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History - The Second World War As the storm clouds gathered and the Armed Forces prepared for the likelihood of confrontation, increased demands were being made on the Navy's trained shore staff. Although the formation of a Women's Reserve had been discounted in 1935, the subject of employment of women in support of the Armed Forces in the event of war gathered momentum. In the case of the Royal Navy the initial outline plane envisaged a need for about 3,000 women who would be mostly clerks, domestics, drivers etc., and in peacetime would be employed as Civil Servants. If war was declared there would be a need to put some of them in uniform, but still on a civilian basis. In the autumn of 1938, however, a paper was circulated within the Admiralty on the formation and organization of 'a Corps to be known as the Women's Royal Naval Service'. At the end of 1938 a handbook on National Service was published which included information about 'Women's Service in the Royal Navy'.Early in 1939 Mrs. Vera Laughton Mathews was appointed Director of the WRNS. With a very small staff she set about the organization of the Service, and by the outbreak of war a nucleus of officers was ready to take the strain. By December 1939 there were over 3,000 WRNS personnel and the strength was to steadily increase until it reached its peak of 74,620 in 1944. |
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