Tom Morton 1 - One never saw Wrens at sea
Name: Tom Morton
Rank: Commodore
Period of Service: 1965 - 2001
Job at time of interview: Retired from Navy
Tom Morton was a Naval Officer for 36 years. He retired from the Navy as a Commodore in 2001. During his early career Tom served in submarines and then moved into surface ships.
He has commanded three ships, HMS Leeds Castle 1983 - 85, HMS Sirius 1988 - 91 and HMS Coventry 1994 - 96. His first experience of commanding a mixed ship was in 1994 when he was the Captain of the 1st Frigate Squadron and the Commanding Officer of HMS Coventry.
In the clip below Tom talks about the roles he remembers Wrens having in his early career.
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Extract Text (Duration0.48)
The Wrens were very small cadre of people and women in the Navy at that time, but they were highly competent. One encountered them always in our training establishments as trainers in the models, very competent at running the models and I was trained by lots of young Wrens who knew much more about the warfare aspects of what I was doing than I did when I started, and um one never saw them at sea of course, hardly ever. Occasionally we'd take a women to sea for the, a female officer to sea, usually for the day, generally related to the training aspect of what we were doing. But really they were very separate from what we did at sea and once we sailed, you know, that was it, you didn't see them at all.
One never saw Wrens at sea
0.48 mins - mp3 File
My first encounter with women at sea
2.20 mins - mp3 File
We had five young women up as defaulters
2.36 mins - mp3 File
This young woman had been immensely brave
2.41 mins - mp3 File
Are there any men on this bridge?
2.21 mins - mp3 File
The ships with women had a lighter atmosphere
0.27 mins - mp3 File
