Navy Wren finally gets her medals on 100th birthday
A NAVY veteran was presented with her war medals more than 75 years late – as a surprise for her 100th birthday.
Sylvia Dyde did not claim the honours after leaving the Wrens, due to modesty and cost.
She was a signaller all through the Second World War, with postings to Egypt, India and Sri Lanka, before leaving in 1946 and later working as a secretary.
A few weeks before her centenary, Mrs Dyde – known as Jacqueline – mentioned to grand-daughter Caroline Meaby it might be time to ask for her War Medal and Defence Medal.
Caroline arranged for them to be presented by a serving Navy officer as a birthday surprise.
Cdr Andy Swain, chief of staff of the Naval Regional Command Eastern England, did the honours in the grounds of Woodland Grove care home in Loughton, Essex in front of Jacqueline’s family and friends.
She told him: “I’m absolutely thrilled. And to be given them by such an important personage is even more wonderful. I’ve never had a birthday like it.”
Granddaughter Caroline said: “Grandma always talked to me about the war. She loved the travelling and it inspired a lifelong interest in visiting different countries.
“She is modest about her war service...especially as she lost family members in the conflict.
But she did earn [the medals] so has every right to claim them.”
Jacqueline coded signals near Warrington, Cheshire before being sent to Egypt during the North African campaign. In Sri Lanka, she met Far East commander-in-chief Lord Mountbatten on her base.
Jacqueline said: “He asked me how I found the work and I replied that it was a bit dull. He laughed and said we all had to do dull things sometimes. I got a stern talking-to afterwards.”
Caroline revealed the “dull” work was actually “a crucial part of the war. She was communicating intercepted signals from Japanese ships”.