PREFACE:

  Born into the Royal Navy in 1932 - at the Royal Naval and Royal Marines maternity home in Southsea - I had a rosy view of life in the Service, despite the fact that my father (who served twenty eight years) told us it had its drawbacks. My elder brother took him at his word and joined the RAF when called up during the War! When I was seventeen my mother died and I left Gosport Grammar School to keep house for my father and brother, who now lived at home. Two years later my father married a wonderful Yorkshire woman and I was free to take up a career so started work at Gosport Public Library where I stayed for four years but still hankered after a naval life so finally I sent off for information.

  There is a common belief that everyone's autobiography would provide some measure of interest and, if that is the case, there must be many stories which will never see the light of day. My own experiences might never have been told - I leave it to the reader to decide whether or not that might have been a good thing - had it not been for a series screened on television at the beginning of 1969 entitled 'The Life and Times of Lord Mountbatten'.

  Admiral of the Fleet the Earl Mountbatten of Burma was a living legend in the field of naval communications, due to his early association with the Branch as an instructor and his long standing interest in naval wireless telegraphy and signals. Although a study of his Service and public life reveals numerous other facets - including his notable achievements in Burma, his term of office as Viceroy of India and his wartime adventures as Captain of HMS KELLY - to those of us in the Communications Branch he was always 'our Lord Louis' and, selfishly and quite unreasonably, we did not want to share him with anyone outside the Branch. From India he returned to the Navy and served in command of the First Cruiser Squadron in Malta before being appointed Fourth Sea Lord. A term as Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean followed, during which time he also became NATO Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces Mediterranean, and he was then appointed First Sea Lord.

  There was one more step to be taken in his Service career and our Chief Yeoman in Malta, announcing to the assembled Watch the appointment of Lord Mountbatten as Chief of the Defence Staff, made it quite clear that such a high place in the unified Ministry of Defence was a just reward to a former Signals Officer. The announcement that his life story was to be shown on television emboldened me to write to Lord Mountbatten, telling him how much we in the Branch had always thought of him. To my delight I received the following reply:

  As the story unfolded week by week on our screens I saw and heard many references to naval communications and was able to revive numerous memories of people, places and systems I had known during my own Service career. With such a subject it was natural enough for the television series to be reflected from a man at the top of the ladder. It struck me that my own Service life span as a Wren and Leading Wren in naval communications might be diametrically opposite in terms of approach angle while still remaining loyal to the ideals of the Service. Purely for my own interest, I produced a typed script which was somewhat shorter than this final effort. I forwarded a copy of this original script to Lord Mountbatten, who kindly replied as follows:

  Some of my friends read copies of the script and suggested that it might make interesting reading for those who had served in, or were contemplating joining the Service. After re-typing and revision I wrote to the Royal Naval Signal School at Petersfield (HMS MERCURY) to tell them what I was doing and to ask if they could produce any illustrations which might be included in the book. Their assistance was to extend far beyond the mere provision of photographs, as those with sufficient stamina will discover having ploughed through the story to its final chapter! I also secured Lord Mountbatten's permission to quote his two letters, his approval of this Preface and the exciting news that he would like to acquire a copy of the published book for his library.

  So here it is - the story of my life. Of course it had its dark side and its boring side and of course not every day of the three-and-a-half years plus was a happy one. But taken overall I stored up more in the way of happy memories, new experiences and achievements than anyone has the right to expect.

  Maybe I have gone too minutely into detail in some cases, but I have tried to show my own Service life from every angle and to describe just what the Service meant to me. If this book can persuade only one girl to join the Navy and repeat any of my happy experiences, or if it can bring back memories to someone else who was in the Service during the middle and late 1950's, then it will have achieved its aim.

  For various reasons my book was never published but I am more than delighted to be able to share the manuscript with you via the Internet.

Chapter 1