Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Chief Officer Sheila Mary McClemans (Service No:WR/479) enlisted in the WRANS on 11 January 1943 at HMAS Leeuwin in Fremantle, and completed the first WRANS officer training course at HMAS Cerberus at Westernport in Victoria. Appointed Third Officer in May to the staff of the Director of Naval Reserves and Mobilistaion in Melbourne, in January 1944, First Officer McClemans was appointed Director of the WRANS and in January 1945 was promoted to Chief Officer. On 8 June 1946, Chief Officer McClemans represented the WRANS at the Victory March in London. Chief Officer McClemans was attached to HMAS Leeuwin at the Termination of her Appointment on 27 February 1947. Rear Admiral George Dunbar Moore (Australian Naval Board) attributed the succes of the WRANS largely to her 'untiring interest in the welfare of every WRAN, her kindness, and perhaps above all her sound common sense' (Sea Power Centre Australia).

Sheila was born in Claremont, Fremantle, Western Australia in 1909, third of five children (daughters) of William Jospeh McClemans (b1874 in County Meath, ireland) and his first wife Ada Lucy Walker (b1881 in Wellington, New Zealand). William, an Anglican Clergyman, had completed a Master of Arts at Trinity College Dublin and had been a Curate at Greenbushes and Rector at Day Dawn in the Goldfields. He was a Church of England Minister in Geraldton in 1905 when he and Ada (a Nurse) married, and lived in Boulder before settling in Claremont in 1907. William was Rector of Christ Church in Claremont in 1915 when he enlisted in the AIF (Captain; Chaplains' Corps). William and Ada divorced in 1929 - William became a Farmer (Soldiers' Settlement Scheme) near Wongan Hills and remarried.

Sheila was awarded a Government High School Scholarship in 1922 and attended Perth Modern School before enrolling at The University of Western Australia as a Law student - Sheila was Vice President of the University Women's Club and represented the University in hockey, swimming and tennis. One of the first Law Graduates, Sheila was admitted to the Bar in 1933, established the first all-female law firm in WA with her friend Molly Kingston, and was the first female Barrister to appear before the Supreme Court of Western Australia. Following her Discharge from the WRANS, Sheila returned to work as a Solicitor and Barrister in Perth, and in 1949 married Frank Morrison Kenworthy (b1899 in Perth, Western Australia) - Frank, a Widow, had served in the Army in WWII (Major; Service Nos:W34426/WX33935). Sheila and Keith settled in Dalkeith, where Frank was Chief Engineer with the Metropolitan Water Supply Board. Sheila was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1951 for 'services as Director of the Women's Royal Australian Naval Service', in 1977 was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal, and in 1978 was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) for 'services to law and women's affairs'. Sheila, in addition to practising as a Solicitor and Barrister, was National President of the Australian Federation of University Women (1950 - 1952), Secretary of the Law Society of Western Australia (1961 - 1965) and administrator of its legal aid scheme, member of the Parole Board of Western Australia (1964 - 1984), and member of the Legal Aid Commission of Western Australia (1977 - 1980). In 1963 the Ex-WRANS Reunion Committee donated the Sheila McClemans Trophy to the RAN (ceased to be awarded in 1984). Sheila returned to legal practice with Hammond, Fitzgerald & King  in 1970, retiring in 1980. Frank died in 1976 and Sheila in 1988. In an Obituary, Sir Francis Burt (Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of WA) said it was 'her professionalism which was her most outstanding attribute, and it was that uncompromising and uncompromised professionalism which was the true source of her capacity to lead and influence' (July 1988). In 2019 a Naval College Division was named in Sheila's honour - the McClemans Division - Sheila is the first female to be given that honour.