20th+: volunteers

WVS > .

1938-5-16 Women's Voluntary Services (WVS) from 1938 to 1966 ⇒ Women's Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS) from 1966 to 2004 ⇒ WRVS from 2004 to 2013 ⇒ Royal Voluntary Service.

On 16 May 1938, the British government set out the objectives of the Women's Voluntary Service for Civil Defence or Women’s Voluntary Services for Air Raid Precautions:

It was seen “as the enrolment of women for Air Raid Precaution Services of Local Authorities, to help to bring home to every household what air attack may mean, and to make known to every household [in the country] what it can do to protect itself and the community.”

In the words of Home Secretary Sir Samuel Hoare, "as regards their civil defence functions, the Minister regards the Women's Voluntary Service as occupying ... much the same relationship as that of the women's auxiliary services for the armed forces of the Crown."

Hidden army - WVS .
Hidden army video - WVS .

The Women's Voluntary Services was founded in 1938 by Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading, as a British women's organisation to recruit women into the Air Raid Precautions (ARP) services to help in the event of War.

The WVS/WRVS was a voluntary organisation, and it was Lady Reading's vision that there would be no ranks. It was perhaps the only organisation where you could find a Duchess and a char lady working side by side. While many members of the WVS mucked in on pretty much all tasks, the idea of an organisation without a hierarchy would not have worked and so while there were no ranks, there were titles. Women were recruited for specific tasks, whether that was to drive ambulances, to be a member of a knitting work party or collect National Savings. Inevitably those women who signed up for one thing often ended up being co-opted for other work, especially if they showed aptitude.

The WVS was split into 12 Regions (using the same boundaries as Civil Defence) which started with 1 in the NE of England and moved clockwise down the country and back up. London was Region 12 and Scotland Region 11. Each Region had a Regional Administrator who was paid for by the Home Office. Under this each County had a County Organiser and 'staff' and below that were the Centres. During and after the Second World War, there were almost 2,000 WVS centres around Great Britain (as well as Northern Ireland during the war) each at the sharp end of providing help to their communities. Each was prominently positioned within a town or village and was run by a Centre Organiser appointed by Headquarters in London. Each Centre Organiser had a team of members who were responsible for different aspect of WVS work e.g. evacuation, Training, Food or Clothing. Under their direction were the 'ordinary' members.

The WVS played a key part in the evacuation of civilians from urban areas. The WVS had been asked to pinpoint areas of safety and billeting for evacuated children. Moving children out of the cities proved reasonably easy. Getting them to a known area of safety proved a lot more difficult as trains did not always arrive at an expected destination or would turn up at a reception point unexpectedly. The WVS is credited with helping to move 1.5 million people (the majority were children) out of cities in the early days of September 1939.

The WVS also played a major role in the collection of clothing required for the needy. In October 1939, Lady Reading broadcast to the United States about the need for clothing in the UK. The broadcast led to large quantities of clothing (known as "Bundles for Britain") being sent over to the United Kingdom by the American Red Cross. These were distributed from WVS Emergency Clothing Stores.

When troops returned to ports after the evacuation at Dunkirk, members of the WVS were there to greet them and hand out food, drink and warm clothing. The WVS base at the railway station in Headcorn, Kent was an especially busy place for feeding returning soldiers before they dispersed—a spit was installed so that meat could be roasted there and then. The WVS also played a vital part during the Blitz of London and other cities.

By the time of the Blitz, women in the WVS were adept at providing food and drink around the clock. While ARP wardens and firemen fought the fires, women in the WVS set up mobile canteens to keep them refreshed, thus placing themselves in serious physical danger with collapsing buildings a constant threat. When the raids ended, the WVS also played a part in looking after those who were injured and had lost their homes. Records indicate that the WVS dealt with and helped over 10,000 people every night of the Blitz.

As the Blitz lasted for 57 nights, the WVS helped in total a vast number of people who went to their rest centres. Some people stayed just for a night—many stayed for much longer and stretched the resources of the WVS to the limit. In Barnes, one WVS member fed 1,200 bomb victims in just one day, cooking in her own kitchen.

It would be difficult to overstate the importance of the work done by the WVS during the Blitz: the rest centres provided shelter, food, and importantly, sanitation. But working so near to the centre of the bombing inevitably led to casualties. 241 members of the WVS were killed during the Blitz and many more were wounded. 25 WVS offices were destroyed.

The WVS began running IIPs (Incident Inquiry Points), places where people came to find out about their loved ones who were in an area that had been bombed in order to free the ARP to work with the fire brigade. The WVS also helped with the Queen's Messenger Food Convoys which took food to areas in need after a bombing raid. The people who survived the bombing of Coventry received help from one of the convoys with 14,000 meals being served.

By 1941, one million women belonged to the WVS. Their work did not slacken after the end of the Luftwaffe's bombing raids. The Battle of the Atlantic and the devastating toll of merchant ships sunk by U-boats led to shortages in Great Britain. The WVS did all that it could to assist in the collection of required material for the war effort and also to educate people not to waste what they had.

Each WVS centre had its own Salvage Officer and Food Leader. The Food Leader did whatever was required at a local level to assist the authorities in the complicated task of food rationing. Educational pamphlets were produced and lectures held. The WVS organised campaigns such as 'Salute the Soldier', 'Wings for Victory', 'Spitfire Funds' and Warship Week.

In the buildup to D-Day, the expertise the WVS had in catering was put to use again. The skills learned during the Blitz were again put to good use when the V1 and V2 rockets fell on London. Once again, the WVS played a key role in evacuation. With the success of D-Day, the WVS moved into Europe to support troops there. The first WVS abroad had landed in Italy with the success of the invasion there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Voluntary_Service .

Women's Voluntary Service: 'The army Hitler forgot' .
https://www.royalvoluntaryservice.org.uk/about-us/our-history .
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1419318354/hidden-histories-of-a-million-wartime-women .
https://www.royalvoluntaryservice.org.uk/about-us/our-history/timeline-list .
https://www.mylearning.org/stories/women-at-war-the-role-of-women-during-ww2/480 .
https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/categories/c54954/ .
http://www.caringonthehomefront.org.uk/search-the-library/volunteering/ .
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a6651894.shtml .
https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/71/a3384371.shtml .

44-12-3 Home Guard Stands Down ..
Voluntary Organisations ..
Women's Institute ..
Women's Voluntary Service ..

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Denman - Trudie, Baroness Denman

Trudie, Baroness Denman

Gertrude Mary Denman, Baroness Denman, GBE (née Pearson; 7 November 1884 – 2 June 1954), sometimes known as Trudie, was a British woman active in women's rights issues including the promotion of Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom. She was also the wife of the 3rd Baron Denman, fifth Governor-General of Australia, and she officially named Australia's capital city Canberra in 1913 >.

In 1933 Lady Denman was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE). She was advanced to Dame Grand Cross (GBE) in 1951. These entitled her to be known as Dame Gertrude Denman; however, as the wife of a peer, her existing title Lady Denman subsumed this.

During World War II she was Director of the Women's Land Army and Charmain of the Women's Institute.

She was the second child, and only daughter, of Weetman and Annie Pearson (later Viscount and Vicountess Cowdray). Her father was a successful businessman, initially in engineering, and later in the development of oilfields in Mexico, the production of munitions for the First World War, building the Sennar Dam on the River Nile, as well as coal mining and newspaper publishing. Weetman was a staunch Liberal who supported causes such as free trade, Irish Home Rule and women's suffrage. Trudie's mother, Annie Pearson (née Cass) was the daughter of a farmer from Bradford, Yorkshire. A woman of strong character, Annie Pearson was a feminist who was an active member of the executive of the Women's Liberal Federation.

At the age of sixteen, Trudie completed her formal education at a finishing school in Dresden.

1939-45 [Australia at War - Women's Status Changes] - Free > .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Denman,_Baroness_Denman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balcombe_Place
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balcombe_Place#Cowdray_Estate

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/95/a5825595.shtml
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world-war-two/world-war-two-in-western-europe/britains-home-front-in-world-war-two/the-womens-land-army/

http://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/9554523.pdf .

Saturday, June 22, 2019

George Medal - Charity Anne Bick GM

Charity Anne Bick GM (1926 – 22 April 2002) served as a civilian dispatch rider during the Second World War, and became the youngest ever recipient of the George Medal, the United Kingdom's second-highest award for civilian bravery. She later served in the Women's Royal Air Force.

Charity Bick - Wikipedia

Thursday, June 20, 2019

Isaacs, Stella - Marchioness of Reading, Lady Reading

Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading, Baroness Swanborough, GBE (6 January 1894 - 22 May 1971), née Stella Charnaud, was an English philanthropist who is best remembered as the founder and chairman of the Women's Voluntary Service for Civil Defence, or Women's Voluntary Service (WVS), now known as Royal Voluntary Service.

As Lady Reading, she was highly active in promoting Anglo-American relations, not only as the wife of a former British Ambassador to the US, but also in her peacetime role helping to rebuild the British economy and find stimulating employment for women – both voluntary and paid. In addition to the WVS, she also established Women's Home Industries, a highly successful exponent of British craft and cultural traditions in clothing and textiles, and also a prolific exporter to the United States and Canada.

After the December '35 death of her husband, Rufus Daniel Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading, Stella Isaacs was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1941, promoted to Dame Grand Cross (GBE) in 1944, and then in 1958 made a life peeress as Baroness Swanborough, of Swanborough in the County of Sussex.

She served on boards of various cultural bodies, including the BBC Advisory Board and Glyndebourne (opera house), and was a keen early supporter of University of Sussex. In 1958, she became the first woman to take a seat in the House of Lords in her own right. A 1963 profile in The Observer said: "the W.V.S. has brought out in her the latent political talent and the strength of character that once induced someone to say of her that had she been a man she would have become Prime Minister".

Monday, December 17, 2018

Leonidas Squadron - German Kamikazes

German Kamikazes - The Leonidas Squadron > .

Leonidas Squadron: Germany's version of the infamous Japanese Kamikazes.

Kamikazes ..

Saturday, October 6, 2018

WLA - Women's Land Army

WLA, PoWs - Townies who rebuilt the countryside - Farming Explained > .

Girls Armed With Pitchforks - The Women’s Land Army - Homefront WW2 > .

Australian Land Army girls who 'quietly' fed the nation | Landline | ABC > .

Agricultural Revolution to WW2 - Γαῖα >> .

History of Farming - Farming Explained >> .

How Farming Works - Farming Explained >> .

Rural Culture - Farming Explained >> .

Science of the Countryside - Farming Explained >> .

Women's Land Army .

Women's Land Army June 1939 - 1950
The Women's Land Army (WLA) was established in World War One, but was re-founded shortly before the outbreak of World War Two, in June 1939, to provide extra agricultural labour. The government feared that if war broke out there would be food shortages. Britain, then as now, relied heavily on imported food, and it was thought that imports would be threatened by anticipated German blockades. In addition, many male farm workers were expected to join up, leaving a shortage of labour. The government was also keen to increase food production by reclaiming pasture and unused land for growing crops.

Women were initially asked to volunteer for the WLA. However, in December 1941 the government passed the National Service Act, which allowed the conscription of women into the armed forces or for vital war work. At first only single women between 20 and 30, and widows without children, were called up, but later the age limit was expanded to include women between 19 and 43. Women could choose whether to enter the armed forces or work in farming or industry. By 1943, more than 80,000 women were working in the Land Army. They were nicknamed Land Girls.

The Land Girls did a wide range of jobs, including milking cows, lambing, managing poultry, ploughing, gathering crops, digging ditches, catching rats and carrying out farm maintenance work. Some 6,000 women worked in the Timber Corps, chopping down trees and running sawmills.

All of these women worked long hours, especially during the summer, mostly outdoors and often in cold and rain. There was minimal training and most women were expected to learn about agricultural work while they were actually doing it. The Land Girls lived either on the farms where they worked, or in hostels.

They came from a wide variety of backgrounds, with more than one third from London and other large cities. Some were homesick, and many farmers were initially sceptical about employing young women on their farms, but people soon came to realise how useful most of them were.

Initially, Land Girls earned £1.85 for a minimum of 50 hours work a week. In 1944, wages were increased by £1 to £2.85. However, as the wages were paid by the farmer, rather than directly by the state, it was difficult to ensure that everyone was paid properly.

There was a Land Army uniform of green jumpers, brown breeches or dungarees, brown felt hats and khaki overcoats. As the Land Army was not a military force, however, uniform was not compulsory. The WLA badge depicted a wheat sheaf as a symbol of their agricultural work. There was also an official magazine The Land Girl, and a special song:

Back to the Land, we must all lend a hand,
To the farms and the fields we must go,
There's a job to be done,
Though we can't fire a gun,
We can still do our bit with the hoe.

The WLA came under the control of the Ministry of Agriculture, but its head was the formidable Lady Denman. Married to the former Governor General of Australia, Lady Denman was a leading figure in the Women's Institute movement, and also had a close interest in rural affairs. Her home, Balcombe Place in Sussex, became the WLA headquarters. Each district had its own WLA representative, who was expected to ensure the Land Girls were being treated well and were working effectively.

The Land Army was disbanded in 1950. Although the work was hard, conditions were often bad and the pay was low, many women enjoyed the experience, and formed lifelong friendships with fellow Land Girls.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a6652055.shtml .

Women joining the Women's Land Army were issues a simple uniform consisting of 2 green sweaters, 2 pairs of brown breeches (either twill or corduroy), 1 pair of brown overalls, 6 pairs of brown long woolen socks, 3 shirts, a green tie, a pair of shoes, a pair of ankle boots, a pair of tall boots, 2 overcoats, 1 raincoat, and a brown floppy hat or beret.
http://raleighvintage.blogspot.ca/2012/03/1940s-land-girls-uniform.html

http://www.womenslandarmy.co.uk/world-war-two/
http://www.womenslandarmy.co.uk/world-war-two/recruitment-joining-up/uniform/

The general opinion held that land girls wore too much in the winter and too little in the summer! My uniform consisted of cordrouy breeched, strong brown leather shoes, long woollen socks, fawn cotton aertex T shirts, fine cotton long sleeved fawn shirts and a tap tie band at the waist, fawn felt hat with a Women's Land Army Badge, dark green tie with WLA letters and a dark green woollen jumper. One pair gumboots, two overall coats in light khaki and one long dark green oilskin. The servicemens requirements came first without a question.
Reality hit me the first morning when we were told to meet a lorry at 6.30am in the village. it was dark, very dark. I felt cold and tired. I was convinced the village clocks had been tampered with. I had to break the ice in the water jug before washing. My oilskin crackled. It smelled of disinfectant. I wore umpteen layers of everything I could lay my hands on. I could hardly walk.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/55/a2891955.shtml

http://www.womenslandarmy.co.uk/world-war-two/farmwork/animal-and-diary-farming/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/categories/c1171/

timeliine
http://www.womenslandarmy.co.uk/world-war-two/

This quotation from Lady Denman, the Director of the Women’s Land Army, sums up the importance of the Land Girls during World War Two. For many girls, the ‘phoney war’ was all too soon becoming a reality as they had the opportunity to do ‘their bit’ and enrol for the Women’s Land Army. Please see below a timeline of key events for the WW2 Women’s Land Army.

'38-'45 WLA

1938: Lady Denman is approached by the Ministry of Agriculture to re-form the Women’s Land Army. She begins go make plans in terms of national organisation and recruitment, but there are delays in taking these proposals forward.

25th January 1939: A National Service handbook lists the ‘Women’s Land Army’ as one of the civilian organisations which women could volunteer to join in the event of war.

1st June 1939: The Women’s Land Army is re-formed, with Lady Gertrude Denman as Honorary Director. Recruitment begins for Land Girls in earnest. Wages were set as follows: 28 shillings (£1.40) weekly pay (10 shillings less than the average farm wage at that time) for a 50 hour week (48 in winter). Half of that (70p) to pay for food and accommodation.

29th August 1939: Lady Denman sets up the Women’s Land Army headquarters at her home, Balcombe Place, Hayward Heath, West Sussex.

1st September 1939: Germany invades Poland.

3rd September 1939: War is declared on Germany by Britain, the British Empire and France.

December 1939: 4,500 Land Girls working on the land.

January 1940: Food rationing begins in Britain.

April 1940: The Land Girl, a monthly magazine, is published by the Women’s Land Army, with Margaret Pyke as its editor.

June 1940: 6,000 Land Girls working on the land.

March 1941: ‘The Land Girl’ launches a national appeal for members to recruit other new volunteers. New minimum wage from 1st March 1941: 32 shillings (£1.60) (for up to 48 hours a week) for a Land Girl billeted off the form, 16 shillings (80p) for a Land Girl billeted on the farm (plus free board and lodging), plus overtime pay.

May 1941: All British women aged between 19-40 have to register at labour exchanges for war work.

June 1941: 14,000 Land Girls working on the land.

July 1941: HM Queen Elizabeth agreed to become Patron of the Women’s Land Army.

September 1941: ‘In the Event of Invasion’, Land Girls are encouraged to stick to their jobs, but ‘The Land Girl’ issues advice on how to disable tractors if in real danger of capture by the enemy.

December 1941: Churchill’s wartime government passes National Service Act (No.2), allowing for the conscription of women.

29th December 1941: Minimum wages increased to 38 shillings for 48 hour week (or 18 shillings with free bed and board).

April 1942: The Women’s Timber Corps is formed in Britain. More than 4,000 Lumber Jill’s are employed in forestry throughout the war. They were employed by the Home Timber Production Department of the Ministry of Supply.

20th April 1942: Miss Clemence Dane, in a BBC radio broadcast, refers to the Women’s Land Army as the ‘Cinderella Service’, in the notion that it is taken for granted and its importance being overlooked. This is the first time the Women’s Land Army is referred to as the ‘Cinderella Service’.

June 1942: 40,000 Land Girls working on the land. The Land Army Benevolent Fund is started by Lady Denman to provide financial assistance to Land Girls who suffered illness or accident as a result of their work.

3rd July 1942: Queen Elizabeth hosts a 3rd birthday party for the Women’s Land Army.

February 1943: 53,500 Land Girls working on the land.

June 1943: 65,000 Land Girls working on the land – producing 70% of Britain’s food.

August 1943: Recruitment to the Women’s Land Army is stopped by a decision of the War Cabinet (more workers were needed in the aircraft production industry).

29th August 1943: BBC Women’s Land Army broadcast referred to the uniform rationing clothing coupon arrangements, Women’s Land Army correspondence courses in agriculture and horticulture and Proficiency Tests begin.

December 1943: 80,000 Land Girls working on the land.

3rd January 1944: Recruitment to the Women’s Land Army re-opens.

May 1944: Women’s Land Army headquarters moves back to London, but returns to Sussex after doodlebug attacks begin.

July 1944: First complete series of Proficiency Tests had been completed.

January 1945: Special consideration given to Land Girls who had been in the Land Army for 3 or more years who want to transfer to their home counties.

16th February 1945: Lady Denman resigns as director of the Women’s Land Army over the decision to exclude members of the Land Girls from post-war financial benefits.

8th May 1945: VE Day – end of war in Europe.

Uniform » Women's Land

Farm, Timber, WLA, WTC - tb >> .

Getting Dressed - Women's Land Army > .

Wartime Farm >> .

WLA - Interviews with Land Girls >> .

wla/ww2 >> .

WLA >> .

WLA - tree nursery
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19drarcvHAg

WW1 Women's Land Army and Women's Farm and Garden Union
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vZpDfdV4fc

Glamour On The Farm (1946) - British Pathé
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z9gKclLEyo .

http://www.womenslandarmy.co.uk/world-war-two/

Friday, July 6, 2018

WLA - Timeline

'38-'45 WLA

1938: Lady Denman is approached by the Ministry of Agriculture to re-form the Women's Land Army (WLA). She begins go make plans in terms of national organisation and recruitment, but there are delays in taking these proposals forward.

25th January 1939: A National Service handbook lists the ‘Women’s Land Army’ as one of the civilian organisations which women could volunteer to join in the event of war.

1st June 1939: The Women’s Land Army is re-formed, with Lady Gertrude Denman as Honorary Director. Recruitment begins for Land Girls in earnest. Wages were set as follows: 28 shillings (£1.40) weekly pay (10 shillings less than the average farm wage at that time) for a 50 hour week (48 in winter). Half of that (70p) to pay for food and accommodation.

29th August 1939: Lady Denman sets up the Women’s Land Army headquarters at her home, Balcombe Place, Hayward Heath, West Sussex.

1st September 1939: Germany invades Poland.

3rd September 1939: War is declared on Germany by Britain, the British Empire and France.

December 1939: 4,500 Land Girls working on the land.

January 1940: Food rationing begins in Britain.

April 1940: The Land Girl, a monthly magazine, is published by the Women’s Land Army, with Margaret Pyke as its editor.

June 1940: 6,000 Land Girls working on the land.

March 1941: ‘The Land Girl’ launches a national appeal for members to recruit other new volunteers. New minimum wage from 1st March 1941: 32 shillings (£1.60) (for up to 48 hours a week) for a Land Girl billeted off the form, 16 shillings (80p) for a Land Girl billeted on the farm (plus free board and lodging), plus overtime pay.

May 1941: All British women aged between 19-40 have to register at labour exchanges for war work.

June 1941: 14,000 Land Girls working on the land.

July 1941: HM Queen Elizabeth agreed to become Patron of the Women’s Land Army.

September 1941: ‘In the Event of Invasion’, Land Girls are encouraged to stick to their jobs, but ‘The Land Girl’ issues advice on how to disable tractors if in real danger of capture by the enemy.

December 1941: Churchill’s wartime government passes National Service Act (No.2), allowing for the conscription of women.

29th December 1941: Minimum wages increased to 38 shillings for 48 hour week (or 18 shillings with free bed and board).

April 1942: The Women’s Timber Corps is formed in Britain. More than 4,000 Lumber Jills are employed in forestry throughout the war. They were employed by the Home Timber Production Department of the Ministry of Supply.

20th April 1942: Miss Clemence Dane, in a BBC radio broadcast, refers to the Women’s Land Army as the ‘Cinderella Service’, in the notion that it is taken for granted and its importance being overlooked. This is the first time the Women’s Land Army is referred to as the ‘Cinderella Service’.

June 1942: 40,000 Land Girls working on the land. The Land Army Benevolent Fund is started by Lady Denman to provide financial assistance to Land Girls who suffered illness or accident as a result of their work.

3rd July 1942: Queen Elizabeth hosts a 3rd birthday party for the Women’s Land Army.

February 1943: 53,500 Land Girls working on the land.

June 1943: 65,000 Land Girls working on the land – producing 70% of Britain’s food.

August 1943: Recruitment to the Women’s Land Army is stopped by a decision of the War Cabinet (more workers were needed in the aircraft production industry).

29th August 1943: BBC Women’s Land Army broadcast referred to the uniform rationing clothing coupon arrangements, Women’s Land Army correspondence courses in agriculture and horticulture and Proficiency Tests begin.

December 1943: 80,000 Land Girls working on the land.

3rd January 1944: Recruitment to the Women’s Land Army re-opens.

May 1944: Women’s Land Army headquarters moves back to London, but returns to Sussex after doodlebug attacks begin.

July 1944: First complete series of Proficiency Tests had been completed.

January 1945: Special consideration given to Land Girls who had been in the Land Army for 3 or more years who want to transfer to their home counties.

16th February 1945: Lady Denman resigns as director of the Women’s Land Army over the decision to exclude members of the Land Girls from post-war financial benefits.

8th May 1945: VE Day – end of war in Europe.

Friday, April 6, 2018

WI - Women's Institute

Canning Machine, WI > .

Cake Bakers & Trouble Makers > .

A Force to be Reckoned With: History of the Women's Institute > .

Women's Institute of 1940 | Wartime Farm - AbHi > .

Women's Institute (1950-1959) - Pathé > .

Harry & Edna on the Wireless ~ WW2 Women's Institute Reenactment > .

>> Homefront WW2 >>>

The Women's Institute (WI) is a community-based organisation for women in the United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand. The movement was founded in Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada, by Erland and Janet Lee with Adelaide Hoodless being the first speaker in 1897. It was based on the British concept of Women's Guilds, created by Rev Archibald Charteris in 1887 and originally confined to the Church of Scotland. From Canada the organisation spread back to the motherland, throughout the British Empire and Commonwealth, and thence to other countries. Many WIs belong to the Associated Country Women of the World organization.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Institutes .

The first WI in Britain was founded on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales in 1915. The idea for the WI came from Canada where the movement was formed in 1897 to help connect women in isolated rural areas.

By the outbreak of WW2 in 1939, the WI was a well-established pillar of rural life in Britain, with institutes in more than 5,500 villages. But its National Executive Committee initially struggled to decide whether the WI would be able to help with the war effort at all as they had taken a strong anti-war stance. The WI's Chairman, Lady Denman, realised that the WI's members would want to 'do their bit'. She suggested that the WI might be called upon to help with caring for evacuees and with rural food production.

These predictions proved correct. The WI made a significant contribution on the home front. In September 1939, over 1.5 million children, mothers and babies, elderly and disabled people were evacuated from Britain's major towns and cities to rural areas. As well as the evacuation of these vulnerable groups, many businesses and government departments also moved their staff to the countryside. Members of the WI in reception areas were active in billeting and receiving evacuees and helping to settle them into rural communities. WI members often organised activities such as country walks and tea parties to help keep evacuee children occupied and entertained. Early in 1939, members of the WI had also assisted those planning the Government's evacuation scheme by carrying out a survey of rural homes to find out how many households might be able to take evacuees. In 1941, they also published an influential report on their members' experiences of evacuation.

The National Savings Movement was a British mass savings movement that operated between 1916 and 1978 and was used to finance the deficit of government spending over tax revenues. The movement was instrumental during WW2 in raising funds to support the war effort. A War Savings Campaign was set up by the War Office to support the war effort. Local savings weeks were held which were promoted with posters with titles such as "Lend to Defend the Right to be Free", "Save your way to Victory" and "War Savings are Warships".

In January 1940, R M Kindersley, President of the National Savings Committee asked the WI to help raise the profile of the National Savings Campaign. Each branch was asked to display posters and distribute leaflets and to set up its own National Savings Scheme. Stotfold in Bedfordshire raised £8,190 (the equivalent of £283,000 today) in just two years.

The WI had run markets in rural areas since 1919 and in wartime, with food supplies scarce, these became an ever more valuable addition to rural towns and villages. WI markets sold surplus produce – mainly fruit and vegetables – from WI members, from smallholders and allotment holders. In a report on WI markets, the Ministry of Information concluded that they were 'business-like and practical examples of cooperative rural enterprise'. The WI also assisted the Women's Voluntary Service (WVS) distribute and sell pies to agricultural workers as part of the Rural District Pie Scheme.

After the fall of France in June 1940 it was no longer possible for Britain to import food from mainland Europe. This meant a drastic reduction in the availability of onions. The Ministry of Food tried to encourage commercial production in the UK but the first crop failed. People had to try to grow their own. The WI helped by organising the distribution of onion seeds and sets. The Oxfordshire WI harvested 13 tons in 1942. The National Federation of WIs also distributed tomato seeds and seed potatoes in large numbers and sold other seeds to their members at a preferential rate.

Oranges were scarce during the Second World War and, as they were an important source of Vitamin C, when available they were given as a priority to children over adults. But alternative sources of Vitamin C were needed. The WI and other voluntary organisations were asked to collect 500 tons of rosehips. These were used by pharmacists to make rosehip syrup which was very rich in Vitamin C. WI members in Oxfordshire also collected Foxgloves (Belladonna atropa) which were dried to make the drug digitalis, used for patients with heart conditions.

Making jam is probably one of the things that the WI is most famous for. But what is less well known is that during the Second World War, WI members made jam on an epic scale and made a significant contribution to Britain's food supplies. In 1939, realising that much of the fruit from the summer's bumper harvest might be wasted unless it were made into jam, WI's headquarters secured sugar supplies direct from the Ministry of Food. WIs across the country gathered in surplus fruit from gardens and allotments or growing wild. In their first wave of jam making, it is estimated that the WI saved 450 tons of fruit from rotting.

From 1940, the WI's jam making efforts escalated but came under increased supervision from the Ministry of Food. After the introduction of food rationing in January, there were restrictions on how and where jam could be sold. The supplies of sugar needed for jam making were tightly controlled and records had to be kept of all fruit preserved and sold. Preservation centres were set up in villages or near where fruit was harvested.

Some institutes were keen to look for new ways to preserve fruit and other produce and organised professional canning. This was a skill that had to be learnt and practised as faulty cans could explode. In August 1940, the Queen visited a WI canning centre at Hyde Heath in Buckinghamshire. Canning operations received a further boost when the American Federation of Business and Professional Women donated six mobile canning vans to the WI.

https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-did-the-womens-institute-do-during-the-second-world-war .

https://www.historyanswers.co.uk/history-of-war/gallipoli-myths-no-machine-guns-no-australians-the-forgotten-naval-campaign/ .

Saturday, October 28, 2017

A-Tish-Oo! (1941-2)

1941 A Tish Oo! > .

Better quality (without irritating tabs) - Internet Archive > .

A [February] 1941 British film about how coughs and sneezes spread diseases. Some masks that can be worn to help stop the spread of diseases are shown. Produced by Verity Films for the Ministry of Information.

Why Londoners in the blitz accepted face masks to prevent infection – unlike today’s ~~objectors~~ ojectionables .

"For the countless Londoners driven into communal shelters by nightly German air raids, personal space had become a luxury. This was particularly so for those who sought shelter in the London underground. For its perceived subterranean safety, by the blitz’s peak, some 150,000 citizens were sleeping in tube stations.

Though the dangers of close personal contact were not the only thing on the minds of concerned public health officials, preventing epidemic disease in the overcrowded spaces of the tube stations was a major concern. The mask emerged as a common-sense solution to the problem of thousands of shelterers suddenly using the tube’s damp, poorly ventilated spaces as their nightly abodes.

Eager to prevent an epidemic before it started, the Ministry of Health set up an advisory committee to investigate conditions in air-raid shelters, with special reference to health and hygiene. The official call for masks came in December 1940, two months into the blitz and just as flu season was getting underway, in a white paper that recommended their use alongside a raft of other preventive health measures. British scientists conscripted to the Medical Research Council’s Air Hygiene Unit were convinced: the “principle of wearing masks for protection against droplet infection” was a sound practice.

The Ministry of Health endorsed three types of mask: the standard gauze type (similar to today’s homemade masks); a cellophane screen (like today’s visors, but only covering the mouth and nose); and the commercially available “yashmak” (in the style of the Muslim veil), for the “fashion conscious”. The ministry ordered 500,000 masks to be distributed as needed in the event of an epidemic and commissioned an instructional leaflet for shelterers.

British newspapers publicised the government’s new policy. On February 5 1941, the Times reported that Sir William Jameson, the chief medical officer, had endorsed the new masks, and, more colourfully, Ritchie Calder, a journalist for the Daily Herald tried one out in public. “After ten minutes yesterday my anti-flu ‘windscreen’ ceased to be a source of ribald remarks,” he reported. “People round me became used to seeing me working in what looked like a transparent eye-shade which had slipped down my nose.”

Predicting that masks would become “as commonplace as horn-rim glasses”, Calder wrote that he could even blow his nose with his mask on. The only thing he couldn’t do “in comfort”, he reported, was “have a cigarette”.
Sharp contrast

A short propaganda film commissioned by the Ministry of Information and released in February 1941 also saw the mask message as self-evidently good sense. “If the shelter doctor or nurse gives you a mask,” the narrator exhorted, “well, wear it!”
.....
Despite protests to the contrary, the source of the COVID-19 mask controversy is not rooted in longstanding concerns about individual rights or British character. We need to look elsewhere to find its source: to the general breakdown in communication and trust between experts, the government and [wrong-wing] members of the public, that became a mainstay of contemporary life well after the blitz had passed and has been exacerbated by the pandemic."
https://theconversation.com/why-londoners-in-the-blitz-accepted-face-masks-to-prevent-infection-unlike-todays-objectors-142021 .

A-TISHOO! - 1960 - AP archive > .

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Dunkirk - Defeat to Miracle (BBC 40-6-5)

Dunkirk "Little Ships" beach evacuation > .
Miracle Of Dunkirk: Operation That Saved Britain | War Stories > .

Dunkirk - Strategic Overview > .

Dunkirk Evacuation - Megaprojects > .

Winston Churchill's War - BBC doc > .
Dunkirk - tb >> .
Dunkirk, Dynamo, Little Ships - anth >> .

Battle of France in 44 seconds > .
40-5-26 Dynamo begins > .

Goering's False Promise: Why Operation Sea Lion Failed | War Stories > .

Churchill vs Chamberlain: Road to Dunkirk ..

Dunkirk: how British newspapers helped to turn defeat into a miracle:

As the UK marks the 80th anniversary of the rescue of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from Dunkirk between May 27 and June 4 1940 ("The Great Escape"), we shall hear much of the author JB Priestley’s first “postscript” for BBC Radio on Wednesday June 5. That broadcast coined the phrase “Little Ships” and even acknowledged Priestley’s own part in shaping understanding of Dunkirk.
...
Before pledging to “fight them on the beaches”, Winston Churchill himself reminded the House of Commons in the same speech that “wars are not won by evacuations”. He acknowledged that the BEF had courted disaster before depicting its escape as “a miracle of deliverance”. That the British public regards it as a triumph owes much to the work of British newspaper journalists and the Royal Navy press officers who briefed them.

Dunkirk was not reported in eyewitness accounts from the beaches. The few war correspondents who struggled back with the retreating armies had no means by which to communicate. Reports, such as Evelyn Montague’s The Miracle of the BEF’s Return for the Manchester Guardian of Saturday June 1 1940, were penned by journalists invited to witness the Royal Navy’s delivery of evacuated soldiers to the ports of south-east England. There, they were briefed with patriotic fervour and naval pride as well as facts.

...

It took Hilaire Belloc, the Anglo-French author of Cautionary Tales for Children, to recognise in his column for the Sunday Times (The Evacuation and After, June 2) that the withdrawal from Belgium and the collapse of Britain’s key ally, France, constituted a “catastrophe”.

In his defining examination of the elements that comprise Britain’s “received story” of 1940, The Myth of the Blitz, Scottish historian and poet Angus Calder noted that elements of the way the story was reported were misleading. However, Calder agreed that “Dunkirk was indeed a great escape”.

...

British newspapers worked to stiffen resolve and sustain morale at that time of grave national peril. In a democracy fighting totalitarianism, newspapers must balance their obligation to hold power to account and their duty to the national cause. The newspapers certainly colluded in the creation of myths about Dunkirk, but their readers might not have welcomed any efforts to report Dunkirk any other way.

After all, myths are not lies and this one was studded with harsh facts. In Bernard Gray’s words for the Sunday Pictorial, Dunkirk was glorious despite the truth that: “The British Army has not won a battle. The British Army has retreated. The British Army has had to leave the Battlefield.”

The BEF was conveyed under planned arrangements to the Channel Ports for embarkation by train as were nine Ambulance trains out of the 25 such trains that existed at that time. This rail.co.uk report is taken from official publications published at the time.

Thirty four casualty evacuation trains were strategically located near the south coast but were not all required to perform their task. They were however used to evacuate hospitals and what were called ‘Public Assistance institutions’ to safer locations. The rail operation associated with ‘Dynamo’ (the Dunkirk evacuation) as it was called, started at 5pm on Sunday May 26th and by dawn of the 27th, the procession of trains had started.

The BEF was mobilised ready for rail transport from January 1940 and literally thousands of troop trains ran from ports to military camps across the south of England. Official publications published in 1944 said that ‘One railway ran 164 special trains over 24 days’. The railways were stretched in every way in early 1940 as many staff had been called up for service. But when the BEF was mobilised, 40,000 civilians were drafted into the forces and moved by rail from main line stations to selected centres in just 72 hours.

Moving the BEF for embarkation to France involved the Southern Railway running 1100 troop specials carrying 390,000 troops. In addition to these, special ammunition and stores trains also operated. The scene was set then for the unexpected Dunkirk evacuation a few months later when 319,116 troops were evacuated on 620 trains over 16 days. One day alone saw 110 trains operate from the south coast. Another 200 trains operated carrying more evacuees over several days.

The railways evacuated these troops via eight Channel ports using 2,000 carriages pooled by the various railway companies. There was no timetable to run to, the whole operation was directed over the phone and many ordinary services were cancelled along the coast. The GWR provided 40 trains, the LMS 44, the LNER 47 and the Southern 55 trains for the evacuation.

One train every 20 minutes departed Dover with each evacuee being given a bun and a banana reported Mr Steward, the Marine Superintendent there. Dover saw 327 trains, Folkestone 64, Ramsgate 82, Margate 75 plus 21 Ambulance Trains and Sheerness another 21 trains. The peak of rail operations was on June 1st - which was marginally busier than June 4th when 60 vessels berthed at Dover.

Redhill was the key junction with 80% of all evacuation trains passing through running via all points of the compass. Locomotives were serviced there and labourers had to be brought in from miles away to deal with this work. 300 tons of ashes were disposed of because of the ‘Dynamo’ trains.

When the exhausted evacuees landed, they had to be fed and it was the Royal Army Supply Corps that did the business assisted by many civilians. The first stopping place for food was Headcorn with a staff of three or Paddock Wood for evacuees. A total of 145,000 evacuees were initially looked after by 100 people at these two stations, working 24 hours a day for nine days. The food logistics HQ was set up in a nearby barn and carried across a field and the railway to the Up platform.

Apart from sandwiches, the menu contained jellied veal, sardines, cheese, oranges, apples and traditional railway food in the shape of meat pies, rolls, sausages and hard boiled eggs. Nineteen stoves kept the hot drinks going day and night but one problem was supplying enough cups. When a train was about to depart, a cry of ‘Sling them out’ went up from the platform and it is reported that a shower of tin mugs appeared from the train clattering on the platform. They then to be washed up ready for the next train!

The railways owned 130 ships in September 1939 and were mainly fast twin-screw turbine steamers built for passengers and mail traffic. The railways also owned and operated coastal cargo ships and out of all these, the Government chartered 92 for the war effort. The last passenger sailing from France was made by railway ship the SS Hantonia from St. Malo carrying passengers and troops which arrived at Southampton on June 17, 1940.

There was one final sailing from Europe to England made by another railway owned ship, the SS Hodder which was from Dunkirk. She arrived there to find no passengers (troops) waiting to be evacuated and was used to tow a disabled Admiralty store vessel back to England laden with petrol and ammunition, perhaps a curious combination!

All in all, the railways in conjunction with the ‘little ships’ save the day for the UK and the free world.

Dunkirk was a victory for morale but ultimately a humiliating military defeat .
How Fleet Street turned Dunkirk from catastrophe into cultural icon .
What happened to the French army after Dunkirk .
Dunkirk survivors’ terror didn’t end when they were rescued .
40-5-25 Dunkirk Evacuation - Dynamo 40-6-4 ..

40-5-26 to 40-6-4 Dunkirk - Operation Dynamo ..

40-6-1 Dunkirk - June 1 1940 ..

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Recruitment Posters - WW1

First World War Recruitment Posters > .

> Conscription, Recruitment >>

24-4-17 Stealthy Mobilisation in Ruscia | Konstantin Samoilov - Silicon > .

24-4-16 Is Mandatory Military Service Actually a Good Idea? - Context Matters > .

24-1-14 Demography & Armies - Recruitment, Retention, Manpower - Perun > .

24-2-1 Could National Service fix British forces recruitment crisis? | Sitrep > .

WW1 Propaganda & Millions Slaughtered | Last Voices of WW1 | Timeline > .

Propaganda - Manipulating Emotions - SuHo >> .

Recruitment - animation (49) ..

Thursday, March 23, 2017

44-12-3 Home Guard Stands Down

Home Guard Ends - 1944 3 Dec > .

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Nurses', Women's Clothing - WW1

Getting Dressed in WW1 - VAD Nurse > .
Getting Dressed in WW1 - Young Woman > .
Getting Dressed in 1910s London - Working Class Suffragette > .
Getting Dressed in the 1920s - Eveningwear > .
Real Women - Beauty Through The Decades The Realistic Way > .

Open Drawers are drawers (underwear) where the backs and front of the legs are not joined together.

Open Drawers. -- Girls generally began to wear open drawers when they were about nine or ten years old. Open drawers were not cut down at the hips, and the band was made all in one piece of the material. The backs and fronts of the legs were not joined together, but hemmed separately, or lined with false hems. The fronts, in children's sizes, were seamed together for about 2 inches, in women's sizes a little more. A button and buttonhole were placed at the ends of the bands, or two tape strings. The legs could be constructed as for closed drawers, i.e. as knickerbockers with bands, or they could be made up with a deep hem, and narrow tucks above. The drawers were gathered or pleated into the bands at the waist and legs. Women's drawers were very seldom made up as closed, but nearly always as open.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

UVS - Voluntary Service Uniforms

Voluntary Service Uniforms (1941) > .

ARP, AFS, WVS, LDV Home Guard, R?, police, LAAS, Warden ARP, Red Cross, ATS, Canada,

UWLA - Uniform, Women's Land Army