Doreen's remarkable story of a life spent protecting her country!

Today we have an incredible story from a remarkable life spent in the forces protecting our country during the second World War. Doreen Cole is a resident at Lynhales Hall and to mark Remembrance Day she wore her old uniform from time spent in the WRNS (Women's Royal Naval Service). I have included details of Doreen’s naval career below. A huge thank you to Doreen’s family and Lynhale’s Administrator, Vicky Sergeant, for putting this information together.

Doreen Annie Porter was born on 22nd December 1922 in the small village of Portbury, just outside Bristol. There, she grew up with her four brothers, attended the local school, took an active part in the Girl Guides and on leaving school went to Secretarial College in Bristol.

On 27th January 1943, Doreen enlisted with the WRNS and was sent to Mill Hill, London, as a trainee. It was here that she showed an aptitude, possibly assisted by her knowledge of morse code learnt in the Girl Guides, for joining the ‘Y’ (‘Wireless’) Service. This was the Listening Service – an organisation still little known and just as secret as Bletchley Park, consisting of thousands of young men and women monitoring endless streams of radio traffic around the clock and transcribing Morse code at great speed, to feed in to the de-coders at Bletchley, then known as Station X. Their operators were spread across the world to ‘listen in’ to the enemy.

Doreen was transferred to GCHQ Scarborough to listen in to German U-boats in the North Sea. She swiftly moved up from trainee to Trainer to W/T (Wireless Telegraphy) operator, to SO (Special Operator) in August 1943 and a Leading Wren in May 1945. The work could be appallingly tedious, 8hr long shifts in an underground bunker requiring constant, intense concentration for the slightest beep, yet without ever knowing whether the messages they picked up were important or not. These few lines from one of their number are very poignant:

“The wind howls around us, the hut fills with smoke, our eyes are red-rimmed, we splutter and choke. There are things more heroic and valiant by far, but it’s our contribution to winning the war.”

And it was a great contribution in the run up to the Normandy Landings, for which Doreen’s contribution was recognised by the Republic of France, in June 2019, when she was awarded one of the prestigious medals of the Legion d’ Honneur.

On V.E. Day Doreen was still working, now doing shifts in a hut in the Scottish Highlands, still listening for the Japanese who were yet to surrender.

On 15th February 1946 Doreen was, ‘released to shore’ and returned to Portbury and her beloved husband to be, Rodney Cole.

More images of Doreen as a young woman and her medals are over on our Facebook page.

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