Sfc. Grete Alken Gluud
(1906 - 1978)
Profile
Sfc. Grete Alken Gluud enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in 1945. She emigrated to Hawaii with her family in 1916, but moved back to Denmark in the early 1930s. They returned to the USA following the German occupation in 1940. She was one of twenty-nine Danish born WACs during the Second World War.
Grete Alken Gluud was born in Copenhagen, Denmark on 6 October 1906, to Frederik Alken Gluud and Cathrine Elisabeth Mørch.[1] Gluud was born into a family of tanners in Copenhagen. Her father took over the family tannery business, when her grandfather—Axel Gustav Gluud—died in 1900. Frederik Alken Gluud was only 21 years old. According to the family chronicle, he made a mess of it, and ran off to America.[2] His power of attorney in the family business was withdrawn in May 1911.[3]
Settling in Hawaii
Gluud’s father emigrated to the United States in 1911 and settled in Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii.[4] He joined the US Army, ‘E’ Company, 2nd Infantry. He was promoted from Lance Corporal to Corporal on 11 December 1914.[5] Gluud and her mother continued to live in Copenhagen for some years, until joining the father in 1916.[6]
In early 1916, he was permitted to retire from the army to accept the position as chief clerk in the office of the adjudant general, National Guard of Hawaii. He had a reputation of being an efficient clerk.[7] He rose to the rank of Major in the National Guard.
The Hawaiian National Guard was mobilized into Federal service on 1 June 1918. Frederik A. Gluud retired from his position in the office of the adjudant general in order to join the mobilized troops.[8] He was given command of ‘I’ Company of the Kauai battalion.[9] He remained in the army until his discharge in November 1921.
School Years in Hawaii
In 1921, the family moved to the Island of Kauai. Her father took on a position as bookkeeper with the Koloa Sugar Company’s store,[10] while her mother worked as a teacher at the local school. Gluud herself was educated at the Kauai High School from c. 1921-1925.[11]
The family moved to the nearby town of Lihue c. 1925. The father worked as cashier in Lihue Store, a leading department store in Lihue, while her mother was a teacher at the Lihue School.[12]
Gluud took a very active part in the social life in the area as the numerous mentions of her name in the society columns in the local newspapers are proof of. During the early years in Honolulu, she is often mentioned when attending social gatherings with her parents and in 1924-25 when gathering with friends in Lihue.[13] Glued visited Denmark in late fall 1926 returning to New York from Copenhagen on 3 June 1926,[14] and arriving in Honolulu, Hawaii, from San Francisco on 29 June.[15]
The family returned to Honolulu in 1926. Gluud commenced arts and sciences studies at the University of Hawaii (class of 1930). She was a very active member of the university’s dramatic club from the start and participated in a number of plays in 1927-28. During her freshman year, she was also involved with the Reserve Officers' Training Corps at the university. In 1926, she was appointed Honorary Cadet Captain for the ROTC and sponsor of the Howitzer Company.[15] The course of her studies is not clear. She is not mentioned as member of the class of 1930 in the 1929 yearbook, where she would have been a junior. In 1930, she is listed as a member of the Junior Class of 1931. At this point her field of study is education. However, the is not listed in later yearbooks as having graduated.[17]
In this period her father was employed by the von Hamm-Young Company as bookkeeper, and the was later employed by the Alexander Young Hotel as purchasing agent. Her mother continued teaching, at this point at the Kaahumanu School in Honolulu.[18] In addition to his civil career, in 1929, her father was assigned to the 298th Infantry, Hawaii National Guard as guard instructor.[19]
Returning to Denmark
Her parents celebrated their the twenty-fifth anniversary of their marriage in late April 1930. They had planned to spend the anniversary in Denmark, originally, but had had to postpone this trip.[20] In May 1931, the family travelled to Denmark to visit family and friends for a few months.
In 1933, the family moved to Denmark to live indefinitely.[21] The background is not clear from the material, but they settled in an apartment in the area of Østerbro in Copenhagen.[22] Frederik A. Gluud died in Copenhagen on 7 February 1937.[23]
German troops crossed the Danish border on 9 April 1940 occupying the country. Gluud and her mother moved back to the United States shortly after. They arrive in New York on 16 May 1940 onboard the SS Roma having left Genoa on the 4th.[24] The documents do not show when they left Copenhagen, but they must have been in a hurry arranging the move, if it was not planned before the invasion.
House Mother and Servicewoman
Gluud was employed as assistant matron at the New York Training School for Girls (NYSTS) on 31 December 1940. Six months later, on 1 July 1941, she became an assistant housemother. NYSTS was a reformatory school, where teenage girls, between the ages of 12 and 16, who were convicted of any form of juvenile delinquency in New York state were sent. Her mother was employed at the school as well. One source status that Gluud left on 1 November 1941,[25] while another states that she was emplyed there as late as 1944. She was then employed as a house mother at the Florence Crittenton Home and Hospital in Brighton, Massachusetts, which provided shelter and moral guidance to poor and unwed mothers.[26]
Gluud enlisted as a Private in the Women’s Army Corps in Boston, Massachusetts, on 16 February 1945. Her civil occupation was recorded as social and welfare worker.[27] There is no specific information available on her service, but se served for more than 20 years and was discharged as Sergeant First Class at Fort Hood, near Killeen, Texas, on 11 December 1965.[28]
Gluud died in Killeen, Texas, where she had lived since 1960, on 19 July 1978.[29]
Endnotes
[1] DNA: Parish register, Frederiksberg sogn.
[2] Glud, A. (2008). Gluud: Garverfamilier i København, p. 89-90.
[3] Firma-Anmeldelse, Den til Forsendelse med de Kongelige Brevposter privilegerede Berlingske Politiske og Avertissementstidende (1833-1935), 11 May 1911, p. 6.
[4] Mr. and Mrs. Gluud Celebate Silver Wedding Anniversary, The Honolulu Advertiser, 4 May 1930, p. 19.
[5] For Shafter Notes, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 14 Dec 1914, p. 14.
[6] Ancestry: New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957.
[7] Regular Army Man Made Guard Clerk, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 7 Jan 1916, p. 3.
[8] Armory Busy Scene: Militiamen Respond, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 1 Jun 1918, p. 3.
[9] Nearly Half of Second Regiment Is Here, The Honolulu Advertiser, 10 Jun 1918, p. 6.
[10] New Arrivals at Koloa, The Garden Island, 11 Jan 1921, p. 1.
[11] Kauai High Honor Roll, The Garden Island, 5 Dec 1922, p. 7. The exact years are not known, but she was included in the honor roll as sophomore in November 1922.
[12] Ancestry: U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995.
[13] A search in the digitized version of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin for ‘Grete Gluud’ returns 115 hits (30 from the 1910s, 81 from the 1920s, and 4 from the 1930s).
[14] Ancestry: New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957.
[15] Ancestry: Honolulu, Hawaii, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1900-1959.
[16] University Will Welcome Traveling Students With Reception at Cooke Field, The Honolulu Advertiser, 20 Oct 1926, p 7.
[17] Ka Palapala 1927, 1929, 1930, 1931.
[18] Ancestry: U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995.
[19] Major Gluud to be a Guard Instructor, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 11 May 1929, p. 20.
[20] Mr. and Mrs. Gluud Celebate Silver Wedding Anniversary, The Honolulu Advertiser, 4 May 1930, p. 19.
[21] The exact date if not known, but is believed to have been before April 1933 as the local newspaper the Honolulu Advertiser on 26 April 1933 has a note on unclaimed mail at the post office for F. A. Gluud.
[22] Kraks Vejviser, 1934-40.
[23] Copenhagen Municipal Archive: Begravelsesprotokoller 1936-1937 (lb.nr.: 4485-9459) p. 454.
[24] Ancestry: New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957.
[25] Ancestry: New York, State Employment Cards and Peddlers' Licenses, 1840-1966.
[26] Ancestry: U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995.
[27] Ancestry: U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946.
[28] Ancestry: U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010.
[29] Ancestry: U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014.