100 Years of Women in the Navy

It's a hundred years since the Women's Royal Naval Service was formed and made the 'Wrens' a force to be reckoned with.

Veterans of the service returned to the basic training base at HMS Raleigh across the River Tamar from Devonport to celebrate and march again across the parade ground. 

The Flag Officer Sea Training took the salute as the 'girls' tried to remember the lessons drilled into them on the parade ground.

He couldn't say too much about the quality of the marching without risking disharmony at home. It was his own wife trying to keep her former colleagues in step.

It's only in the last third of the Wren's history that women have been allowed to serve at sea alongside the men, and it took more than a decade before the idea was accepted by many of the older hands. 

The returning Wrens were given a tour of the training base to see how their successors are made 'ship-shape' for the modern Royal Navy. They were struck by how much it had changed since their day.