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Tom Tulloch-Marshall |
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Tom Tulloch-Marshall |
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Women's Services During The Great War |
Although the number of women who saw service in the British Forces (and ancilliary units) during World War One is extremely small in comparison to the number of men who served, their contribution was very significant in many areas, especially in the various nursing and administrative units. Unfortunately service other than overseas in the zones of conflict (such as the Women's Land Army and as "Munitionettes") is very poorly documented, but then the records of men who served exclusively at home are equally "thin". The likely content of women's service records varies enormously, - for probably the most dramatic (and typical) example see the comparison between the Rating's and Officer's records in the WRNS section below.
Women serving overseas did of course qualify for service medals under exactly the same criteria as men in the Forces, so searches of the medal record office files should normally be the starting point if overseas service is suspected, - but it should be remembered that a very large proportion of the women who did see service did not go abroad so searches beyond the service medal records should always be considered. "Silver War Badge" discharges (wounds or sickness) apply to the women's services under the same criteria as the men's services (and cover both overseas and home service), and awards of the OBE, CBE, MBE, DBE, and Mentions in Despatches can also be verified from records other than the medal office files. Awards of the Military Medal to women in the services are included in the same records sources as for men.
Further searches, and the likely results, are detailed under the headings below, - just click on the relevant title.
Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing
Service
Women's Army Auxiliary Corps,
later Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps
Women's Royal Air Force
Women's Royal Naval Service
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Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service
The QAIMNS replaced the Army Nursing Service in 1902 as a result of the recommendations of Royal Commissions which had been set up to investigate reform of the medical services. At the outset nurses were not entitled to commissioned rank and it was not until 1926 that they were given equivelant rank. Commissions were finally introduced in 1941.
Surviving records for the QAIMNS include pension records for the period 1909 - 1928 and disability pensions for the Great War period. There are also records of professional qualifications and recommendations for appointment of Staff Nurses for the period 1903 - 1926. Amongst the most informative files are the service records for the Great War period; the following gives the salient points of a typical example:-
Staff Nurse Rachel Ferguson. Born 29/12/1886 at Ballygoney, Moneymore, Co Derry, Ireland. Educated at Ballygoney National School and Lady's School, Cookstown. Trained at The Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, 16/8/11 till 1914. Left 23/4/15, now a qualified Staff Nurse. Unmarried. Religeon, Presbeterian. Next of kin father, John S.Ferguson of Lanebrooke House, Ballygoney, a Farmer. Also had a brother William, same address. When asked to give the details of "one lady" to application for a reference could be made she nominated Mrs George Wison, The Manse, Ballygoney.
Notified of acceptance for service 10/9/15. Embarked Malta 3/6/16 and arrived Salonica 6/6/16 where she was posted to No 28 General Hospital. Admitted Red Cross Convalescent Home 15/6/17. Transfered to ship in harbour 29/6/17. Rejoined No 28 GH for duty 8/7/17. On the 9th of October 1917, with her contract due to expire on the 12th of November, she submitted an application to extend her service by six months "or until my services are no longer required, whichever should happen first." This application was accepted.
Embarked HM Transport "Abbassich" for Italy with No 62 General Hospital 7/11/17. Disembarked at Taranto 15/11/17. First qualifying overseas date 15/11/17. Theatre of War, Italy. Proceeded on 14 days leave 1/5/18. Rejoined No 62 General Hospital 25/5/18. Admitted No 62 General Hospital as a patient 26/6/18, suffering from broncio-pneumonia. Died later that day and was buried in Bordighera Cemetery, Italy. Died intestate. At the time of her death her father was 84 years old and her brother William was 38. Her personal effects were sent to father, these being listed as a wrist watch and strap "(damaged)", a penknife "(?gold)", Reserve badge ribbon and broach, pendant, silver pencil case, scarf pin, one small coin and two broaches. Medal entitlement, British War Medal and the Victory Medal. Nurse Ferguson's father died on the 17th of November 1919 and brother William took over as executor of her estate.
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Women's
Army Auxiliary Corps
later,
Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps
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The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps was formed during March 1917 and was renamed Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps during April the following year. Service with these units could be both at home or overseas. Quite a lot of "ancilliary" information about the Corps is available at the PRO; for example policy regarding recruitment and organisation, status, discipline, accomodation, uniforms, transfer of members to the WRNS and WRAF, and pay and conditions of service. There is also some limited "War Diary" material for the WAAC which records daily arrivals, departures, promotions, inspections, and discipliniary matters. There are also some surviving medical records for women who served with these units. |
The situation with regard to service records is, unfortunately, not too good. Severe damage was inflicted on the record storage facility during a bombing raid in September 1940 and only about 9,000 sets of records survived. Content varies quite considerably but the example which follows is fairly typical of what you can expect to find. (I have resisted the temptation to use as an example the files of Miss Dorothy J------ who was discharged as "unsuitable" during August 1919, - her office "gymnastics" having been particularly frowned upon, especially her enthusiasm for handstands ! - and then there was the occasion when she ......).
Maude Violet Jameson. Born 12th April 1896 at Odiham, Hampshire. Her father (name not given) was a doctor. Educated at Nightingale Hall, Wellington Place, Dublin. Enroled as Member 47860 on the 19th of August 1918 as a Category 4 General Clerk. Height 5 ft 4 inches and weight 147 pounds, she was described as being of "medium" build. "Chest" measurements were 331/4 inches and 36 inches expanded. Had regular periods which did not affect her work. Grey eyes and brown hair. At the time of enlistment her permanent address was the Royal Nursing Institution, Derby, where she was employed as a clerk / secretary. Next of kin was her mother, of 7 Brighton Road, Rathgar, Dublin. Maude was single with no dependants, and she declared herself willing to serve at home or overseas.
Posted to Folkstone 5th October 1918 and embarked from there for Boulogne on the 23rd, traveling on the same day to join the Base Pool at Camiers. She was then posted to Calais on the 26th of October, transfered to Arques on the 6th of December, and back to the Base Depot at Camiers on the 10th of January 1919. Two days later she was posted to Boulogne where she was granted fourteen days home leave on the 24th of April. Maude wrote to the War Office on the 27th of April (giving as her address "The Glebe", Stratford-on-Slanty, County Wicklow) and asked for an extension to her leave as it had taken her so long to reach Ireland. This request was refused and she returned to France as originally planned.
Granted "French leave" from the 8th till 11th of August 1919, and then fourteen days home leave from the 24th of September (this noted as being from Wimmereux). Transfered to Base Depot on the 25th of November 1919 and then on to The Connaught Club (London HQ) on the 27th. Discharged "termination of engagement" (a normal discharge) 26th December 1919.
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The Women's Royal Air Force was formed on the 1st of April 1918.
An "official history" which deals with administration of the service, daily
routines, discipline, and schemes for demobilisation of the women exists
at the PRO, this document giving a good deal of background information regarding
the service.
Service records for Airwomen are not really too informative, and as far as is known no service records for WRAF Officers are known to survive. There appears to have been a considerable amount of cross-transfer from the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps to the WRAF, and when this happened it seems to have been the norm to transfer the WAAC paperwork to the WRAF files, however for the sake of clarity I have not used one of those examples here. |
Sub-Section Leader 25333 Janet Nelson enrolled on the 30th of July 1918 at Warrington, opting to be a "Mobile Member" a opossed to an "imobile", - this meant that she was prepared to be posted rather than be employed only in her home area. She had previously been employed as an assistant waitress and her Air Force trade was "Cook". Religeon was declared as Church of Scotland, she was 35 years old, 5 ft tall, medium build with grey eyes and dark brown hair.
On the 13th of August 1918 she was posted for duty to Hansworth College in Birmingham, and then on the 17th she was posted on to work at the Cadet Brigade in Hastings. On the 14th of March 1919 she was granted sick-leave from No 8 Cadet Wing "pending discharge", but this seems not to have happened and she is shown as posted to No 2 Wing at Shorncliffe on the 15th of April, another note showing that there was paid sick-leave from March 14th until April 25th. Janet was finally discharged at Blandford on the 20th of April 1920 with her personal assesment showing her work to have been "most satisfactory" and her personal character "very good". The record is sadly lacking in personal detail such as home address, next of kin, etc., which is not at all unusual for the records of women without previous WAAC service.
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The Women's Royal Naval Service was formed during
November 1917, and original (and comprehensive) records of the formation,
organisation, administration and management of the service are held at the
PRO.
Records of the women who served are split into those for Ratings and those for Officers, the latter being far more comprehensive and informative than the former. As is usual for "service records", the content of the files varies enormously; the two examples which follow being fairly typical examples, though in the case of the Officer I have only given the salient points - there was a lot of subsidiary paperwork in the file. |
Rating Mabel Annie Young enroled as a "Mobile" on the 17th of June 1918, aged 24 years (as oposed to an "Immobile" she was prepared to be posted away from home). She was employed as a Motor Mechanic with the London Division until the 4th of August 1918 when she transfered to "Victory" as a Depth Charge Worker, moving to "Research" on the 26th of that month with the same job description. Mabel was discharged on the 30th of June 1919 with a character assesment of "very good" and her ability noted as "satisfactory". Next of kin was her mother (unnamed) of 19 Stanhope Road, Buckland, Dover, the inference being that this was also Mabel's home address, though this is not clearly stated.
Gladys Bruce first wrote to the WRNS expressing interest in an Officer's appointment on the 30th of January 1918. She was 25 years old, was employed as a gymnastics instructor at Harrogate College for girls, and was living at "Rylstone", Clarence Drive, Harrogate. The WRNS replied to her letter on February 1st, sending her some general information about the service together with the relevant application forms. Gladys returned these forms on February 10th together with details of two referees.
She was interviewed in London on Saturday March 23rd and was notified of acceptance for probationary training on April 1st, being summoned to attend the next scheduled intake on April 20th. Following two weeks preliminary training at the Officers Training Depot at "Ashurst", 73 Crystal Palace Park Road, Sydenham, she was "boarded" and accepted to complete a further weeks' training before appointment. During the training period Mabel was paid at the rate of £120 per annum and was given quarters, with 15 shillings and sixpence being deducted weekly to cover her board (so her disposable income was just over 30 shillings per week, considerably more than a "Tommy" in the front line was being paid !).
Gladys completed her training satisfactoraly and was notified that she was to be appointed Assistant Principle at the Felikstowe Base on the 15th of May 1918, however this placement was subsequently cancelled and she took up the same position at Great Yarmouth on Thursday the 16th of May. Her joining instructions were precise to the point of telling her that she should catch the 9:35am train from Waterloo Station, and that on arrival in Yarmouth she was to report herself to the District Office of His Majesty's Coastguard. Her pay and deductions on appointment remained as before, excepting that she would now have a £20 uniform allowance. A covering letter from the Director of the WRNS (it's a "standard" letter) encloses a copy of a book called "Our Beloved Captain" which is going to explain the service to her, and "gushes" (no other word is appropriate) about how good the service is. Gladys replied to this letter on the 18th of May, in equally gushing terms, but points out that there is now a good chance that she will be transfering to the WRAF as the Yarmoth Base is to be taken over by them.
On the 17th of July 1918 a Mrs Cane, Assistant Director of Personel for the WRNS and based at Great Stanhope Street, London W1, writes a glowing inspection report about Gladys, saying variously that she is "a nice little Officer", and later "she is a nice type", but then going on to say that during her conversations with her she has had very much the impresion that Gladys is unhappy with the amount of office work that she is doing and that she would much rather be involved with physical training in the service.
A report dated the 1st of November from the Director of the WRNS to Mrs Cane is highly complimentary about Gladys but notes that a Miss French, who is Gladys's immediate principle, has reported to the Director that Gladys has apparently become engaged to an Officer at Yarmouth and "her people dont approve".
There seems, in the meantime, to have been considerable effort to resolve the job situation and on the 7th of November 1918 Mrs Cane writes to Gladys and tells her that a substitute for her position at Yarmouth has been found. This replacement Officer should arrive in two or three days and Gladys is then to work with her for a week before coming up to the Active Service Club in London so that she can spend two weeks at the Crystal Palace Naval Depot practicing drill, after which she will be asigned to a Division where she will be appointed "instructor for the whole division". There is a contemporary personel report about Gladys in the file, this speaking of her in most glowing terms.
All this comes to nothing however as a memo on the 13th of November notifies that as few transfers as possible are to be made in the service until "the likely course of events becomes clear" (in other words what is going to happen now there is an armistice), and Gladys's move is put on hold. By the end of November Gladys has gone down with influenza and has been admitted to the Yarmouth Base Hospital, notes on file adding that as Yarmouth is to be taken over by the Air Force Gladys is to be transfered to them. The situation regarding WRAF Officer's records (which would be appropriate to Gladys from this point on) is explaned in the WRAF section of this page.
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