BARRATT, Jean

65769 Wren, Women’s Royal Naval Service

Attached to the Royal Naval shore base HMS Nemo in Brightlingsea harbour, which operated small auxiliary patrol vessels and air sea rescue boats.

Born 1923 in Grimsby

Died 28/02/1944, Age 20, at Colchester, cause of death given as ‘Illness’

Buried 04/03/1944

Daughter of Mr Thomas Creasey Barratt and Mary Jane Barratt (nee Greenfield). Parents married in Grimsby in 1919. Nine children were born to them, Frederick (1919), Marjorie (1920), Leslie (1921), Jean (1923), James C (1924), Peter (1926), Arthur (1928), Grace (1929) and Hilda (1932). Leslie, Arthur and Hilda all died in the same year as they were born.

Jean’s mother died in 1932, in the same quarter as youngest child Hilda, so it seems likely that Mary Jane’s death was childbirth related, perhaps not surprising after so many pregnancies.

Father Thomas re-married to Violet Ely in 1937. Violet was nine years older than Thomas and there were no more children.

1939 – Father was a cowman, living at 11 Wood Lane, Grimsby, with Violet and four of the children. The eldest daughter Marjorie was working as a kitchen maid for the Dixon family (the paper manufacturers)

Home address at time of death: 46 Blundell Avenue, Cleethorpes