Alison Robins
British naval signals intelligence officer in World War II
Alison Robins (nee Gerrish) (9 March 1920 – 15 October 2017) was a British naval signals intelligence officer. She joined the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS, "Wrens") in 1939 as an officers' steward and later joined the "Y-Service" in World War II.
Early life
Robins (nee Gerrish) was born in Branksome, Dorset, on 9 March 1920. She was daughter of Edward Arthur Gerrish (28 April 1878 – 7 November 1960), a servant, who later married the daughter of the house, Alison Kellie-McCallum (29 September 1887 – 23 May 1975). She grew up attending eight different schools as her parents moved for her father to find work. Alison finished her school education in 1938 and qualified as a riding instructor, as a member of the Royal Horse Society.
Bletchley Park
As one of the WRNS, Robins was one of the last surviving members of the 'Y-Service' at Bletchley Park, who listened-in to German communications. During the Second World War, Robins was said to have been bored as an officers' steward waiting at table in the Painted Hall of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, so she joined a class to learn Morse code in her off-duty time. She quickly reached the speed needed to join the Signal School and in January 1941 passed the course and was made a Chief Petty Officer. Her first posting was to the R.N. Wireless Station at Scarborough. By May 1942 she was transferred to Felixstowe—a very busy station with E-Boats working continuously up and down the coast trying to destroy British convoys carrying vital supplies.
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This entry incorporates text from “Alison Robins” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.