Patricia, WW2 veteran who served in Ceylon is no more
Her WREN days: Patricia in Trinco
One of the last surviving British WW2 veterans who served in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) died in the UK recently, two months before her 102nd birthday.
Patricia Pern (née Wray) served as a WREN with the Royal Navy at Trincomalee from 1945 to 1946 after training as a signals coder in England.
Following demobilisation, she worked in Vienna with the Allied Control Commission for Austria, and in 1947 met and married John, an Army Captain.
She was an Army wife (Germany, Cyprus, Egypt and the UK) until 1956, when John left the Army and bought a farm in Hastings, England.
Their twin sons, Stephen and Jeremy, were born in 1950 and grew up hearing about the magic and mystery of our Paradise island.
Says Jeremy, who visited Sri Lanka with his wife in 2014: “I well remember her stories of the wonderful time she had in Ceylon, despite there being a war on.
“She loved it, and in 1996 was finally able to return thanks to a WREN-organised trip to revisit units and locations, including HMS High Flyer, where she had been posted.”
Stephen joined the Army after university, and found fame as a long-distance walker and travel writer.
His best-known book, ‘The Great Divide’, describes his five-month trek from Mexico to Canada along the spine of the United States.
Says Stephen: “Ma was a tremendous character, and I was lucky to have her as a mother. Both her life and personality were hugely inspiring.”
Patricia Pern in 1996
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