Third Officer Ruby Boye
By Alan Powell
Ruby Olive Boye-Jones (1891-1990), coastwatcher, was born on 29 July 1891 at St Peters, Sydney, fifth of eight children of English-born parents Alfred Jones, storeman, and his wife Emily (née Wild). Little is known of her childhood, except that she learned to play the piano. On 25 October 1919 she married Sydney Skov Boye at St Stephen’s Church of England, Newtown. Her occupation was then listed as saleswoman, her husband’s as laundry proprietor. They were to have two sons.
From 1928 to 1936 the Boye family lived at Tulagi, British Solomon Islands Protectorate, moving in the latter year to Vanikoro Island, in the Santa Cruz group, where Skov managed the Vanikoro Kauri Timber Company. At the outbreak of World War II, the operator of the company’s tele-radio left for Australia. Before his departure, he showed Ruby how to operate the radio and transmit weather reports in voice code. She taught herself Morse code, took over complete responsibility for the radio and became a member of Eric Feldt’s coastwatching service.
Ruby in her WRANS uniform (Courtesy Geoff Boye).
In May 1942 the Japanese occupied Tulagi and Guadalcanal; and invasion of the Santa Cruz Islands seemed imminent. Most European residents left for Australia, but Ruby and Skov elected to stay. Mrs Boye continued to operate the coastwatcher radio, sending her daily weather reports and acting as a relay station between coastwatchers further north and the naval intelligence office at Vila, New Hebrides. At five feet 10 inches (177 cm) tall, she was a dignified and imposing woman, with dark, wavy hair and a warm smile.
Being civilians, the coastwatchers risked execution as spies if captured by the enemy. To provide a measure of protection, the Royal Australian Navy had begun to grant them naval rank from March 1942. However, it was not until 27 July 1943 that Boye was appointed a Third Officer, Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service. Her rank was honorary and carried no pay, setting her apart from her male contemporaries. The Japanese knew of her presence, having sent her a threatening radio message in 1942, but she was unshaken by the event.
Feldt commended her for her courage and Admiral William F Halsey, United States Navy, made a special flight to Vanikoro to meet her. When she fell ill late in 1943, he sent a US Navy aircraft to evacuate her for treatment. She soon returned to Vanikoro and in 1944 was awarded the British Empire Medal. Her WRANS appointment was terminated on 30 September 1946.
Boye left Vanikoro only when her husband became seriously ill in 1947. He died shortly after they arrived in Sydney. On 19 June 1950 she married Frank Bengough Jones (d.1961), a departmental manager and widower, at St John’s Church of England, Penshurst, NSW. Mrs Boye-Jones, as she became known, remained alone in her Penshurst home after Frank’s death until she reached her late nineties. Survived by the two sons of her first marriage, she died on 14 September 1990 at Narwee, NSW and was cremated. An accommodation block at the Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, is named after her. The Ex-WRANS Association also dedicated a page to her in the Garden Island Chapel Remembrance Book.
Ruby at her radio on Vanikoro.
