They played a crucial role in helping defeat Hitler – but now former Wrens are beating a dignified retreat and closing their association.
Betty Withers, 86, chairman of the Leicester branch of the Association of Wrens, said "We've only got 15 members left. The majority are in their late 80s and it's getting a little bit too much now.
"We still plan to meet informally but I suppose you could say these Wrens are a dying breed. They are a great bunch."
Members of the branch, which formed 17 years ago, met officially for the final time yesterday at the Wesleyan Chapel, in the city centre.
Mrs Withers told her colleagues: "This is a very sad day for me. It has been an honour and a privilege to have been your chairman."
One of the oldest members, Maisie Stein, 90, once received a message from Battle of Britain hero Sir Douglas Bader – asking for new false legs.
Maisie, of Leicester, worked as a teleprinter operator at a deciphering base in Scarborough.
She said: "Most of the messages were in German but I remember in 1940 getting a message from Douglas Bader.
"He had crashed his plane and the message read 'Can you send some new legs out to me as soon as possible'.
"Of course, we did so and I later got another message from him saying: 'Legs are okay'."
Maisie said she had enjoyed sharing her memories at the branch.
"It is that comradeship that makes us stay young," she said.
Sheila Kent, 87, of Evington, joined in 1943 and worked as a radio mechanic.
She said: "I remember liking the uniform and I decided to join up. When I went home and told my parents they were flabbergasted.
"I look back at my time in the Wrens as the equivalent of being at university because you experienced life and met all kinds of different people."
Monica Marriott, 88, of Rearsby, joined in 1942 as a cinema operator.
Five years later, she married Patrick, a veteran of the Atlantic convoys. She said: "There is the same sort of spirit in the branch that there was in the Navy – that Nelson touch."
Avis Ambler, 84, joined the Wrens aged 18 and found herself stationed at the code-breaking centre Bletchley Park, where she operated the world's first electronic computer, Colossus.
She said: "It was very exciting but my family didn't know what I was doing. They just thought I had an office job."
Looking around at her friends at yesterday's meeting, she said: "It has been wonderful meeting women with similar backgrounds and memories."
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