Winifred Dakyns

Dakyns and her secretary, 1917.

Winifred Dakyns CBE (née Pattinson, 1875-1960) was a British naval officer during World War I and assistant director of the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) from December 1917 until the WRNS was disbanded in 1919 (to be revived in 1939).[1]

She was born on 16 September 1875 in Gateshead and educated at Gateshead High School and Newnham College, Cambridge.[1] She married Henry Graham Dakyns in 1902; he died in 1937.[2]

She worked with Katharine Furse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) and then in the earliest days of the WRNS.[2] At the time of her death in 1960 one of her uniforms was shown in the Imperial War Museum as a representative WRNS officer's uniform.[2]

She was appointed CBE (military) "for valuable services in connection with the war" in 1919, and was also an honorary serving sister of the order of St John of Jerusalem.[1]

She died on 22 January 1960.[1] Her home, Wickham Farmhouse in Hurstpierpoint, was designated a grade II listed building on 11 May 1983.[3][4]

  1. ^ a b c d "Dakyns [née Pattinson], Winifred (1875–1960)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/63777. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ a b c "Mrs. Winifred Dakyns (obituary)". The Times. 25 January 1960. p. 14.
  3. ^ "Wickham Farmhouse". Flickriver. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
  4. ^ Historic England. "Wickham Farmhouse (1025662)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 1 January 2019.