Katrine Patricia Wreford: 31 May 1955 – 24 February 2026

I lost my best friend, Katrine Wreford, on 25 February, due to Parkinson’s
Disease and associated problems. She was Godmother to our eldest son, Alex,
besides being guardian of our three sons. My family and I miss her, though we
were geographically apart, as are so many Wren friends.
Katrine had her 70th birthday party in “Wren Cottage”, Glamis, last May and
there were two of us from WRNS days there, along with her close family and the
many civilian friends she had garnered since. At her funeral on 25 March in
Glamis Kirk, some 150 mourners gathered to celebrate her life, a testament to
how many of us had known and loved her. Her final thoughts and expressions,
as witnessed by one of her Scottish friends, were of the naval brotherhood.
Katrine was born in 1955 in Butleigh, Somerset, to naval parents. Her father
was Lt Cdr Peter “Lofty” Wreford, an aviator, and her mother was Christina
(Chrissie) Menzies Banks, a WRNS officer. (Chrissie joined as a Wren
Messenger, worked as an aircraft checker and later transferred to the Quarters
Branch.) They moved to Malta in 1966 for a brief period before Dennis Healey’s
defence cuts necessitated a move back to Charlton Mackrell, Somerset, where
Katrine’s parents lived until they passed away.
After school, Katrine briefly worked as secretary to the fiction editor of the
“Women’s Realm” magazine before changing career course in 1977 and joining
the WRNS as a Writer, serving in HMS NELSON, the MOD and subsequently in
HMS DRAKE. Thereafter she underwent officer training at Dartmouth and was
commissioned in January 1981, serving at HMS NEPTUNE, briefly as Naval
Liaison Officer with the Royal Hong Kong Maritime Police, HMS DOLPHIN and
COMNAVSOUTH in Naples where I met her. Having held an 8 year Short Career
Commission, she left the Regular Service in 1989 and joined the WRNR (in the
Media Branch) where she served until 2006 and left as an Acting Cdr.
Katrine’s life in the civilian world was never dull. On retiring from the WRNS in
1989, she worked as Assistant Administrator at Glamis Castle until 2004, at
which time her mother was widowed and unwell. Katrine moved to Rosneath
(near Faslane) to look after her mother until the latter’s death in 2011. While so
doing, Katrine threw herself into local life, for instance helping to organise and
co-ordinate the various components of the Rosneath Highland Games. She
was also involved in SSAFA fundraising for many years. In Glamis she became a
member of The Guild at the Kirk and served as president of the Friendship
Club.
Due to ill health towards the end of her life, Katrine was frustrated about not
being able to carry on with her many and varied activities. She always had a
positive attitude …. She had had one knee replacement operation recently (she
was in a wheelchair which was extremely difficult as her Glamis cottage was
very compact!), and was awaiting the next, determined to get up and walk one
day. Besides Parkinson’s, she also had severe arthritis and was on morphine
for a great deal of the time – but she still put in time and effort to think of others
rather than herself. I have no doubt that she is in a better place now. She was
the very best of us, hence the huge turnout for her funeral.    Christine Pike