Mary Rundle

CBE
Monochrome portrait photograph of Rundle. She is shown dressed in her WRNS uniform and wearing a naval cap on her head.
Rundle in April 1948
Born
Mary Beatrice Rundle

(1907-08-10)10 August 1907
Highfield, Southampton, England
Died29 September 2010(2010-09-29) (aged 103)
Lancashire, England
EducationHarrogate Ladies' College
Occupations
Relatives
Military service
Allegiance United Kingdom
Branch Women's Royal Naval Service
Service years1939–1949
RankSuperintendent
Commands held
ConflictWorld 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.

Early life and education

Rundle was born on 10 August 1907 at Sherwood, Highfield, Southampton,[1] the younger daughter of Mark Rundle and Elsie Cameron, née Bennett.[2] They had married on 28 March 1901 at the Elm Grove Baptist Church, Southsea, Portsmouth.[3] Rundle's mother was the only daughter of engineer rear admiral James Martin Cameron Bennett.[4] She was a justice of the peace for Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, and a member of the Church of England's Advisory Council for Moral Welfare Work.[5] Rundle's father was raised in Saltash, Cornwall, the eldest child of John Peter Rundle and Mary, née Snell. His brother was the medical superintendent at Aintree University Hospital, in Fazakerley, Liverpool, and his sister, Mary Snell Rundle, was the first ever secretary of the Royal College of Nursing.[6]

Rundle's father began his Royal Navy career in 1892 as an engineer lieutenant and was promoted to engineer commander on 6 July 1909.[7][8] He served on HMS Lion during World War I and was mentioned in dispatches. He received the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for his conduct in the Battle of Jutland,[7] and in 1918, he was awarded the Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.[9] At the end of the war, he was in charge of steel production for the Admiralty at Sheffield, South Yorkshire.[10][11] By 1923, he had been promoted to engineer captain, and in June of that year, he joined Battlecruiser Squadron as engineer officer.[12] In 1925, he was promoted to engineer rear admiral.[7]

Rundle was educated at Sheffield High School for Girls,[10] where in February 1920, she passed the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music piano examination.[13] In the same year, she won an open scholarship from the Sheffield Education Committee to study at Harrogate Ladies' College.[13][14]: 168  At the college, she acted in a number of plays and, moreover, music and the theatre would remain an interest throughout her life.[10][14]: 168  In 1923, she passed the London General School Examination.[15] Her elder sister, Nancy Marguerite, was also educated at Harrogate Ladies' College, and afterwards, at Bedford College for Women, London.[15] She married Robert Arthur Balfour, 2nd Baron Riverdale of Sheffield, on 1 September 1926 at Highfield Church, Southampton.[16][2] However, she died after a short illness on 8 August 1928, aged 24, at Ropes, Fernhurst, the home of her father-in-law, Sir Arthur Balfour.[17]

Career

By September 1932, Rundle was employed as personal secretary to Sir Anderson Montague-Barlow,[18]: vi  a former Minister of Labour, and best known for chairing the Barlow Royal Commission on the urban concentration of population and industry.[19] In 1935, he was appointed chairman of the Royal Commission on the Coal Industry in Alberta, Canada,[20] From late summer to autumn of 1935, Rundle accompanied Barlow, his wife Doris Louise, née Reed, a former administrator in the Women's Royal Air Force,[19] and William Armour, a mining expert, on a journey across Canada[14]: 153–154  Her mother had recently died on 17 July 1935,[5] however, her father insisted that she "should honour [her] undertaking and go to Canada."[14]: 154  She kept a running diary of the entire trip that she later donated to the Provincial Archives of Alberta.[14]: 153 [lower-alpha 1]

As World War II approached, she was commissioned into the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) and undertook officer training at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich.[21] On 26 August 1939, she was appointed a first officer in the WRNS at Portsmouth,[22] under the command of Sir William James.[23] She also 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, for a number of naval air squadrons of the Fleet Air Arm.[24]

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.[25][26] She was promoted to superintendent, equivalent to a commander in the Royal Navy,[23] and second only in seniority to the then director, Jocelyn Woollcombe.[25] In 1948, she was awarded a CBE in the King's Birthday Honours.[27] In April 1949, Rundle left the WRNS after being appointed deputy director of Encyclopædia Britannica Films, at 211 Piccadilly, London,[28]: 186  a position that reported to John Mackay Mure, then director of the division in the United Kingdom.[25][lower-alpha 2]

The Encyclopædia Britannica Films division in the United States had a library of around four hundred educational films that they had planned to offer to the Ministry of Education in London.[25] The films were distributed on 16 mm film and covered,[28]: 187  amongst other subjects, geography, science, and social studies.[30]: 221  In April 1951, the work of the UK division was transferred to Lexicon Films Limited, an Encyclopædia Britannica affiliate located at 10 St Swithin's Lane, in the City of London.[31] Lexicon Films was wound-up on 1 November 1954.[32] After 1951, Rundle joined Metal Box Company Limited, a large can and packaging manufacturer, as secretary to the managing director.[lower-alpha 3] In the early 1960s, she retired and moved to a cottage in Outgate, a hamlet near Hawkshead, in the Lake District, Cumbria.[26]

Personal life and death

Rundle never married but her father married twice after the death of her mother.[14]: 174  He married Margaret Wilson, of Ifield, West Sussex, on 8 January 1938 at All Souls', Langham Place, London.[34] She died on 21 June 1942,[35] and he married thirdly, Mildred Ellen Robinson, on 21 August 1944 at the parish church of Maresfield in the Wealden district of East Sussex.[36] Mildred was the widow of Reginald Braham Robinson, a former civil engineer with the Ministry of Works and Public Buildings.[37] Rundle's father died on 8 October 1958, aged 86, at his home in Maresfield.[38]

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.[24] In retirement, she indexed the naval histories written by her cousin Geoffrey Bennett,[39]: 8  that Eric Grove, late professor of naval history at the University of Salford,[40]: 263  has previously described as an "excellent index".[41] She also indexed the records of the Outgate Women's Institute after they were deposited with the Cumbria Archive Service in 1990.[42] In 2007, a party was held at her home to mark her hundredth birthday.[14]: 174  She died from the effects of a stroke on 29 September 2010, aged 103, at a hospital in Lancashire.[43] A memorial service was held at Hawkshead parish church on 12 October 2010.[44]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ See "'The Country Was Looking Wonderful': Insights on 1930s Alberta from the Travel Diary of Mary Beatrice Rundle" (2017), by Sterling Evans, for a detailed description of Rundle's trip across Canada.
  2. ↑ On 29 June 1949, Rundle wrote from the offices of Encyclopædia Britannica Films to Andrew Sydenham Farrar Gow, asking for permission to reproduce a 12th century line drawing of a plough that was published in volume 1 of The Cambridge Economic History of Europe (1942).[29]
  3. ↑ Probably David Ducat, who was managing director of Metal Box from 1949 to 1966.[33]

References

  1. ↑ "Births". Hampshire Independent. Southampton. 17 August 1907. p. 1. OCLC 70643042. Retrieved 22 December 2022 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  2. 1 2 Walton, Mary; Tweedale, Geoffrey (2004). "Balfour, Arthur". In Matthew, Henry Colin Gray; Harrison, Brian (eds.). Dictionary of National Biography: From the earliest times to the year 2000. Avranches – Barnewall. Vol. 3. British Academy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 494–496. ISBN 978-0-19-861353-4. OCLC 178927687. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
  3. ↑ "A Southsea Wedding. Rundle – Bennett". Portsmouth Evening News. 28 March 1901. p. 6. OCLC 1063293444. Retrieved 24 December 2022 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  4. ↑ "Bennett, James Martin Cameron". Who Was Who. 1916–1928. Vol. 2 (5th ed.). London: A & C Black. 1992 [First published in 1928]. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-7136-3143-2. OCLC 1158346242. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
  5. 1 2 "Death of Mrs. Mark Rundle". Bucks Herald. Aylesbury. 19 July 1935. p. 12. ISSN 0962-6786. OCLC 500150796. Retrieved 24 December 2022 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  6. ↑ "Miss Mary Rundle". The Times. No. 47634. London. 16 March 1937. p. 18. ISSN 0140-0460. Gale CS303116400.
  7. 1 2 3 "Two Deaths". Hampshire Telegraph. Portsmouth. 17 October 1958. p. 12. OCLC 556488885. Retrieved 24 December 2022 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  8. ↑ "Admiralty, 6th July, 1909". No. 28269. The London Gazette. 9 July 1909. p. 5284. OCLC 1013393168. Archived from the original on 22 December 2022. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
  9. ↑ "Decorations Conferred by the President of the French Republic. Chevalier". No. 31063. The London Gazette. 12 December 1918. p. 14685. OCLC 1013393168. Archived from the original on 22 December 2022. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
  10. 1 2 3 "Month by Month. Encyclopædia Britannica Appointment". The School Government Chronicle and Education Review. London: The School Government Publishing Co. 141 (3286): 406. May 1949. OCLC 16219251.
  11. ↑ Jellicoe, Earl John Rushworth (1920). The Crisis of the Naval War. London: Cassell and Company. p. 306. OCLC 2920117. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
  12. ↑ "Naval Appointments". Truth. Vol. 93, no. 2435. London: Truth Publishing Co. 27 June 1923. p. 1162. OCLC 1767801. Retrieved 24 December 2022 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  13. 1 2 "Girls' Sphere. Ideals for Sheffield High School Students". Sheffield Daily Telegraph. 11 February 1920. p. 4. OCLC 17991386. Retrieved 24 December 2022 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Evans, Sterling (2017). "7. 'The Country Was Looking Wonderful': Insights on 1930s Alberta from the Travel Diary of Mary Beatrice Rundle" (PDF). In Van Herk, Aritha; Colpitts, George; Devine, Heather (eds.). Finding Directions West: Readings that Locate and Dislocate Western Canada's Past. The West Series. No. 9. Alberta Historical Resources Foundation (1st ed.). Calgary: University of Calgary Press. pp. 151–178. doi:10.11575/PRISM/34563. hdl:1880/51827. ISBN 978-1-55238-880-8. ISSN 1922-6519. JSTOR j.ctv64h781.12. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  15. 1 2 Cheal, Tony (2005). "Harrogate College 1923". www.harrogatepeopleandplaces.info. Harrogate: Harrogate Historical Society. Archived from the original on 22 December 2022. Retrieved 29 December 2022.
  16. ↑ "Sir A. Balfour's Son. Married to Rear-Admiral's Daughter. Ceremony at Southampton". Sheffield Daily Telegraph. 2 September 1926. p. 7. OCLC 17991386. Retrieved 24 December 2022 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  17. ↑ "Mrs. R. A. Balfour. Impressive Funeral Service at Fernhurst, Sussex". Sheffield Daily Telegraph. 13 August 1928. p. 7. OCLC 17991386. Retrieved 24 December 2022 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  18. ↑ Montague-Barlow, Anderson (1932). "Preface". Barlow Family Records. Assisted by G. Dudley Barlow and Vernon William Barlow (1st ed.). London: Bemrose & Sons. pp. v–vi. OCLC 456905162. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
  19. 1 2 Baines, Priscilla (October 2012). "Appendix 5: The Biographies". Colonel Josiah Wedgwood's Questionnaire: Members of Parliament, 1885–1918. Texts & Studies 7 (1st ed.). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 141–259. doi:10.1111/j.1750-0206.2012.00343.x. ISBN 978-1-118-33602-1. Published for the Parliamentary History Yearbook Trust and the History of Parliament Trust.
  20. ↑ Rundle, Mary Beatrice (1935). "Mary Beatrice Rundle". searchprovincialarchives.alberta.ca. Alberta: Provincial Archives of Alberta. Fonds PR2176. Archived from the original on 22 December 2022. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
  21. ↑ Markham, Henry Vaughan, ed. (December 1941). "Women's Royal Naval Service". The Navy List. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office: 949. ISSN 0141-6081. OCLC 1118061184. O.U. 5513 (12)41. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
  22. ↑ "First Officers". No. 34862. The London Gazette. 31 May 1940. p. 3279. OCLC 1013393168. Archived from the original on 24 December 2022. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
  23. 1 2 "Mary Rundle: Lives Remembered". The Daily Telegraph. London. 21 October 2010. p. 37. ISSN 0841-7180. OCLC 1081089956. ProQuest 759334999. Archived from the original on 24 October 2010. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  24. 1 2 "Noticeboard. Deaths" (PDF). Navy News. Portsmouth: Ministry of Defence. November 2010. p. 37. OCLC 150177791. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 August 2022. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
  25. 1 2 3 4 "From Wrens to Films". The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. Leeds. 13 April 1949. p. 2. OCLC 18793101. Retrieved 25 December 2022 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  26. 1 2 "Honoured Navy wren dies at 103". Evening Chronicle. Newcastle. 11 October 2010. p. 8. ISSN 0960-3573. OCLC 749984539. ProQuest 757227796. Archived from the original on 17 February 2018. Retrieved 22 December 2022 – via The Free Library.
  27. ↑ "Superintendent M B Rundle, W.R.N.S., appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Military List)". No. 38311. The London Gazette. 10 June 1948. p. 3370. OCLC 1013393168. Archived from the original on 22 December 2022. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
  28. 1 2 Educational Panel (June 1950). Burke, John Alexander Vincent (ed.). "More Religious and Geographical Films". Focus. Vol. 3, no. 6. London: Catholic Film Institute. pp. 186–187. OCLC 6289548. Retrieved 30 December 2022. Focus magazine is also available at Lantern, the Media History Digital Library's search platform.
  29. ↑ Hughes, Rebecca (June 2019). "E2 Items removed from The ancient plough. Mary B. Rundle to ASFG". Papers of Andrew Sydenham Farrar Gow (1886–1978) (PDF) (Finding aid). Cambridge: Trinity College. p. 11. E2/15. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 December 2022. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  30. ↑ Educational Panel (July 1950). Burke, John Alexander Vincent (ed.). "Films for the Teaching of Science". Focus. Vol. 3, no. 7. London: Catholic Film Institute. pp. 220–221. OCLC 6289548. Retrieved 30 December 2022. Focus magazine is also available at Lantern, the Media History Digital Library's search platform.
  31. ↑ Association of Educational Committees (September 1951). "Lexicon Films Ltd". Education. London: Councils and Education Press. 98 (2539): 360. ISSN 0013-1164. OCLC 909344735.
  32. ↑ "The Companies Act. Winding-up orders". No. 40320. The London Gazette. 5 November 1954. p. 6319. OCLC 1013393168. Archived from the original on 2 January 2023. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
  33. ↑ "Business in the News. Growth and change in the packaging industry". The Illustrated London News. 9 July 1966. p. 27. ISSN 0019-2422. OCLC 1131734134. Retrieved 3 January 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  34. ↑ "Marriage of Engr. Rear-Admiral Mark Rundle". Bucks Herald. Aylesbury. 14 January 1938. p. 16. ISSN 0962-6786. OCLC 500150796. Retrieved 24 December 2022 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  35. ↑ "Fashionable & Personal". Kent and Sussex Courier. Tunbridge Wells. 26 June 1942. p. 6. ISSN 1746-9317. OCLC 751610695. Retrieved 24 December 2022 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  36. ↑ "Fashionable & Personal". Kent and Sussex Courier. Tunbridge Wells. 25 August 1944. p. 6. ISSN 1746-9317. OCLC 751610695. Retrieved 24 December 2022 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  37. ↑ "Fashionable & Personal". Kent and Sussex Courier. Tunbridge Wells. 7 August 1942. p. 6. ISSN 1746-9317. OCLC 751610695. Retrieved 24 December 2022 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  38. ↑ "Deaths". The Times. No. 54278. London. 10 October 1958. p. 1. ISSN 0140-0460. Gale CS17259338.
  39. ↑ Bennett, Geoffrey (2002) [First published 1964]. "Preface". Freeing the Baltic. Edinburgh: Birlinn. pp. 5–10. ISBN 978-1-84341-001-0. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  40. ↑ Law, Derek (July 2021). "Eric J. Grove (1948–2021)". The Mariner's Mirror. London: Society for Nautical Research. 107 (3): 263–264. doi:10.1080/00253359.2021.1940515. ISSN 0025-3359. S2CID 236144800.
  41. ↑ Grove, Eric (October 2017). "From the Baltic to Broadsword and beyond. The Grove Reviews" (PDF). Navy News. Portsmouth: Ministry of Defence. p. 31. OCLC 150177791. Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 December 2022. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
  42. ↑ Rundle, Mary; Jones, Maureen. "Archive index relating to Accession 1503. Cumbria Westmorland Federation of WIs index" (March 2000). WDSO 115 Outgate Women's Institute 1925–1988), Series: 3 Miscellaneous 1941–1988, ID: WDSO 115/3/14. Kendal: Cumbria Archive Service. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
  43. ↑ "Death Notice: Mary Rundle". The Westmorland Gazette. Kendal. 7 October 2010. ISSN 0969-319X. OCLC 759574856. Archived from the original on 23 December 2022. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  44. ↑ Bramwell, Grant (5 October 2010). "Deaths". The Daily Telegraph. London. p. 28. ISSN 0841-7180. OCLC 1081089956. ProQuest 756262883. Archived from the original on 7 June 2022. Retrieved 22 December 2022.

Bibliography

See also page xvi, plate illustrations, V. The plough, (iv) Twelfth-century wheeled plough, also with coulter and mould-board. Note, the line drawing of the plough was first published in Gow, Andrew Sydenham Farrar (1914). "The Ancient Plough". The Journal of Hellenic Studies. London: Macmillan and Company. 1: 249–275. doi:10.2307/624502. ISSN 0075-4269. JSTOR 624502. OCLC 436724650. S2CID 163379831. Retrieved 30 December 2022. See figure 14 on page 261.

Further reading

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