National

Celebrating Female Veterans

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – The British Legion-Bahamas Branch celebrating Bahamian women served in World War I and II, on Remembrance Day 2022.

Published

2 years ago

November 11, 2022

Our News

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – The British Legion-Bahamas Branch celebrating Bahamian women served in World War I and II, on Remembrance Day 2022.

Adina Munroe-Charlow, Chairman of the British Legion-Bahamas Branch tells Our News that 24 women serving in WWII in various jobs, including cooks, office clerks, telephone operators, motorbike messengers, vehicle engineers, ambulance and lorry drivers.

“We were there 100 years ago and 77 years ago,” Munroe-Charlow says.

The women were part of the Auxilary Territorial Service, or ATS branch of the Royal British Army during WWII, established in September 1938. In 1949, it was merged into the Women’s Royal Army Corps.

Among the Bahamian women who served are:

Woman/N.C. Officer-Private Ruth Clarke-Goodridge nee Thompson
Woman/N.C. Officer- Private Zoe Maynard nee Cumberbatch
Woman/N.C. Officer- Private Dorothy Louise Fullerton nee Cooper
Woman/N.C. Officer-Private Dorothy Lorraine Wisdom nee Roberts
Woman/N.C. Officer-Private Pearl Eugenie Grant
Woman/N.C. Officer-Private Vera Johnson
Woman/N.C. Officer-Private Grace Knowles nee Fountain
Woman/N.C. Officer-Private Sybil Ford nee Lightbourne
Woman/N.C. Officer-Private Shirley Wright
Woman/N.C. Officer-Acting Corporal Doreen Rickards nee Jones*
Woman/N.C. Officer-Private Vernell Armbrister
Private Officer-Patricia H. Bedford– B2-Wireless Operator-A.T.S.-N. Ireland

W.N.C.-Non-Commission Officer (Ref.: The Brave Eleven)
*Acting Corporal Doreen Jones-Rickards is still alive and lives in Kingston, Jamaica-(October-2022)