Spit, Polish and Selotape

If nothing else, being in the RN made me an excellent laundress. Mum had prepared me as well as she could by getting me to polish my school shoes and do a bit of ironing when forced to, but that was nothing compared to what was required for naval kit.

The photo above is of one of my kit musters.  These were done frequently during training and occasionally (purely as an inconvenience) when not.  A kit muster involved washing, ironing and folding all items you were supposed to have into a 'book sized' rectangle.  This was supposedly the exact size of a ships locker, and meant kit was kept clean and neat in a confined space.  All well and good in a ship's mess, but not really necessary as a Wren with no chance whatsoever of going to sea.  However...

Before my bunk had been warmed, I was up to my elbows in soap suds and shoe polish.  The very first night was spent washing and ironing shirts and collars - they were not attached! followed by sitting with a fluffy yellow duster and tin of black boot polish. The lid being used as a container for water (being ladies we were told it was unnecessary to use 'spit'), making lots of little circles over and over the surface of the plain black lace up shoes until they began to gleam.  A few days later, the toes would be like glass, and would remain that way until they wore out.

Bulling shoes, like ironing, became a source of relaxation. You could do these tasks in your sleep so rather than think of them as chores, they became times where you would have a chat and a laugh with your mates too.  You didn't get much spare time in basic training so you made the most of any time you got.

Fortunately I joined up in the summer, with meant I was able to wear a white summer blouse rather than a collar detached shirt. These were fitted with short sleeves and blue piping around the sleeve and collar - which was worn open if with a woolly pulley or closed with jacket (as above). Either way it didn't involve being choked by a tie.

We had two suits, a number 1 and number 2.  Identical, but one would be worn day to day or for informal occasions and the other only for divisions or any other formal event that required it.  They stank of mothballs and cat pee if they got wet.  They didn't allow for a weight gain, as should you get too fat for your suit, you had to pay for new ones yourself. You soon learnt that if the waistband on your skirt got a bit snug, you had to stop eating!  It was always the food you stopped, never the drink! You also had to have a roll of selotape handy so that you could quickly get rid of fluff, hairs and any other things that seemed to be attracted to you.

If you were a writer, or stores wren etc you would just have your two suits, two white caps with chin stay, a stylish black handbag, a pair of black leather gloves and a pair of black court shoes. Should you be of the grubbier branch like me, an aircraft engineering mechanic you were also given a set of Number 8's, boots and overalls.  Much more to my liking.

A set of 8's consisted of a plain long sleeved blue shirt, a pair of navy cotton trousers, a pair of wool (No.1 trousers - which were so itchy you never ever wore them outside basic training) and the option of wearing a beret rather than a white cap.  We also got lovely baggy overalls and steel toed DMS boots. The overalls were navy at first but towards the end of my time they were drab olive.

Additional items, also extremely stylish, were a navy Burberry coat. (Raincoat) and a Great Coat - which was so heavy you were exhausted wearing it for more than a couple of hours.

The photo above shows how elegant we were in our No.8's. These were worn under overalls and with a wooly pulley at other times.  The white cap was usually found with a grubby rim, as having to take them on and off all the time - often with less than clean hands meant that they had to be scrubbed on a regular basis. Toothpaste was a good way to get off stubborn marks.

Taking of headgear. Berets were good, but didn't suit me, and tended to shrink when wet.  I think I gave up on them after mine ended up the same size as the one Action Man would wear. The cap 'tally' was also a bit of a bugger to get tied properly. Oh none of this arriving ready to put straight on business, hell no, everything had to be a struggle. You couldn't iron them or they shrivelled up. They had to be tied in a 'just so' way and the ends of the ties trimmed to a specific length to make a neat bow.  Once they were on, they stayed on until you were drafted and went through the whole process again with the new one.

Caps were the bane of my life. I didn't suit them, they made me look like I was frowning all the time and always left a big red welt around my forehead.  The photograph that went in the local paper made me so unrecognisable that even my parents didn't notice me until a neighbour pointed me out.

I particularly enjoyed life on a squadron from a uniform point of view. Comfy 8's, overalls and boots pretty much every day.  As a squadron tractor driver I was also given a particularly trendy set of foul weather gear. Olive green waterproof jacket and pants, heavy duty gloves, submariner jumper and ear duffs - as seen in this photo of me in the crew room of 771 SAR in 1982.

In 1986 when I re-cat to Education and Training Support (ETS) I had to hand back all my comfy rig and get used to wearing No.2's every day. Much more feminine but it felt like I had to dress up every day.
It wasn't just the clothes, it was having to 'do' my hair properly and buy stockings etc.  I never did get to wearing court shoes much either...