The search for the unknown Wren

Even if it has not yet identified the woman in the portrait, our public campaign has provided fascinating insights into the variety of individuals who joined the Wrens and the range of work that they did.  

Discover some of the most fascinating suggestions we have received below.

Nancy Spain (1917–1964): detective novelist and comedian 

Nancy Spain joined the Wrens in 1940. She worked as a driver in Tyneside, before becoming an officer and moving to the Wrens headquarters in London, where she worked in the Press Office. 

She later had a successful career as a comedian, broadcaster and author of detective novels before her tragic death in a plane crash. In the 1950s, Spain was a regular at Gateways, a lesbian club in Chelsea, where she also lived with her partner, Joan Werner Laurie. Could she have known Joseph McCulloch in Chelsea? 

She had a distinctive look with dark hair and heavy eyebrows, features shared by the woman in our portrait. 

However, Spain held the rank of Second Officer in 1945 and left the Wrens in February that year. She therefore cannot have been the Third Officer depicted in McCulloch’s portrait.

Maria/Mary Elizabeth Ferguson (1923–2006): naval heroine

Maria Elizabeth Ferguson (known as Mary in the UK) was born to British parents in Argentina. Nicknamed ‘Johnnie’, she booked a ticket as a passenger on a cargo ship, the Avila Star, sailing from Buenos Aires to Liverpool in March 1942, intending to join the Wrens once she reached the UK. However, the Avila Star was torpedoed in the North Atlantic.  

Ferguson suffered a head injury but managed to swim through oily water to a lifeboat, where she helped to care for others. The lifeboat was adrift for twenty days before it was picked up by a Portuguese naval vessel. Half of the lifeboat’s passengers died from thirst, starvation, injuries and exposure. Ferguson sustained 48 seawater boils but later made a full recovery. She was flown from Lisbon to Bristol, where she joined the Wrens and served as boats’ crew at Devonport until the end of the war.  

For her bravery and selflessness during the lifeboat ordeal, she was awarded the British Empire Medal and became one of only four women to ever receive the Lloyds War Medal for Bravery at Sea. This medal had a blue-and-white ribbon similar to the one depicted in the pastel portrait. Could Ferguson be the mystery woman? 

Unfortunately, Ferguson’s highest recorded rank was Leading Wren. She was never a Third Officer.

Constance Leonora Pearn (née Hale) (1918–2001): typist for anti-submarine warfare unit 

Constance Leonora Hale was born and grew up in Huddersfield. She served in the Wrens during the Second World War and married Donald Pearn in her hometown in October 1944.  

In 1943, she was a shorthand typist in the motor yacht HMS Philante. The Philante led training exercises for the Western Approaches Tactical Unit, which devised strategies for anti-submarine warfare.  

Because of her service aboard HMS Philante, Pearn was one of only two Wrens to receive the Atlantic Star. This medal was awarded to British service personnel who had spent at least six months at sea during the Battle of the Atlantic. The ribbon for the Atlantic Star is green, white and blue. Could this be the medal depicted in the pastel portrait?  

Pearn, however, cannot be the unknown woman because she was a Petty Officer, not a Third Officer. To confuse matters, there was a Third Officer in the Wrens called Constance Mary Hale, but she was a different person. 

Elsa Megson (1911–2004): aerial photographer 

A keen amateur photographer, Elsa Megson resigned her position as secretary of Buxton Camera Club to join the Wrens in 1941.  

She continued to develop her interest in photography through her war work, training as an aerial photographer with the Fleet Air Arm. This involved taking photographs of the ground through a hole in the floor of an aircraft.  

After the war, she became a professional photographer in Godalming, specialising in horticultural and garden photography.  

While Elsa’s career is fascinating, she does not appear on any lists of Wren officers. It seems she never attained the rank of Third Officer.

Patricia Mountbatten (1924–2017): 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma 

Patricia Mountbatten was the eldest daughter of Admiral of the Fleet Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma. She was the cousin of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and a descendant of Queen Victoria.  

In 1943, she joined the Wrens as a signals rating. Two years later, she became a Third Officer and was sent to join South East Asia Command (SEAC) in Sri Lanka, where she met her future husband, John Knatchbull, 7th Lord Brabourne. They returned to London and married in October 1946. She became Countess Mountbatten of Burma when her father was assassinated in 1979. 

Mountbatten had a similar heavy-eyebrowed look to the Wren in the portrait and she was a Third Officer in 1945. However, she was in Sri Lanka at that time and therefore could not have posed for a portrait in her new uniform in London. It also seems unlikely that an aristocratic young woman like Mountbatten would have sat to a little known, bohemian artist like McCulloch.

Elsie Stanbridge (née Hewson) (1916–?): ambulance driver and mail clerk 

Elsie Hewson volunteered as an ambulance driver for the Civil Defence Service in her hometown of Hartlepool, before joining the Wrens in 1940. 

She worked as a mail clerk in London, ensuring that postal deliveries continued throughout the war. During this time, she lived on Cheyne Walk in Chelsea and enjoyed looking at the shops in Knightsbridge on her way to work. 

In 1943, she met Roland Stanbridge, who was in the Royal Marines, and the couple married the following year.  

Stanbridge’s granddaughter contacted us because she thought that the portrait looked like her grandmother, who could conceivably have met Joseph McCulloch in wartime Chelsea. However, Stanbridge’s highest rank was Leading Wren.