Mary Rundle | |
|---|---|
.jpeg) Rundle in April 1948 | |
| Born | Mary Beatrice Rundle 10 August 1907 Highfield, Southampton, England |
| Died | 29 September 2010 (aged 103) Lancashire, England |
| Education | Harrogate Ladies' College |
| Occupations | |
| Relatives |
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| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Branch |  Women's Royal Naval Service |
| Service years | 1939–1949 |
| Rank | Superintendent |
| Commands | |
| Conflict | World War II |
Mary Beatrice Rundle CBE (10 August 1907 – 29 September 2010) was the first officer in charge of the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) at Portsmouth during World War II. At the end of the war, she was promoted to superintendent, the third highest post in the service. She was born at Highfield, Southampton, the younger daughter of engineer rear admiral Mark Rundle. She was educated at Sheffield High School for Girls, where she won an open scholarship to study at Harrogate Ladies' College. In the 1930s, she was employed as Sir Anderson Montague-Barlow's personal secretary.
As World War II approached, Rundle was commissioned into the WRNS and undertook officer training at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. In 1940, she was appointed first officer at Portsmouth. She later served at HMS Calliope, then a training centre for the Royal Naval Reserve, located in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, and HMS Daedalus, a shore airfield, located near Lee-on-the-Solent in Hampshire. At the end of the war, Rundle joined the staff of the WRNS directorate and put in place plans to establish the WRNS as a permanent peacetime service. She was promoted to superintendent, equivalent to a commander in the Royal Navy, and second only in seniority to the then director. In 1948, she was awarded a CBE in the King's Birthday Honours.
Rundle was a founding trustee of the WRNS Benevolent Trust, and was elected vice-chair of the trust from 1947 to 1950, and chair from 1950 to 1958. In 1949, she left the WRNS after being appointed deputy director of Encyclopædia Britannica Films in the United Kingdom. After 1951, she joined Metal Box Company Limited, a large can and packaging manufacturer, as secretary to the managing director. In the early 1960s, she retired and moved to a cottage in Outgate, a hamlet near Hawkshead, in the Lake District, Cumbria. In retirement, she indexed the naval histories written by her cousin Geoffrey Bennett. In 2007, a party was held at her home to mark her hundredth birthday. She died in a hospital from the effects of a stroke.