100-year-old former Wren Dorothea recalls ‘fighting spirit’ of Second World War

One of the last surviving Wrens who fought in the Second World War has told how she put cardboard in her shoes so she was tall enough to join the service.

Dorothea Barron, aged 100, said she was “dying to get involved” in the war effort, joining the Women’s Royal Naval Service after leaving school, serving at a base at HMS Hopetoun in Port Edgar, near Edinburgh, as a visual signaller.

In an interview with the Big Issue magazine, she said: “I’d tell my younger self that life is a continual battle. You’ve just got to fight it, you won’t get anywhere if you succumb. That’s what life has taught me. I’m afraid you’ve got to have fighting spirit all your life.

“Never envy anyone, just stand up and make the best of what you have.

“I was dying to get involved but wasn’t tall enough to join the Wrens. We had to be 5ft 3in and I’m only 5ft 2in. So, I cut cardboard and shoved it in the heels of my shoes to push my height up, and I had this great mop of hair that I brushed up high.

“They realised I wasn’t tall enough but could see how keen I was and took pity on me. I would have got in somehow. I’d have done anything to get in.”

She added: “We were a group of girls who were desperate not to let the Nazis in. I was so enthusiastic. It was very fulfilling work. We felt we were contributing to the peace of the world.”

Ms Barron said there are still not enough opportunities for women, and men still have the upper hand.

But she added: “Men still underestimate women, our abilities and courage. Women have to get on with things and look after the family. I admire women tremendously but most men are mollycoddled these days.

“I have nothing but contempt for people who are happy to risk other people’s lives for their own self-glorification. Because men start wars, women don’t. Women are much more sensible and have to pick up the pieces and make life happen again.”

The full interview is in the latest issue of the magazine, on sale from Monday.