Alice “Ruddy” Adams

Alice “Ruddy” Adams pictured shortly after her enlistment in the WRCNS. Her nickname was a shortened version of her maiden name, which was Rutheford.

Alice Adams is one of approximately 50,000 Canadian women who served their country in uniform during the Second World War, and made a vital contribution to Allied victory. A trailblazer, she showed proficiency in highly technical and advanced work and helped to pave the way for eventual full integration of women in the Canadian Armed Forces in the second half of the twentieth century.

As the Second World War progressed, growing numbers of men were needed to crew the country’s naval vessels. Women across Canada volunteered for service to fill trades on shore, and free sailors for active duty. The Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service (WRCNS) was created in 1942 to allow women the opportunity to play a service role. An estimated 6,700 Canadian women from coast to coast came to the aid of Canada at home and overseas as “Wrens”.

Alice Adams (born Rutherford and later nicknamed ‘Ruddy’ by her Wren friends) was teaching at an elementary school in rural Saskatchewan when the war started. She came across a recruitment notice for the WRCNS and travelled to Saskatoon to enlist at HMCS Unicorn, a naval reserve division of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). P.O. Adams joined the WRCNS on Oct. 28, 1942 at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, after hearing the “sales pitch” of Chief Officer Dorothy Isherwood, WRNS. While aboard the train headed for basic training at HMCS Conestoga in Galt, Ontario, Adams met other young women her age who would become life-long friends.

After completing her basic training, Alice Adams was chosen to be among the first group of wireless telegraphists. She was sent to signal school near present-day Scarborough, Ontario, where she learned to be proficient in Morse code and was taught a key speed of twenty-five words per minute.  She was then sent to Ottawa to help establish Number 1 Station HMCS Bytown, a station to intercept German naval communications, and where Wrens formed the core personnel. After a few months in Ottawa, Adams received further wireless operator training at the signal school in St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, before being posted to HMCS Coverdale in Moncton, New Brunswick. At Coverdale, as at Bytown, her duties included copying enemy naval traffic as well as tracking the bearings of enemy German submarines, known as U-boats. She intercepted signals to and from U-boats in three-group cipher and was eventually able to recognize the hand of German operators and thus the boat number.

The vital intelligence gathered from these stations, along with stations in Newfoundland and the United Kingdom, assisted the Allies in determining the location of U-boats. Merchant convoys in the North Atlantic Ocean – essential to the survival of Britain, the liberation of Europe, and to help supply the Soviet Union – could then be diverted from the path of U-boats, saving countless lives and protecting this essential lifeline between North America and Europe.

With Japan’s entry into the war in 1941, the Pacific Ocean also became a significant theatre of war. Although she hoped for an overseas posting, Alice Adams instead found herself at signal school in St. Hyacinthe once again. This time Adams learnt Kana, the Japanese version of Morse code, and how to transcribe it on special typewriters. With this training, she was posted to the Gordon Head Special Wireless Transmitting Station on Vancouver Island in 1944. The station operated on a 24-hour basis. At the time, the station’s location was kept completely secret, and personnel were billeted in nearby Esquimalt. Today, the former grounds of the station form part of the University of Victoria campus. While at Gordon Head Adams and others were sent to Bremerton, Wash. for training with U.S. Navy WAVES. The Wrens replaced male telegraphists at Gordon Head when the men were sent to a new Y Station at Masset in the Queen Charlottes.

Throughout the war, the vital intelligence she and her fellow wireless telegraphists gathered at intercept stations became an important component of the Allied signals intelligence system. These Canadian posts were considered ‘outstations’ of Bletchley Park, the top-secret British military intelligence headquarters located in the United Kingdom. Due to the covert nature of this work, it would only be decades later that her role in this larger system of intelligence would become known to her, earning Alice Adams the Bletchley Park Commemorative Badge.

The war in the Pacific came to an end with the surrender of Imperial Japan in August 1945. Adams continued in service as part of a WRCNS unit at Gordon Head Military Camp, processing freed Canadian and British prisoners of war from the Battle of Hong Kong, who were returning by the thousands through Naden’s dockyard after being held in camps since 1941. Arriving with nothing, and in very poor health, these soldiers and nurses were sent to the hospital at Gordon Head for evaluation and to complete administrative procedures. This experience brought her in direct contact with victims of war, an experience that has stayed with her to this day.

Having achieved the rank of Petty Officer, Adams’ wartime service came to an end in the spring of 1946. Like many women who served in uniform during the war, Adams’ experiences gave her a sense of confidence she would carry throughout her civilian life. During her transition back to civilian life, she completed higher education to become a Reference Librarian. She eventually married, moved to Ottawa, and raised three children. Following her retirement, she returned to live in Victoria in 1985, where she continues to reside.