Research Catalog

Title

Changing course : the wartime experiences of a member of the Women's Royal Naval Service, 1939-1945 / Roxane Houston.

Author

Houston, Roxane.

Publication

London : Grub Street, c2005.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

271 p., [8] p. of plates : ill.; 23 cm.

Summary

In June 1940 following the Dunkirk evacuations, Britain stood alone. After witnessing the demoralized survivors first hand, Roxane Houston was determined to 'do her bit'. She volunteered to join the WRNS. From a comfortable background with a sheltered upbringing, she now began a remarkable, and sometimes difficult journey, set against six years of war. Starting in 1940 at the Royal Naval Air Station at St Merryn in south west England, under seemingly constant attack from the Luftwaffe, via the RNAS at Machrihanish in Scotland, preparing for Combined Operations at Largs and Greenock in the run-up to D-day, thence to Kandy and Colombo, in Ceylon, she did not return home until early 1946. She met many varied characters, making some lifelong friends, experienced much excitement and great danger, happiness and personal tragedy, and received more than one proposal of marriage. Now, in her twilight years, she revisits those momentous days which tested her and her contemporaries to the full. Her autobiography is a highly personal, often poignant account of her time as a Wren, which not only gives a fascinating insight into service life, but also reflects the reshaping of her own outlook and attitudes.

Subject

• Houston, Roxane
• Great Britain. Women's Royal Naval Service (1917-1919) > Biography
• World War, 1939-1945 > Personal narratives, British
• World War, 1939-1945 > Participation, Female
• Women soldiers > Great Britain > Biography

Genre/Form

• Biographies
• Personal narratives – British

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

ISBN

1904943101

LCCN

^^2005432784

OCLC

• 57640349
• SCSB-10628063

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library