Amy Curtis, (4 February 1894 - 29 July 1970) was an Irish administrator, superintendent of the

Women's Royal Naval Service The Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS; popularly and officially known as the Wrens) was the women's branch of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. First formed in 1917 for the First World War, it was disbanded in 1919, then revived in 1939 at the ...

in the Portsmouth command and the final chief administrative officer of the

Women's Land Army The Women's Land Army (WLA) was a British civilian organisation created in 1917 by the Board of Agriculture during the First World War to bring women into work in agriculture, replacing men called up to the military. Women who worked for the ...

Early life

Amy Curtis was born in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

on 4 February 1894. Her parents were George Frederick Wilkinson and Mary Noble Curtis (née Hewson). The family lived in 5 Proby Square,

Blackrock, County Dublin Blackrock () is a suburb of Dublin, Ireland, northwest of Dún Laoghaire. Location and access Blackrock covers a large but not precisely defined area, rising from sea level on the coast to at White's Cross on the N11 national primary road. ...

. Curtis was educated at home, and later at Belgrave School,

Rathmines Rathmines () is an affluent inner suburb on the Southside of Dublin in Ireland. It lies three kilometres south of the city centre. It begins at the southern side of the Grand Canal and stretches along the Rathmines Road as far as Rathgar to t ...

Military service

During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, from 1915 to 1917, Curtis served as a

Voluntary Aid Detachment The Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) was a voluntary unit of civilians providing nursing care for military personnel in the United Kingdom and various other countries in the British Empire. The most important periods of operation for these units we ...

clerk. She was an administrator in

Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), known as Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps (QMAAC) from 9 April 1918, was the women's corps of the British Army during and immediately after the First World War. It was established in February 1917 and d ...

from 1917 to 1920. Between 1920 and 1930 she was partner in a

Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

firm of growers, and from 1930 to 1939 she worked as an agent to the

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It is located north-east of London a ...

unionist association. After the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

she reentered public service, appointed superintendent of the

in the

Portsmouth command The Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, was a senior commander of the Royal Navy for hundreds of years. The commanders-in-chief were based at premises in High Street, Portsmouth from the 1790s until the end of Sir Thomas Williams's tenure, his succe ...

from 1939 to 1944. From 1945 to 1948 she was part of the resettlement advice service of the British Ministry of Labour and National Service. She was the last chief administrative officer of the

between 1948 and 1950. In 1919 she received an MBE, and in 1946 a CBE. Curtis was an avid gardener, and moved to Ram Park Cottage,

Kilpedder Kilpedder (, meaning "Peter's church") is a village in County Wicklow, Ireland, located off the N11 road between Kilmacanogue and Newtownmountkennedy, just south of the Glen of the Downs Nature Reserve. It had a population of 1,255 as of the ...

, County Wicklow. She died on 29 July 1970. Admiral Sir William James said of Curtis: "I am most fortunate in my Superintendent, a Miss Amy Curtis. She is a most remarkable woman and combines firmness, tact and charm to a degree rare in women of authority. The Wrens all admire and respect her ... though there are 6,000 Wrens, I have never had a disciplinary case to deal with. I put this down to her fine example and leadership." She was buried in St Patrick's Church Graveyard, Enniskerry.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curtis, Amy 1894 births 1970 deaths Irish people of World War I Irish people of World War II 20th-century Irish women Members of the Order of the British Empire Commanders of the Order of the British Empire