Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, was appointed Colonel in Chief of the Women‘s Royal Australian Army Corps on 1 June 1953 (QEII Coronation Day), until all ranks Corps were transferred into the various corps of the
Australian Army, 6 December 1984. Whilst the WRAAC has been effectively disbanded, it has never been officially delisted (nor placed in suspended animation) from the order of battle. To this day there are many (including current serving female soldiers) who feel it should never have happened.
Over those thirty one years she was totally interested in the Corps, and amongst other things she would personally write to each officer, WO and
SNCO, when they took their discharge, and also to all ranks when they received honours or the Long Service & Good Conduct Medal or Meritorious Service Medal. She was always immensely popular within the Corps at all levels.
On the Corps Silver Anniversary (25 years) Princess Margaret made a specific journey to Sydney to attend the Silver Anniversary Parade at
Victoria Barracks, Paddington, with some 500 ARA (Australian Regular Army) (a third of the Corps strength) and some CMF (Citizen‘s Military Forces)
members on parade, 31 October 1975. She was presented with a regimental brooch (costing A$860, some A$4200 today), paid for by the ARA members (some abit reluctantly). The Sydney Morning Herald the next issue stated "..most
impressed and feel they did more to advance the cause of women in the Services in that two hours than a battalion of Germaine Greers could do in a
year - even in an International Women‘s Year."
In early 1973 I with two other male SNCOs had to live in at the Sgt‘s and WO‘s Mess, WRAAC School, Georges Heights. This the magnificent former
artillery fortification built to protect Sydney Cove. We were posted to 1 Cdo Coy just across the road at Georges Heights, normally we would have
lived in at the School of Army Water Transport, Chowder Bay, some five hundred feet below the WRAAC School, but, their accommodation was full. The Mess was extremely regimental as could be expected from a School which provided recruit, NCO and initial officer training to the Corps, or to use the slang at the time ‘Ridgee Didge‘. With regular official visitors, frequent dinning in nights, and other functions.
The mess had one of the most unusual pieces of mess silver that I have ever seen. On the day of her marriage to the Earl of Snowdon, 6 May 1960,
Princess Margaret directed that one hundredweight of their wedding cake was to be sent to Australia, and that the Corps Director (Colonel Dawn Jackson)
was to be distributed to members, with some 1000 ARA and CMF members this would have worked out
at pieces of some 50 grammes each. The School officers and Sgt‘s Mess members decided that they should combine their pieces, and have it cut out
in one section. This was then preserved in a airtight glass box and mounted on a solid silver ‘table‘ frame with the WRAAC badge and the Royal emblems of Princess Margaret mounted on it, with an explanary plate. The two messes
would pass it between them for mess functions. At the time of the last formal dining in night for serving and ex members of the two messes in 1984, the item was stolen!
Yours,
Jock in Sydney
