Babs Edwards WRNS RIP

Kyt · Jul 21, 2008

Babs Edwards: wartime WRNS officer | Times Online Obituary

As one of only seven boarding officers in the Women’s Royal Naval Service during the Second World War, Babs Edwards spent a good deal of her time afloat, working with convoys in harbours all around the shores of the UK. Her duties involved delivering sailing orders by drifter to convoy ships at anchor, and receiving instructions from them for the shore authorities.

Prior to gaining her commission she had worked as secretary to a paymaster captain and then served as boats’ crew and coxswain.

She was born Elsie Roselma Martin in Dulwich in 1912, and educated first by a governess and then at a boarding school in Hove. Her mother would not hear of a career on the stage for her, and she whiled away the next few years working in the family motor business.

Her opportunity for adventure eventually came. As she recalled: “I heard the Prime Minister announce on September 3, 1939, that Britain was at war with Germany; the following day I volunteered for the Wrens.”

Among other things it was a chance for her to jettison a Christian name, Elsie, that she disliked. In the WRNS she became “Bubbles”, because of her deep copper crop of wild curls, before officially adopting the name Babs.

In December 1939 she joined the RNVR training school HMS King Alfred and after passing out became the paymaster’s secretary. In April 1940 she was advanced to Leading Wren and in June 1941 to Petty Officer (Pay). In 1942 she transferred to the mine warfare establishment HMS Vernon at Portsmouth, where in March she became coxswain of one of the first WRNS boat crews.

Selected in 1943 for a commission, she attended the Royal Naval College Greenwich, where she passed out as a third officer, and in January 1944 embarked on her career as a boarding

officer, with a posting to HMS Skirmisher at Milford Haven.

Getting out to ships at anchor could often be a hazardous business, especially if it had to be done in poor weather at night during a blackout. On a number of occasions she found herself leaning over the bows of the drifter, guiding it to its destination vessel with the aid of a small torch, then to scamble up a rope ladder to the merchant ship’s deck to deliver or receive instructions.

In 1945 an accident almost put paid to her career. As she was climbing back down to her drifter from an American Liberty Ship the rope ladder was pulled up prematurely and she fell 24ft on to the deck of her own vessel, breaking her back in four places. She spent the next three months in plaster, but miraculously the damaged vertebrae could be reset and she was able to return to active service.

Demobilised in December 1946, she spent a further year working for the

Allied Control Commission in Hamburg. A deskbound life did not appeal to her and deciding on a complete change she answered an advertisement for a farmhand at Parracombe, on Exmoor in Devon. There she met her husband Jack Edwards, whom she married in 1949.

For the next 11 years she was a farmer’s wife — also having two daughters — until in 1960 she and her husband sold their farm and moved to Coverack in Cornwall. There, after the Torrey Canyon pollution disaster of 1967, she liaised with the RSPCA to set up a cleaning operation for the thousands of seabirds affected by oil, helped by local people and children (including her own) who combed the shores for afflicted birds.

She also became a member of the Royal Naval Auxiliary Service, gaining an instructor’s badge and teaching radar and telecommunications. Into her late eighties she was attending Wren officers’ reunions and, having moved to Helston, regularly laid the wreath on behalf of the Association of Wrens on Remembrance Day at RNAS Culdrose.

Her husband predeceased her. She is survived by two daughters.

Babs Edwards, wartime WRNS officer, was born on August 19, 1912. She died on June 14, 2008, aged 95
Click to expand...

Antipodean Andy · Jul 21, 2008

breaking her back in four places
Click to expand...

Tough lady. RIP.

Pathfinder · Jul 22, 2008

Rest in peace Babs

spidge · Jul 22, 2008

The girls were tough through necessity. How we all needed them.

Log in or Sign up

Babs Edwards WRNS RIP

Kyt Άρης

Antipodean Andy New Member

Pathfinder Guest

spidge Active Member

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

Babs Edwards WRNS RIP

Thread Tools

Kyt Άρης

Antipodean Andy New Member

Pathfinder Guest

spidge Active Member

Share This Page

Useful Searches