Dates: 1939 -

With the outbreak of the Second World War on September 3rd 1939 the Admiralty implemented its contingency plan training new officers to man the rapid expansion of the peace-time fleet. The plan called for the opening of a dedicated training establishment for Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Officers at one of he eight RNVR divisional centres in the UK. The Sussex Division, based in Hove was chosen.

A short distance from the Sussex Division RNVR headquarters at 5 Victoria Terrace was a new municipal building nearing completion, the Hove Marina complex. This site was immediately requisitioned by the Admiralty under the authority of the Naval Mobilisation Act of 1938, which gave priority to the commandeering of unoccupied property for military use. The Marina was to have been Hove’s new municipal Swimming Baths and recreation Complex, due to be partially open to the public by September 1939. Instead the Marina opened its doors for the first time as a commissioned ship in the Royal Navy, becoming HMS ‘King Alfred’ on September 11th under the command of Captain John Noel Pelly CBE, RN (Ret).
Like all naval shore establishments HMS King Alfred employed a large number of WRNS personnel (colloquially known as Wrens). There were eight Wrens in the ship’s company in 1939 when only Hove marina was in use, as the establishment grew a separate WRNS quarters (Wrennery) was set up in two large houses at San Remo, on the Kingsway, which housed 70 wrens. By the end of the war there were 45 working at Lancing and 7 at Mowden.

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