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Patricia Bridgen Farley was a Wren (Womens Royal Naval Service) stationed at Portkil, Near Kilcreggan, Scotland during World War II, living in a house affectionately known to the group of Wrens that were based there as 'The Barn'. The Wrens came to be known as the 'Barnites'.
When I first started at the Fort, in Portkil our two signallers were sailors. As the war escalated they were transferred to other naval bases, and ended up going to sea. So the Wrens took over and they did as good a job, if not better, than the males.
Caroline and another girl, whose name I cannot recall were our first female signallers. Although I didn't know the first thing about the craft, I really enjoyed going on the beach and trying to master the flags. I remembered some of the alphabet from my Girl Guide days. The Morse code was harder, but Diana and I would also practice outside with the Aldis lamp on our breaks.
I can remember some amusing incidents with our female signallers. Whenever signallers on board the ships that we were testing for degaussing errors noticed that the slender shapes in heavy blue serge sweaters and warm navy slacks were women, then their messages took on a decidedly non-naval tone. Especially, if the ships were American!
Sailors would lean over the ship's rail with field glasses, waving frantically. I don't think our engineers, Jim and Bob, appreciated the attention, and I am sure the officers onboard were not too happy either. The girls became accustomed to the yelling and staring after a while, and they just laughed it off.
We believed, and still do, that the ongoing attention may have caused one of the American ships to go aground one day. They drifted closer and closer to shore and got caught at low tide. This was very embarrassing as they had to wait until the next tide, four hours away, before they could move the vessel. We waved to them as we walked back along the path to the Barn. Those over sexed Americans would have to look at the water for a while, we weren't coming out again!
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