Women's Royal Naval Service (1917 - 1919)

You can search and download the records of those who served in the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) during the First World War.

The Women's Royal Naval Service was formed to carry out shore-based duties and allow sailors to go to sea. Recruitment posters encouraged women to "Free a man for sea service". The Admiralty aimed to recruit 3,000 women but eventually over 5,000 women joined. Katharine Furse, the former Commandant of the British Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachments, was appointed Director in November 1917. You can see an extract from the draft formation document by clicking on the image on the right.

At first the WRNS (or "Wrens") undertook domestic duties, such as cleaning, cooking and serving meals. Later they carried out a greater variety of roles including wireless telegraphists and electricians. The Officers were not commissioned ("civilians in uniform"). They were based in the United Kingdom, from Portsmouth to the Orkneys, but some units also served in Gibraltar, Malta and Genoa. 23 WRNS died in the First World War.

The WRNS was demobilised on 1 October 1919 and it was re-established in 1938 in the build up to the Second World War. The Women's Royal Naval Service was disbanded finally in 1993 when women were allowed to join the Royal Navy.

We have outlined some points to help you understand more about the first World War WRNS records. Use the links below to jump to the topics you are interested in.

Searching the records

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The original records were grouped in the series ADM 318 (Officers) and ADM 336 (Ratings). Now you can search on details from all the surviving records by entering any or all of the following:

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Ratings

Each Rating's record consists of a straightforward form listing details such as full name, date of enrolment, age at enrolment, whether "mobile" (willing to work away from their home area) or "immobile", period of service and where they served, name and address of next-of-kin, whether discharged from service and other notes. Immobile ratings are found most often in London or at the Naval bases such as Portsmouth.

These records were originally filmed in pairs, and have been scanned the same way. So you can expect to see two ratings' service records in the image you download (there is no extra charge). You can see an example of a rating's service record by clicking on the image on the right.

The service record of Dorothy Poulter shows that she enrolled as a "motor driver" on 18 July 1918. She was "immobile", therefore she wouldn't be posted away from home. She named her brother as next-of-kin so we can assume that both of her parents had died by this time. Her character and ability were assessed as "V.G." (Very Good). The record also shows that she was paid a Demobilisation Gratuity in September 1919. The abbreviation "SNLR" appears in the "discharge" column. This abbreviation occurs frequently in these records and it means "services no longer required".

Officers

The Officers' files hold official forms, dossiers and letters concerning appointments and promotions. In some cases a file might also include an identification certificate giving details about date and place of birth, marital status, trade or profession, religion, physical description and name of next-of-kin.

Correspondence and annotations in many of these files reveal something of contemporary attitudes, etiquette, assumptions, class distinctions and prejudices.

The examples below are taken from the service record of Lily Marx who wrote the poem "The Old Serge Frock" about the Wrens' uniform. The first image, her application form, shows that she was born in Australia, was of British nationality and had been educated in Switzerland. She had also attended Cheltenham College and Bedford College. In civilian life she had been a "hospital almoner" (a social worker). She stated on the form that her father was an "Admiral (retired) now employed as Rear Admiral". Lily Marx was recorded as being unmarried at the time of enrolment.

The second image is from a 1919 report which reviews her performance (she had been posted to Malta, as the Principal in charge of her Subdivision). In this encouraging report, the Divisional Director considered her to be "an extremely good Officer all round" and deemed her suitable for promotion.

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