Please could you share this with any Naval ladies that you may have as Branch members.
Over the years on social media (Wrens pages) it became very apparent that many of the Ladies had lost their photos and memories along the way as a result of a whole variety of reasons, some not very pleasant. Until the creation of social media it was particularly difficult to find others of your own division in the hope that you could cadge a copy of your Divisional Photograph.
With lockdown, and people finding things to do to keep them occupied, I approached the Association of Wrens and asked if I could undertake a project to collect as many of the Dauntless Divisional Photographs during the time that HMS Dauntless was open for training, 1947-81. Initially it was just to create a resource where ladies could find their own Divisional photo and take a copy. But the project has grown and has developed into a community project.
I am hoping eventually to find a location to store the project so that it is available online to any who wish to be involved but for now, we are a private Facebook Group called Dauntless DivPhots 47-81. And whilst I realise that many do not like or use social media, having it located as a FB group means that ladies find each other on the pages that belong to their Division. They share tales, photos, find old friends and rekindle that sense of belonging that they had back in the Dauntless days.
It has been running just short of a month and already we have nearly 600 photos and 800 data entries pertaining to which division joined when. The Group, in the short space of time, has nearly 600 members and over 6,500 social interactions within the group (FB Statistics).
I am hoping that this will be shared to RBL members who may know of Dauntless Wrens and who may wish to be part of the project.
(If anyone wishes to join the group there are three naval questions to be answered for security purposes – standard practice on any military closed page/group.)
We look forward to hearing from any Dauntless Wrens.
Mandy Whitham
Project Coordinator
