The Women's Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS) was formed in 1941 as a result of manpower shortages in the Australian Navy during World War Two. The work of these trailblazing women is little remembered today, but they were involved in vital communications work during the War.
I recorded this interview with Judith Follett of the WRANS in 2001 for a family history. Judith worked in high stakes naval intelligence from 1942 to 1945, identifying enemy vessels by their morse code: "A gentleman from Mi5 told us that we were never to explain our work to a living soul, or we'd be shot... and as far as I know, that work has never been described", Judith told me.
Judith was recruited along with four friends from Sancta Sophia College at Sydney University, after her brother Maurice Lusby had recommended her. Maurice was working in Washington as Australia's scientific attache. Judith's older sister Gwen Lusby was already serving as a Doctor in the Australian Army, while her eldest brother John was flying with the RAAF in North Africa, and another brother Bob had been captured with the 2/30th Battalion in the Fall of Singapore, never to return, as Judith recounts in this interview.
In an interesting post script to this story, Judith and her husband Aubrey raised three daughters, including former ACT Chief Minister Rosemary Follett, who was elected in 1989 as the first woman to lead an Australian State or Territory.
The original handycam video quality is now a bit rough, but this film captures an important slice of Australian history, and shows how archival footage can be spliced together with photos and film to bring these old stories back to life. Read more about our video history projects here: www.theoclarkmedia.com
Негізгі бет Фильм және анимация In Which She Serves: An interview with Judith Follett WRANS
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