Description
Physical description
jacket
navy blue, four-buttoned, single-breasted jacket with two breast pockets with flaps - pockets are faux. The inside of the jacket is lined with two inside pockets. On each lapel dark blue circular cloth embroidered badges bearing the WAVE corps device of a light blue propeller with a white anchor. On the left sleeve the rating badge of a Third Class Petty Officer USN. Between the red chevron and the American Eagle are the speciality marks of a USN Postal Clerk an M in a circle with a 'postmark' device. The buttons are black and bear the insignia of the US Navy. The name of the owner, C.M.WALSH, is stencilled inside the front of the jacket.
Label
Jacket associated with the Second World War service of Catherine Mary Messersmith (nee Walsh) Born 15 November 1924 - died 1 October 2000. Mrs Messersmith, the daughter of British immigrants, was born at Tacoma, Washington State. A duel UK/US citizen, she worked as an office administrator for the Superior Service Laundry Co in Tacoma before doing war work in the shipyards in Seattle. She enlisted in the Women's Reserve of the US Naval Reserve (WAVES) on 10 December 1944 and did her initial training at the US Naval Training School in the Bronx, New York. She served as a Postal Clerk in New York and then was posted to California where she served with the US Forces Post Office in San Francisco, the USNABPD in San Bruno, CA, and TADCEN Treasure Island, CA. She received a honourable discharge from the US Naval Barracks, Belboa Park, San Francisco on 8 May 1946. In September 1947 she married James Messersmith, a sailor in the US Navy who continued to serve in the USN in Korea and later in Vietnam. The couple had three children and, after nearly twenty years living in Scotland, where James finished his service with the USN, the couple eventually returned to the US where Mr Messersmith died in 1998. Mrs Messersmith returned to the UK to live with one of her daughters and died there in 2000. Both Mr and Mrs Messersmith are buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, USA.
The uniform is untouched and unaltered and is as last worn by Mrs Messersmith in 1946.
Stencilled ( inside front of jacket)
C.M.WALSH