elizabeth Harvey. |
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| 1926 | HOUSTON, Roxane. Changing Course: The Wartime Experiences of a Member of the Women's Royal Naval Service 1939-1945. 271p., illus., index. London: Grub Street, 2005. ISBN: 1904943101.
Apparently reconstructed from diaries. She joined up after Dunkirk and served at St Merryn, Machrahanish, Greenock, Candy and Colombo before returning to civilian life at war's end to train as an opera singer. A fresh, lively memoir. |
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| 1927 | HOWDEN, Jean. Wren Overboard. 107p., illus. Lewes: Book Guild, 1989. ISBN: 0863323758.
Describes the nicer and more social side of wartime Wren life in the second half of the war with time spent in East Africa and Australia. |
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| 1928 | JOHNSON, Audrey. Do March in Step Girls: A Wren's Story. [iii], 151p., Winscombe: Audrey Morley, 1997.
She joined up in 1942 as a naïve young girl from Leicester and spent most of the war as a Wireless Telegraphist based at Londonderry. Gives an excellent flavour of what it was like. |
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| 1929 | LAMB, Christian. I Only Joined for the Hat: Redoubtable WRENS at War, Their Trials Tribulations and Triumphs. xv, 207p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Bene Factum, 2007. ISBN: 1903071151.
A skilfully woven mixture of her own career, joining from a somewhat privileged background, and that of friends and colleagues, often using original letters and diaries. |
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| 1930 | MACK, Angela. Dancing on the Waves: A Wartime Wren at Sea. [v], 185p. Little Hatherden: Benchmark, 2000. ISBN: 0953767418.
A pleasantly told tale of one woman's exciting war as a wren signaller, stretching through the miseries of Hull, via the submarine base at Gosport, to work on troopships, at the Yalta Conference and on to occupied Europe. |
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| 1931 | MASON, Ursula Stuart. The Wrens, 1917–77: A History of the Women's Royal Naval Service. 160p., bibliog., illus., index. Reading: Educational Explorers, 1977.
A thorough if brief account. A new edition was published by Cooper in 1992 entitled Britannia's Daughters (ISBN: 0850522714) . |
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| 1932 | MATHEWS, Vera Laughton. Blue Tapestry. 293p., illus., index. London: Hollis & Carter, 1949.
The wartime director of the WRNS tells its story from her own experience. |
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| 1933 | MILLER, Lee. Wrens in Camera. 79p., illus. London: Hollis & Carter, 1945.
A photo-essay gives a panoramic view of their wartime duties. |
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| 1934 | RAYNES, Rozelle. Maid Matelot. 160p., illus. Lymington: Nautical Publishing, 1971. ISBN: 0245506020.
The author joined the WRNS aged 17 in 1943. After training she spent the rest of the war in the Southampton area. This is a lighthearted account of her service. A second edition was published by Warsash Nautical in 1993 and a third by Catweasel in 2004, subtitled Adventures of a Wren Stoker in World War 2, featuring D-Day in Southampton (ISBN: 0954746708). |
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| 1935 | SCOTT, Peggy. They Made Invasion Possible. 148p., illus. London: Hutchinson, [1944].
The story of women's work in the war, including Wrens, laced with personal details. |
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| 1936 | SLATER, Susan. Dear James: Letters From a Wren in World War II (Once Upon A Wartime, IV). iii,117p., illus. Grantham: Barny Books, [2005]. ISBN: 0948204664. Anna Tyler joined the WRNS Supply Branch in 1940. These letters were sent to a badly wounded fighter pilot recovering on her father’s Yorkshire estate. They simply and tellingly describe a wartime life of duty and pleasure. |
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| 1937 | SPAIN, Nancy. Thank You - Nelson. 144p. London: Hutchinson, 1945.
The broadcaster was a Wren driver in the northeast of England for the first 18 months of the war, before going to OTC. This is a brief and humorous account of her adventures in those months. |
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| 1938 | THOMAS, Lesley & BAILEY, Chris Howard. WRNS in Camera: The Women's Royal Naval Service in the Second World War. xiv, 107p., illus. Stroud: Sutton, 2002. ISBN: 0750913703.
Uses Lee Miller's photographs to provide an extended photo-essay showing the multifarious wartime roles of the WRNS. |
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| 1939 | WELLS, Maureen. Entertaining Eric: Letters from the Home Front 1941–44. 176p., illus. London: Imperial War Museum, 1988. ISBN: 0901627410.
The author was a billeting officer who then joined the WRNS, first as a courier and then as a Wren stoker in the pre-invasion south of England. She had fallen in love with an Australian engineer serving with the RAF. He was posted to the Middle East and these extracts from her letters beautifully record the pains of separation and the vagaries of life at the Home Front. |
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| 1940 | WILLIAMS, Marjorie. My Island War: Recollections of a Wren. iv, 48, [20]p., illus. Winchelsea: author, 1990. ISBN: 0951520601.
A fragmentary wartime autobiography which covers her service in the Scilly Isles which was used as a base for such diverse groups as air sea rescue launches and special forces. |
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| 1941 | ELDRIDGE, A. W. C. Just Out of Sight. 322p. London: Minerva, 1998. ISBN: 1861067593.
A frank autobiography. He volunteered under the Y Scheme in January 1942. He did his CW sea time on Cleveland and by Christmas was a Temporary Acting Midshipman. He volunteered for hazardous duty and trained as a charioteer. His frustrating but dangerous war was full of training and one major and successful operation in the Far East. |
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