HMS Pekin - Elsie Dannatt

[Sara Beasley]

Hello.  I am trying to research Elsie Dannatt.

From 1914 she worked as secretary to the Mobilising Officer and oversaw the office of women clerks at HMS Pekin, the name given to the auxiliary patrol shore base, a cabin on Grimsby docks.  It became the command centre for the minesweepers operating out of the port when war broke out. 

Elsie was the first female member of the naval service in WW1 and received a medal for her war service.  In 1917 when the Women's Royal Naval Service was established Elsie was the first in the country to apply.  She joined the WRNS in 1918 and began work as a decoder in Grimsby.  In 1919 she was awarded the MBE for valuable services rendered in connection with the war.

What I would like help with is if anyone has any idea what sort of responsibilities she would have in this line of work and what duties she'd be expected to carry out. 

TIA, Sara 

 

 

 

 

 

Enter

 

 

 

 

 

 

Write to Andy Evans

 

[Michelle Young]

Split into a new thread. 

[horatio2]

4 hours ago, Sara Beasley said:

Elsie was the first female member of the naval service in WW1

An early member, I think. Her appointment as a WRNS officer was 28 February 1918 but the earliest such appointments were dated Decenber 1917. A trail-blazer nonetheless.

4 hours ago, Sara Beasley said:

any idea what sort of responsibilities she would have in this line of work and what duties she'd be expected to carry out. 

Supervision of coding and de-coding of operational signals to and from the Grimsby HQ. She was probably in charge of a watchkeeping unit in the signals department of the HQ. She would have acted as Divisional Officer for WRNS ratings. She may well have had responsibilty for the accounting and distribution of classified books and code boks.  The importance of her role was reflected in the MBE award.

Edited 7 February , 2023 by horatio2

[KizmeRD]

Sara, there’s a lot of correspondence about her in ADM318-113 (available to download from TNA) as you say, she worked at the AP base in Grimsby from Nov. 1914 onwards and was highly regarded in her role as Secretary/Clerk to the Mobilisation Officer/Port Minesweeping Office until the start of 1918 when she was appointed to be an officer in the newly established WRNS. 

Intriguingly, there appears to have been a certain amount of petty resistance (from high standing ladies in London) in getting her appointment confirmed. It seems that her suitability was being questioned, and they requested her to attend a selection board. In the end, the Vice-Admiral East Coast had to write a letter to the Director WRNS (Katharine Furse) informing her that he personally considered Elsie eminently suitable, and that due to the essential war work that she was performing, Elsie couldn’t be spared for interview. Her subsequent appointment in the WRNS was eventually confirmed in March 1918 (backdated to February 1918) - ‘with apologies for any misunderstanding’.

Elsie has been described as a very nice young lady of unusual ability and someone who was very practical with considerable power of concentration - but also as a ‘common girl’ by one particularly well connected lady (who complained to KF that she deserved to be Elsie’s senior).

Anyway, it is evidently clear from her records that Elsie served the navy tirelessly and conscientiously throughout the entirety of war, often working seven days a week. She was awarded an MBE in appreciation of her service and it was mentioned that in the immediate aftermath of a bombing raid, she even returned to the office in order to rescue confidential books.

She basically fulfilled the duties which would otherwise have been assigned to a RNVR Lieutenant (and as a WRNS officer held the rank of Deputy Principal). In that position she would nave been senior Wren, in charge of a team of 3 other WRNS officers and 30 female decoders. The main part of her job would have been the care, custody and issue of naval code books to the various ships attached to the base (of which there were many).

MB

 

 

Edited 8 February , 2023 by KizmeRD

[Sara Beasley]

Thank you both for your great responses to my question!  It's much appreciated.  Would you know much about the decoding work?  Could you explain what RNVR Lieutenant please?  I'm afraid I don't have any military knowledge myself; I'm researching this lady for a writing/theatre project.

With regard to her initial appointment, you're correct when you say her application had to be supported by references. These came from her employer, Captain Pollen, and her previous employer, Mr A Knott, a local councillor.

[KizmeRD]

RNVR Lieutenant would have been a non-professional mariner, commissioned into the wartime naval reserve. Equivalent army rank would have been a Captain.

Ordinarily a ‘decoder’ would be responsible for decoding encrypted naval signals, but from what I’ve read, Elsie’s main duty (from 1918 onwards) was having responsibility for the issue of code books to auxiliary patrol vessels attached to the base at Grimsby.

MB

Edited 7 February , 2023 by KizmeRD