Vonla McBride
| Vonla McBride | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born |
Sara Vonla Adair 20 January, 1921 Ballygarvey, County Antrim, Ireland |
| Died |
2 August 2003 Downton, Wiltshire |
| Nationality | UK |
| Other names | Sara McBride |
| Education | Trinity College, Dublin |
| Known for | leading the Women's Royal Naval Service |
Sara Vonla Adair McBride (20 January 1921 – 2 August 2003) was a British naval officer. She was director of the Women's Royal Naval Service before women were accepted into the Royal Navy.
Life
Sara Vonla Adair was born in Ballygarvey, County Antrim in 1921. Her parents were Agnes and Andrew Stewart McBride. Her father was a farmer and miller.[1]
She read English and French at Trinity College, Dublin in 1939 before returning to Ballymena Academy where she had been educated.[2] This time she was a teacher and in time she moved to Gardenhurst School in Burnham on Sea as a demonstration of her independence.[3]
She joined the WRNS before women were accepted into the Royal Navy in 1949. The organisation had been formed at the end of the first world war to free men to go to war. It started out as just cleaning and cooking but the range of tasks quickly expanded.[2] McBride was sent to HMS Dauntless, which was the WRNS's training centre in Burghfield, to be trained as an officer.
She entered a human resources role and this was unusual for a women. However her career made rapid progress although she found that could not become a French interpreter. This was one of the roles that only men were allowed to do.[2] She was sent to advise Haile Selassie when he wanted to create a women's service.[3]
In the 1970s it became obvious that equal pay for women and the need to remove sexual discrimination meant that the WRNS and the Royal Navy would become one organisation. The key change was that women would become subject to the Naval Discipline Act 1957. This meant that women had more serious punishments but it also allowed then to take on roles that had previously been denied to them.[2] McBride who had experience in Human resource management became the Director of the WRNS in 1976 and members of the WRNS had the same discipline as men in 1977.[2] She retired in 1979.[3]
Death
McBride died in Downton, Wiltshire in 2003, aged 82.[1]
References
- 1 2 Richard Hill, ‘McBride, (Sara) Vonla Adair (1921–2003)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Jan 2007; accessed 9 July 2017.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Vat, Dan van der (13 August 2003). "Commandant Vonla McBride". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
- 1 2 3 "Commandant Vonla McBride". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 9 July 2017.