A TRUE HERO-WREN
At 101, Christian Lamb shares her memories and experiences of serving as a Wren on the home front during World War II
When war was declared in 1939, Christian Lamb knew immediately she would join the Royal Navy. “As my father was now an admiral in that historic service, it seemed destined that I should become a member,” she says. “The advertisement which suggested a Wren might free a sailor to go to sea made some sense and the thought of doing something really useful was very attractive.”
The Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) had been founded in 1917. The leading ladies behind the organisation were Dame Katharine Furse and Dame Vera Laughton Mathews; by 1919 it had successfully recruited 7,000 Wrens including cooks and stewards, despatch riders, sail makers and those in intelligence. It is without a doubt that they began to succeed in their motto “Never at Sea”, as they demonstrated the significant role women could play during wartime and allowed more men to support the front lines.
Like most wartime services, the Wrens were disbanded in 1919. But Furse believed in the significance of the Wrens and set up an association in 1920 to preserve the unique bonds of friendship formed between the women. Little did they
