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Betty Peter's WRNS scrapbook

online resource
posted on 2024-06-05, 18:11 authored by Their Finest Hour Project Team

My grandmother, Betty Frances Peters, joined the WRNS in late 1942 and was posted to the naval base at Milford Haven. She worked there until she married my grandfather (Lieutenant Commander Ronald Ward) in March 1944. She actually met him at Milford Haven - he was the commanding officer of the submarine Umbra which had docked at the naval base in 1943. The object I am sharing with the project is a scrapbook she kept during her time as a Wren. She pasted all kinds of things into the scrapbook - from party invitations to official communications (possibly this was something she should not have done, strictly speaking!). She also kept a daily journal where she wrote very little about the war but mostly about the social engagements - but she was a young woman of 22 so this is understandable; perhaps she also thought it unwise to write about the war specifically. She also documents meeting my grandfather for the first time and their courtship - they married after only knowing each other a few months but remained married for over 60 years. I didn't know she had kept these documents and we only found them after her death in 2011.

History

Item list and details

Scrapbook kept by my grandmother during the time she was posted at Milford Haven naval base from 1942-1944.

Person the story/items relate to

Betty Frances Peters (later Ward)

Person who shared the story/items

Anon

Relationship between the subject of the story and its contributor

She was my grandmother.

Type of submission

Shared online via the Their Finest Hour project website.

Record ID

90697