04/09/2026
Remembering Leading Wren Helen Coop on her Birthday.
Helen Monica Coop was born in Liverpool on 4th September, 1911. She was the youngest of five sisters – Mary, Kitty, Joan, Nancy and Helen.
We have no idea how she was recruited to become a Wren and a plotter at WATU. She started at the Tactical School in 1943, one of the older Wrens on the team at 31 years old. She did not talk much about her work, but she formed many good friendships
while she served there, particularly with Janet Okell who she would meet once a week for lunch in central Liverpool well into the 1970s.
One memory she talked about was of a very handsome young officer, who was posted to Liverpool for some months and took the training course at WATU - the then Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten. She said that he was useless as a plotter, but was VERY good looking.
As well as serving as a Wren, she also worked at night with her sister, Nancy, as an auxiliary
ambulance driver during the war. Both Nancy and Helen lived with their mother and their maid, Kate, in Waverley Road, off Sefton Park. The house was hit by a bomb during the May Blitz of 1941, on a night both Helen and Nancy were on shift as ambulance drivers. When they returned home they found their mother still sitting on a chair in the cupboard under the stairs.
After the war, Helen became the secretary to Ronald Farquharson, who managed the
shipping office for ICI Chemicals, based in India Buildings.
