TWO teenagers struck a blow for women’s rights while still at school.

Clare Cockman and Megan Border, both 15, took on the might of the Royal Navy in 1988 – and won.

The girls were incensed when they heard that only boys were being invited on a planned school trip to the Portsmouth naval base.

Having learned about the importance of equal opportunity during lessons at John Mason School, Abingdon, they felt the Navy’s sex barrier was unacceptable.

So they wrote to the Royal Navy demanding an explanation.

The Navy sent its Oxford-based careers adviser to the school to explain that 96 per cent of recruits were male, and that only two or three girls from Oxfordshire joined the Women’s Royal Naval Service every year.

However, the girls’ letter was sent on to the Ministry of Defence, which then authorised a special ‘girls only’ visit to Portsmouth.

As a result, Megan and Clare, who both lived at Drayton, near Abingdon, and 18 fellow pupils were invited to spend a day at HMS Collingwood, the WRNS shore base at Portsmouth.

After lunch and a quick look at HMS Victory, Nelson’s flagship, they moved on to see the helicopter-carrying Leander class frigate, HMS Charybdis, which had recently returned from the Gulf, and were shown its Sea-Wolf and Exocet missile systems.

Megan said afterwards: “It was a really good day. We were a bit embarrassed being the only females at lunch with all the sailors, but we thoroughly enjoyed what we saw.

“The best thing, though, was to find out that if you are unhappy about something and make your feelings known, even a big organisation like the Navy is willing to listen to you and do something about it.”

A Navy spokesman confirmed that this had been the only girls’ visit among the many organised that year.

He said: “We were delighted to do it. We were very pleased to respond to the girls’ interest.”