Historical Commission’s Minute History
Yeoman(F) Lillian Farrington Martin, Wife, Mother, and Pioneer Enlisted Woman
July’s Minute History concerns West Newbury’s first enlisted woman, Yeoman(F) 1st Class Lillian Mable Farrington Martin, who was born in Boston in 1884 and spent the last years of her life here on Main Street. A bookkeeper in the Boston area before her marriage, Martin enlisted in the Navy in World War I. That women—who could not vote until 1920—could become yeomen(F) (for female) was made possible by a dire need for clerical workers in wartime, which inspired authorities to exploit vague legislative drafting of the law. Congress authorized and funded a Naval Auxiliary Reserve force comprising not just men, but “all persons who may be capable of performing special useful service for coastal defense.” Martin, who lived at the time in Reading with her husband and young son, likely commuted to work at the Boston Naval Yard. After armistice in 1918, female recruitment ended and women reservists were placed on inactive duty, funding lapsed, and women sailors largely forgotten. When widowed and elderly, Martin moved to this area, where her son and his family were living. She died in 1973, at the age of 88.
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