In 1939, the Officer Training Course (OTC) of the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS), commonly known as the ‘Wrens’, was established at the Royal Naval College, in Greenwich, London. It is estimated that more than 8500 Wrens trained here during the Second World War. Items kindly donated by the family of Nina Wilkin, and Nina’s own notes, which will be on display in the Painted Hall from 12 October, provide fascinating insights into the life and career of a Wren who trained at Greenwich and served in the Second World War. 

Nina and her Mother, May Wilkin, applied to join the Wrens in the autumn of 1940. Nina was assigned as a Writer (clerical worker) in the Captain’s office at HMS Hornet, the first of many moves that typified her life in the Wrens.  

Life at HMS Hornet 

HMS Hornet was a Royal Naval shore establishment at Gosport, Hampshire and a base for Motor Torpedo Boats and Motor Launches. Nina’s duties included typing the reports of Commanding Officers returning from patrols.  

On the 7 March 1941, one of the Motor Torpedo Boats caught fire, Nina and her colleague Sybil Redding, witnessed the event through the window of the Captain’s office which faced the water’s edge. Suddenly, one of the two torpedoes onboard exploded. Sybil had collapsed on the floor, but Nina had a duty to place the secret papers into a secure metal cabinet before she helped carry, the still unconscious Sybil to the air-raid shelter. Once the All Clear sounded, a shaken Nina immediately had to type up a report of the incident. She learned later that Sybil had died without ever regaining consciousness; her heart punctured by a tiny shard of metal. 

Officer Training at Greenwich 

After three years as a rating, which also included postings inland at Botley in Hampshire and in London, Nina was sent to the Royal Naval College (RNC) at Greenwich to take the Officer’s Training Course (OTC). Living in the Queen Anne building, the Wrens took all their meals in the Painted Hall and used the Jacobean Undercroft as an overnight shelter during the frequent air raids – which Nina found rather claustrophobic. They practised marching in Greenwich Park. Nina recalled that Greenwich was ‘alive with gold braid mostly of three and four stripes and we were expected to salute the lot’.  

Preparing for D-Day 

Nina had always expressed a desire to be a Secretarial Officer as that was where her strengths lay. Having proved unsuited to the role of a Cypher or Censor Officer, Nina was finally given the secretarial post that she had hoped for. She left Greenwich with the rank of Probationary Third Officer, serving a month’s trial at the Top Secret Commander in Chief’s office at HMS Drake, Plymouth, under Second Officer Margaret Drummond (who would later become Director of the WRNS). Within a month, Margaret Drummond had recommended Nina for a full commission. 

What followed was an intense period of work as part of the preparations for the D-Day invasion of Europe – Operation Overlord: ‘We spent hours typing and re-typing the berthing plans for all the ships and landing craft in the Plymouth Command in all the little creeks and harbours of that area…why they kept on changing the berthing plans up all these creeks I never knew but we had lots of nightmares about them all as it was all very Top Secret and we were working at such high pressure. One night I dreamt that I’d left a copy of these plans on a train’.  

Overseas Service 

Nina’s ambition was always to serve abroad. After a few days of overseas training based at Crosby Hall in London, Nina travelled to Liverpool on VJ (Victory over Japan) Day, 15 August 1945, to board the troop ship Strathnaver, the first ship to sail without being blacked out. She was heading for an unknown destination, which turned out to be Bombay (Mumbai). There were 35 women on a ship carrying between 3000 and 4000 men, and they spent much of the voyage fending off unwelcome attention. A gallant Navigating Officer on the ship, Derek Parsons, often assisted Nina in avoiding any trouble; they kept in touch and married in 1947.  

The final destination turned out to be Ceylon (Sri Lanka), where Nina became Personal Assistant to the Assistant Chief of Staff on the Staff of the Commander in Chief, East Indies. Her role contributed to supplying the British East Indies fleet with every material needed other than personnel, including repairs, refits, docking, equipment and fuel supplies. The Wrens were quartered three miles out of the capital city, Colombo.  

In September 1945, the ships carrying men from the Japanese Prisoner of War camps started to arrive. The former prisoners-of-war spent a day in Colombo before resuming their long journey home. The Wrens were asked to entertain and chat with them, taking care that they didn’t eat any food that was too rich after their years of maltreatment. 

Return to England: Home and Duty

Nina loved her year in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), first at Columbo, and later in Trincomalee when the Commander in Chief’s office was moved to this more rural location: ‘We were young, and in any case how could we have not been overwhelmed by the sheer magic of that beautiful island’. Nina stayed in the Wrens for another year after her marriage, only leaving when she was expecting her first baby: ‘By that time I had decided that the Peacetime Service wasn’t quite the same… We eventually came down to earth and returned to England, Home and Duty’. 

The Women at War display will be in the Painted Hall from 12 October until 18 January 2026. Find out more…