Christian Lamb (born 1920; née Oldham) is a British World War II veteran who helped to plan the D-Day landings in Normandy.[1] She is a lecturer on the history of plants and the author of five books, including her war-time memoir, Beyond the Sea.[2][3][4] As of 2022, at the age of 102, she is one of the last surviving officers of the Wrens, the Women's Royal Naval Service, to have served throughout the war.[1]

Early life and education

Christian Oldham was born in 1920. Her father was Rear-Admiral Ronald Wolseley Oldham OBE, a veteran of the First World War.[5] At the age of 18, she left school and went to France to live with a family and improve her French ahead of entering university.[5][1] In 1939, she received a telegram from her father that war was imminent and to return home to London at once.[5] Upon returning to the UK, she enrolled in first-aid classes, intending to become a nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD).[5]

Military career

Oldham joined the Wrens, the Women's Royal Navy Service, after an interview at their headquarters next to Admiralty Arch in Trafalgar Square.[5] In January 1940, she started basic training at the HMS Pembroke training facility at Campden Hill Road, Kensington.[5]

She then apprenticed at HMS President, the headquarters of the WRNS, doing clerical work.[5][6] At the start of the Blitz, she and her colleagues were sent home before dark to their billets in North London.[5] After a year at Wrens HQ, she was promoted to Leading Wren, and led a unit of twelve Wrens at the degaussing range at Coalhouse Fort, East Tilbury, where they made ships less magnetic to avoid mines.[5][7]

One year later, she went before the Officer Selection Board, and was selected to attend the Officer Training Course at Greenwich.[5] In February 1942, she was sent to Plymouth where she was the plotting officer of one of four watches, responsible for receiving information from coastal radar stations.[5][6] After a year, she was assigned to plotting operations in Belfast, near where ships gathered to convoy across the Atlantic Ocean.[5]

By early 1944, she was known as Christian Lamb after her marriage and was assigned to Combined Operations HQ at Richmond Terrace, Whitehall, under the command of Rear Admiral H. E. Horan.[5]

Lamb helped to plan the Normandy landings from Winston Churchill's secret war rooms in London.[4][8] She heard the news about the D-Day landings on the radio on 6 June 1944.[8] She left military service in 1945.[5] Although she did not discuss her role in the war for roughly 50 years, Lamb has detailed her experience in her memoirs, Beyond the Sea, published in 2021.[4]

Personal life

While in Belfast, Oldham met Lieutenant Commander John Lamb DSC on board the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Oribi,[1][8] when the Wrens were invited on board for drinks.[1][6] After a 10-day courtship, they were engaged, but HMS Oribi, which had been in Belfast for repairs, was soon called away to escort the ONS-5, a slow-moving convoy.[5][9] Christian found herself plotting John's route from Belfast, and watched in trepidation as they received signals that the convoy had encountered roughly 40 U-boats waiting for them.[5][10] Oribi rammed a German U-boat and sank it, later arriving safely in North America.[5]

Christian and John Lamb married in London on 15 December 1943.[5][8] Their daughter Felicity Anne was born in the autumn of 1944.[11] After the war, they lived in Malta and Singapore with their children,[8] before returning to England.[11]

Christian Lamb later developed an interest in plants, particularly camellias, as well as the history of plants and botanical gardens.[11] She has lectured on the life of English botanist Sir Joseph Banks,[11][12] and is a fellow of the Linnean Society and member of the Dendrology Society.[11]

The Lambs' wedding cake in 1943 was made by Searcys, with dried fruit pooled together by friends and relatives.[13][11] In 2020, Searcys provided Christian Lamb with a cake for her 100th birthday, 77 years after her first cake from them.[13]

Books by Christian Lamb

  • From the Ends of the Earth – Passionate plant collectors remembered in a Cornish garden (1995)[14]
  • I Only Joined for the Hat: Redoubtable Wrens at War...Their trials, tribulations, and triumphs (2007)[8][15]
  • This Infant Adventure – Offspring of the Royal Gardens at Kew (2011)[16]
  • Cruising Along – Around the world in 80 years (2015)[17]
  • Beyond the Sea – A Wren at War (2021)[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Capturing war-time memories, before it is too late". BBC News. 10 November 2022. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  2. ↑ White, Vikki (23 September 2021). "Wren's-eye view of the Battle of the Atlantic". Birmingham Post. Retrieved 10 November 2022 – via Gale OneFile.
  3. ↑ "About". Christian Lamb. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "World War Two Wren, 101, releases London memoir". BBC News. 20 August 2021. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Smith, Olivia (November 2021). "A TRUE HERO-WREN: At 101, Christian Lamb shares her memories and experiences of serving as a Wren on the home front during World War I". History of War. No. 100. pp. 68–71. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  6. 1 2 3 Nicholson, Virginia (2012). Millions Like Us: Women's Lives in the Second World War. Penguin UK. pp. 144, 155–156, 159–163. ISBN 9780670917785.
  7. ↑ "Former Wren takes trip down memory lane at The Coalhouse Fort". ITV News. 11 December 2019. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Manby, Christine (9 November 2020). "Get a Handel on It". The Independent. ProQuest 2458462270. Retrieved 10 November 2022 – via ProQuest.
  9. ↑ "102-year-old WREN recalls the vital role she played in the Battle of the Atlantic". The Past. 9 May 2023. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  10. ↑ "WW2 officer Christian: 'You had no idea what was going to happen'". BBC News. 10 November 2022. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Lamb, Christian (2021). Beyond the Sea: A Wren at War. London: Mardle Books. pp. 212, 229, 260–262, 292. ISBN 978-1-914-45102-7.
  12. ↑ Good, Jo; Lamb, Christian. "School's out: the life of Sir Joseph Banks". BBC Sounds. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
  13. 1 2 "WWII veteran has 100th birthday cake made by same company as wedding cake". ITV. 24 July 2020. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  14. ↑ "Historian's search for 'lost' garden". The West Briton and Royal Cornwall Gazette. 23 March 1995. Retrieved 10 November 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ "I only joined for the hat : redoubtable Wrens at war : their trials, tribulations and triumphs". WorldCat. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
  16. ↑ "London's Bestsellers". Evening Standard. 20 January 2011. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  17. ↑ Bhaumik, Gayatri (Summer 2015). "Page Turner – Travelling in Style". Jetsetter. p. 134. Retrieved 10 November 2022 – via Issuu.com.
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