Lest we forget navy women

Weeks after the Japanese midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour on May 31, 1942 Jean Nysen joined the Womens Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS).

As the 87th woman inducted into the WRANS, Ms Nysen and her fellow World War II colleagues became pioneers for female involvement in the Australian Navy.

“I joined when the Sydney was sunk and it was such a shock to everybody,” said Ms Nysen. “I was a commercial artist and it wasn’t a reserved occupation, so you felt that you had to do something that would help with the war.”

Ms Nysen recounted that the navy were originally reluctant to allow women to join. But Florence Violet McKenzie pioneered a change in perception when she became the first electrical engineer in Australia.

“[Ms McKenzie] realised how important communications would be when war came,” said Ms Nysen. “There weren’t enough people trained. Eventually they were trained so proficiently.

“The navy was among the most reluctant to allow them in, but she managed to talk them into putting girls [aged] 12 to 14 on trial.”

The NSW ex-WRANS veterans gathered at the City of Sydney RSL last Friday ahead of next Thursday’s ANZAC Day service.

The group, which has 155 members in NSW, will attend next week’s Dawn Service in the city and lay a commemorative reef at Martin Place.

“Our membership is drawn from any woman who has served in [the navy] up until 1984,” said President of the NSW Ex-WRANS Association, Rosemary Stockley. “Now as many women join the navy as sailors.”

The group continue to regularly catch up and travel from right across NSW to attend monthly meetings.

Newcastle resident Lorraine O’Connor said the WRANS share a unique bond.

“The place of women in the RAN does concern us and we hope we can support those people. More to the point, we can support each other after our service,” she said.

“We have something in common and that draws us together, and it’s the welfare of our members that we look towards to keep them in mind.”