Help us start the New Year by supporting our new Pioneers to Professionals: Women in the Navy exhibition, due to open in February in Portsmouth. Visitors to the exhibition will benefit through the use of interactive large screen Android tablets to help them discover this unique story in more detail. Please help us in fundraising for these by making a donation. 

Any donor giving over £75 will be offered a special tour of the exhibition.

Pioneers to Professionals: Women and the Royal Navy exhibition will reveal the impact of women’s involvement from the seventeenth century onwards, during both world wars, the Cold War to integration and beyond, to today’s serving personnel.

The exhibition will open in the centenary year of the Woman’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) formation. 

This exhibition, held in the centenary year of the formation
of the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS), charts the history of women and the Royal Navy.  It will uncover some of the lesser-known stories of women dating back to the age of sail when their contribution was disguised or unofficial, to the pioneers who strove to achieve official recognition for women, leading to the establishment of a Naval Nursing Service in 1884, renamed the QARNNS in 1903 and the WRNS in 1917.

The exhibition will highlight their work through the First
and Second World Wars to the creation of a permanent Women’s Royal Naval Service in 1949 to the integration of both the QARRNS and the WRNS within the Royal Navy.  The exhibition ends with a look the further advances women have made since integrating with the Royal
Navy.  These include joining Royal Marine Band Service, submarines and taking on higher roles of command as well as the recent announcement allowing women in front line, close combat roles, which opens the possibility of women joining RM commandoes.

Aims of exhibition

• To raise awareness about the history women’s
  involvement in the Royal Navy from the age of sail to the present day
• Highlight the wide range of roles women have
  undertaken in the Navy
• Increase understanding of the impact that women
  have had on the Navy
• Celebrate the achievements of women in the Navy
• Inspire visitors to want to find out more about
  women’s involvement in the Navy