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| Susan Barrington-Ward, WRNS dispatch rider, 1941.* |
And now we know her name.
A fascinating comment from "Anonymous" appeared on a blog item here that had included a photo of motorcycle dispatch riders for the Royal Navy during World War II.
"Second from right is my mum; have a few photos of her dispatch riding days."
"Anonymous" turned out to be William Newby-Robson, of North Yorkshire, UK and he did indeed have that photo of his mother as a young woman, in the uniform of the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS). The "Wrens."
Naturally William would recognize his mother, second from right in a line-up of sharp looking Wrens on motorcycles.
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| Susan Barrington-Ward in uniform. |
Better yet, his copy of the line-up photo in the family album was hand labelled with the names of some of the women.
Under the woman second from right, on motorcycle SHX123, are the initials "SBW" and the words "Now Newby-Robson" — her married name.
The initials, written in the album in her own handwriting, stood for Susan Barrington-Ward, just 21 years old when the photo was taken outside at the Wrens' quarters in London.
She was born Oct. 6, 1919 in London, one of three daughters of Lancelot Edward Barrington-Ward, who would become surgeon to the Royal family of George VI.
Photos in William's collection show she served in the Wrens throughout the war, ultimately becoming a "Second Officer."
The photo in the family album that shows Susan second from right in a line-up of Wrens is labelled in the album as "1940," but the Internet gives the date as March 11, 1941, and credits it to Fred Morley/Fox Photos. (See below for some of the other names of Wrens identified in the album.)
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| Susan is second from right on motorcycle SHX123. Muriel Wright is fourth from right, on SHX122. |
There's a whole series of photos on the Internet of Susan and these other Wrens riding around London, for the photographers, showing off the service to country performed by the intrepid young women.
There was danger as well as service. Wrens died during the war. One source says almost a third of Wrens to die on active duty were dispatch riders.
One of the women photographed with Susan in the line of riders was Ian Flemings' girlfriend Muriel Wright, killed when her London flat was bombed. With her beauty and daring, she could have inspired any James Bond.
Motorcycling alone had its risks, as Susan remembered.
"Sadly she died in 1995, but she did tell us a few stories about her World War II motorcycle days," William told me.
"It certainly was challenging. Some of London's streets were still paved with wooden blocks, which were treacherous when wet, and it was not always easy to see the road surface with limited lighting due to the blackouts."
At least Susan had ridden a motorcycle before her service. William remembers:
"She also told me that before the war began she announced that she would like to buy a motorcycle. Her father was most concerned, but he didn’t object and insisted he went with her to buy the secondhand bike from some fellow in North London, even though he knew nothing about motorcycles. She bought it and I think it must have needed some work as she had to rebuild the carburetor and I think decoke it! I don’t know what make it was though."
Whatever make the first one was, Sue would eventually have an Ariel as seen in a photo from the family album.
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| Susan posing on her Ariel with friend and a sister about 1945-'47. |
"On her Ariel Square 4, 600 I believe. She would ride it from London down to Cornwall for breaks with her friends. (Not 3 up!) That is her with her friend Cynthia Mortimer and sister June," William wrote.
The Wrens, often pretty, and often dressed in snappy uniforms, were photographed during the war to encourage enlistment, of course, but no doubt also for the morale benefit of looking at them.
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| 1942 Yardley ad urged women to "let no weariness appear." |
This may seem trivial. It was not. During the war British cosmetics maker Yardley ran advertisements encouraging women to put their best face forward, culminating in a saying that "Beauty Is a Duty."
One modern blogger put it this way:
"The superficial read of course is that a woman’s duty above all is to be decorative — but, if you look at it a bit deeper, what intrigues me about this campaign is the focus on a specifically feminine strength... For women of the 1940s and for Yardley, feminine strength means triumph over adversity, and maintaining an optimistic spirit in the face of hardship and the daily grind: 'Let us always honor the subtle bond between good looks and morale.'"
William says that his mother never mentioned being in the photo shoot.
The Wrens in the line-up photo seemed to have cruised around London, passing Buckingham Palace, for the benefit of the photographers. The registration plates on the motorcycle fenders suggest they are the same women, although Susan isn't always shown on SHX123.
There's even a short film clip of some of these same women mounting their motorcycles. It shows up in documentaries, including Frank Capra's "Why We fight — The Battle of Britain." You can catch one version of the scene here.
They're lovely looking and probably cold.
One Wren, B. Holford-Smith, described the situation this way: "We mostly had to resort to what was provided for male Dispatch Riders; this was a heavy rubber-proofed, khaki top, usually far too big, so that it reached down to our knees, so Wren uniform breeches sufficed, except in extremely wet weather...
"A flimsy pair of goggles was provided but these were apt to mist up, they were not much use, so we did without. The bright yellow gauntlet gloves and whatever thick scarves we could scrounge to stop wind and rain going down our necks, completed the picture — so it was not surprising that we were actually taken for men while actually on the job."
In fact, one of the photos William sent me from the family album shows his mother in almost comical wet weather gear on motorcycle PMP195, one of the motorcycles she rides in the Wren's tour of London for the photographers. It's not very glamorous.
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| The sun is shining. Is Susan just demonstrating wet weather gear? |
It's hard to reconstruct the photo shoot that resulted in the photos of the women in the line-up as they motorcycle around London.
Dates conflict. The writing in William's album labels some photos "1940" that are captioned online as being from either February or March 1941. Three different photographers are credited in online versions: Reg Speller and Fred Morley, both of Fox, and Hans Wild, of Life. All three were celebrated photographers of wartime Britain.
The only thing we can be sure of is that William would recognize his mother.
Susan's two sisters also served Britain in World War II, and there is one photo on the Internet William believes shows his mother Susan, although the caption labels the Wren adjusting the motorcycle as her sister, June.
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| Susan starting motorcycle PMP195. Note that rear stand is down. |
One photo shows Susan in front of Buckingham Palace starting motorcycle PMP195. William found it amusing that she has not raised the rear stand. That's the kind of thing that happens when someone is taking your picture.
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| Susan is probably on PMP195. Note that rear stand is dragging. |
The photo of Wrens riding past the Victoria Memorial outside Buckingham Palace again has the same date, March 11, 1941. Sue is probably on PMP195 in this photo. Note that the rear stand is now dragging on the road. It is credited to Reg Speller/Fox Photos.
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| Admiralty photo from family album. Susan identified herself as the rider on the viewer's right. She labelled the rider on the viewer's left as Muriel Whitney. The weather seems to have turned, or this photo was taken on a different day. |
What kind of girl was Susan Barrington-Ward? William emailed a photo from the family album that helps us know.
"Ma wearing waders on the roof of the Admiralty Arch. I’ve no idea why, but she did have a bit of a sense of humor. You can see the Inscription on the Arch in the background. It’s an impressive building, it would have been where she was based for her dispatch riding duties...
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| Photo from family album of Susan on the roof of Admiralty building. |
"She did tell me that her father wanted his three daughters to marry Lords (!), so they were educated in the arts at school. She wanted to follow in his footsteps and go into the medical profession though, but she would have needed a science education for that. In those days it was just not the thing expected of a young girl. That's also probably why she became an artist," William wrote.
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| Group portrait with Lord Mountbatten, from family album. Susan is in second row, fourth from right. William thinks this was when she was stationed in Westcliff-on-Sea. |
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| Susan leads Wrens up High Street in Arbroath, Scotland, on Victory in Europe Day. |
She married George Augustus Frederick William Derek Newby-Robson in 1949, in Marylebone, UK. They called him "Derek" for short. He'd served in signals intelligence during the war. They had four sons; William is the third son.:
"In 1946 she travelled to the U.S. on the maiden voyage of the Queen Elizabeth, which had been used in the war as a troop ship. I don’t know how long she stayed but she saw the sights in New York and Washington. She stayed with friends, watched a football game and dined with two of the Warner brothers I seem to remember her telling me," William wrote.
At some point in her life, Susan put a print of the photo of the line-up of Wrens in an album and wrote below it the names of the women pictured. The names are hard to read, but, for the benefit of history, here is a photo of that album page.
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| Only six of the seven Wrens in the photo are shown and identified in the album. Writing is poor, so William and I can only guess at the first name on the left. From left are Mili (Millicent?) Forsyth (my guess based on the handwriting but I don't know if a Wren existed by that name); Joyce Tustin (certain); Muriel Wright (certain); Diana Talbot (probable); Susan Barrington-Wright (certain) married name Newby-Robson (certain); and Jill Gibson (certain) married name Paine (spelled Paine, not Payne; certain). Click here to see the image full size. You will be able to zoom in on the names. To correct my guess, email me at david@royalenfields.com |
Women had served the Royal Navy in World War I, but the branch was disbanded and not reconstituted until 1939.
The Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) lacked an "E" for "emergency," but the women were still called "Wrens."
Indeed, their unofficial motto was "Never At Sea," presumably with the intended double meaning that Wrens were never at a loss, and thus there was no emergency, at least none they could not handle.
The confident looking motorcyclists in the photos Susan Barrington-Ward and her comrades posed for certainly make it look as if the situation was well in hand.
But lest we forget, women in all the services advanced victory in World War II, showing what they could do in factories, on farms, as cooks, and codebreakers, and everything else.
One former Wren recalled that she was first assigned "to clean windows in almost inaccessible places." Below is the nearest photo I could find for that sort of duty.
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| Wren touches up the number on Motor Torpedo Boat 630. |
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