News 35
RSA REVIEW •SummER 2014
PIONEER WOMEN’S LEGACY LIVES ON From page 36 on the Lyttelton wharf by Navy friends who sang, ‘You are my sunshine’ and presented her with a cauliflower and carrot bouquet tied with a large toilet-paper bow. While in Wellington she had a chance meeting with American first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who came to New Zealand in August 1943 to visit United States forces, inspect the work of the American Red Cross, and study the contribution of New Zealand women to the war effort. “Another girl and I were going into the Army, Navy and Air Force Club when we were held up at the door because someone important was arriving. We waited, a big car with an American flag stopped, and out hopped Eleanor Roosevelt and her entourage. She stopped and said something to us about our uniform which we didn’t really understand because of her accent. We told her we were New Zealanders and she shook our hands and went indoors.” A year later Norma was transferred back to Lyttelton, where she spent some time stationed at Tasman, with the remainder of her time living at the Wrennery, a Wren’s hostel in the port town. “It was a lovely time. All the girls had different jobs, but we got on famously. There were lots of laughs and lasting friendships created.” Her roommate was her good friend, Patricia, “the loveliest, prettiest girl” from Timaru, who after a while decided to leave the service to marry a farmer from a big station near Oamaru. “She had a baby and I received my last letter from her when the child was around 15 months old. Shortly after, I read in the Press that Pat had died from pneumonia. I was absolutely devastated as I hadn’t had time to answer her letter.” When she left the service Patricia had given Norma a little white vase which she kept for many years: “I was reminded of Pat whenever I filled it with flowers. Unfortunately the vase was broken in the earthquakes along with the rest of my china.” Another of Norma’s great friends was Molly Doyle, who she thinks might have been New Zealand’s first female bagpipe player. They often worked the evening shift together and would have to bunk down in the office until morning. “One night after the light had been out for about 15 minutes, there was an almighty scream from Molly in the top bunk, and with one leap she landed on the deck in a state of shock. When she calmed down she said she was dozing off when
Norma Bucknell (third from right top row) with other Wrens at Lyttelton.
she felt something warm on her chest. When she touched it, she realised it was a large wharf rat settling in for the night after a good supper of chocolate it had stolen from her haversack hanging on the bunk post.” There was a fish-and-chip shop across the road from the navy office. However, all was not what it seemed with that particular business, she says. “The fish-and-chip shop appeared to do a roaring trade. But, after many hours spent watching from our window, we observed that very few of the male customers emerged with any purchases, so we started to draw our own conclusions.” When the war ended, the Lyttelton office closed and most of the Wrens were transferred to Wellington. It was the end of hostilities, but would prove the beginning of a paper war for the Wrens who were obliged to stay on. They were largely employed on demobilisation work as writers, with cooks, stewards and communications staff making up the balance. “Ann Ings and myself were the only two from Lyttelton sent to Philomel to work in the pay office. It was a big change from communications work and terribly boring. I soon decided it was time to return to civilian life and after a few months applied for my discharge which was granted,” says Norma. *** Rona Brunt was among the Lyttelton Wrens who transferred to Wellington, where she served her remaining year in the naval office processing discharge papers. In 1948 she decided to set sail on her own overseas adventure, which took her to England, Canada and numerous other countries. “I made lots of friends during my service, but
decided to travel on my own. My theory was that if you wait for someone else, you’ll still be waiting.” She made friends with two other women on the ship on the way over, and they ended up travelling together once they hit land, including stints hitchhiking around England. Two of them went on to Canada, where Rona got a job in a bank. She came back to New Zealand in 1951 and did typing and bookkeeping work for Gough, Gough and Hamer. A workmate set her up on a blind date with Sandy Brunt, who, during his service as an airman with the Fleet Air Arm, fought in Egypt for 15 months and was a trainer in Scotland and England. The couple married in 1954 with All Black Fred Hobbs as their best man, and moved into their new Sumner home where they raised a son and daughter. They now have three grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren all living in Canada. Every Thursday Rona and Sandy Brunt continue to visit the Sumner Redcliffs RSA where they enjoy the regular camaraderie and a few laughs with the other members. *** Norma Bucknell met her husband, Tom, at a Sunday afternoon dance in Wellington during the war: “He had real rhythm. All the girls wanted to dance with him.” Tom was in the air force and served in the Pacific Islands. The couple corresponded during the war and married when it came to an end. They spent a happy four-and-a-half years at the “remote, idyllic” Cuvier Island where Tom was the lighthouse keeper. Historic Cuvier is New Zealand’s most distant, offshore lighthouse and marks the first sight of land for ships coming in from the Pacific. The Bucknells then transferred to the Akaroa
lighthouse, and from there “shifted like gypsies” as Tom went to work for family on the West Coast, then to Bluff to take up a fisherman’s job. By this time the Bucknells had two young children, a boy and a girl. “I had no other relatives except for my bachelor brother (who is 87 and still lives in Christchurch), and longed to have some sort of family, so we went back to Auckland to be near my motherin-law who was a nice lady.” In Auckland Tom worked as production manager for British Paints for 30 years and retired at 60. He has since died. Norma was living in Christchurch when the September 2010 earthquake hit and a few months later went to stay with her daughter in Sydney to get some respite from the aftershocks. “I had a good rest and was at Sydney Airport on February 22, 2011 ready to come back to Christchurch when there was an announcement that our flight would not be taking off due to another big earthquake. Just before the announcement I’d been talking to a lovely German couple about the steeple coming off the Cathedral in an earthquake 100 years ago and a few minutes later saw it coming down on a television screen at the airport. My blood ran cold.” Norma decided to bypass Christchurch and fly to her son’s place in Auckland. She has remained in the city and now lives independently in an RSA Trust retirement village in Te Atatu South. The tech-savvy 92-year-old grandmother of four and great-grandmother of three emails, skypes and even has her own facebook page. *** Norma and Rona spent a few months serving together at Lyttelton during the war and, later, both belonged to the Royal New Zealand Naval Women’s Association. They used to see each other at meetings and Wren’s reunions, but lost touch after the Christchurch earthquakes. “I never came back from my Sydney break, and was sure Sandy and Rona’s house would never have survived the earthquakes,” says Norma, who is pleased to be back in contact with her fellow Wren. The women are both proud to be part of a group of around 700 pioneering Wrens who created a significant wartime service from nothing. The Wrens broke down barriers. They overcame chauvinism and paved the way for today’s naval women, who now freely serve alongside the men, both at sea and ashore. The legacy of the Women’s Royal New Zealand Naval Service lives on.
Navy reaction to introduction of Wren’s force `relatively lukewarm’ From page 36 small naval office in Lyttelton, but within a few months, was drafted back to Wellington. The next 20 Wrens were sworn in on July 15, 1942 in Wellington, and given daily instruction in morse, radio and fleet sending procedure at Defence Headquarters. Wrens were required to serve for the duration of the war and for 12 months after, unless previously discharged. From early 1943 they were also required to be mobile, and be prepared to serve anywhere in New Zealand. They were spread across bases in Auckland (including HMNZS Philomel – the main on-shore base for the wartime Wrens); Wellington, Dunedin and Lyttelton, as well as lot of smaller places such as Waiouru, and Marlborough, where a secret “squirrel operation” was carried out. The work of eight hand-picked Rapaura Wrens in a remote farmhouse miles from Blenheim was kept secret for 40 years after the war. They had trained as radio operators and classifiers, and worked in pairs to identify the location of Japanese wireless telegraphy operators, both afloat and ashore. This involved the radio operator ‘radio
fingerprinting’ to identify the ‘hand’ of the operator. The continuous picture of dots and dashes produced by the Wren’s special radio receiver was then photographed and examined by the classifiers to try to establish the source of the signal. The information gathered by the Wrens was passed to Naval Intelligence in Washington over a special scrambler telephone. By early 1943 Japanese submarines were extremely active in the Pacific. One was known to have passed through Cook Strait in February that year, another was suspected in Pegasus Bay in the same month. There is even speculation in Grant Howard’s 1985 book, Happy in the Service, that the Wrens picked up signals from a German u-boat in Cook Strait. The Rapaura station closed in May 1944 with the eight Wrens moving into other intelligence and communications roles in Wellington. Their new colleagues pressed them for details about their work, but they remained tight-lipped. Seven of the eight Wrens were still alive when the 40-year deadline passed and they were finally able to reveal their secrets. The WRNZNS was disbanded by the Government in 1946, but was formed again in May 1947 following a sailor’s strike, when a large number of
men left the service, creating a severe personnel shortage. In 1951 the service was reformed permanently with Wrens serving in shore duties until 1977 when the WRNZNS was finally absorbed into the Royal New Zealand Navy. By this time 1655 women had served as Wrens, around 700 of them during World War 2. From 1986, naval women were allowed to serve at sea, initially in non-combatant ships and subsequently in all types of ships Margaret Mitchell (Wilkins) NZW1388 is one of the longest-standing presidents of the Royal Ne w Zealand Naval Women’s Association (formerly the New Zealand Ex-Wren’s Association). She fondly remembers her time at Philomel from 1964 to 1968, where she served as a Wren steward in the officers’ mess following six years as a sea cadet with the Girls’ Nautical Training Corp. “Up to 120 Wrens lived together at Elizabeth House in Auckland where we were required to stay until we either turned 21 or became a leading hand. The camaraderie was fantastic. We formed great friendships and went through so much together; all of our first loves and lost loves, things like that.”
Although it’s 50 years since Margaret joined the Wrens, and 13 years since she and her husband retired to the Bay of Islands, she is still in touch with 10 of the 13 other women from her class. She only recently stood down from the RNZNWA committee after serving since 1970, and is particularly proud of the memorial window in the naval chapel at the Philomel base that depicts every branch badge and where Wrens served in New Zealand. “The Wrens are an important part of my life and I still like keeping in touch with all the old girls wherever I go.”
• General information for this story was referenced from ‘Happy in the Service’ an illustrated history of the WRNZNS 1942-1977 published in 1985 by Grant Howard and with help from Margaret Mitchell. • Do you know the whereabouts of these former Wrens, Michelle Simmons, Noeline Cameron and Lorraine Hobman? (These are their maiden names.) The three women served at Philomel in Margaret Mitchell’s class of 1964 which has lost touch with them over the years. If so please contact Margaret at margaretmitchell@xtra.co.nz.