Agnes Baden Powell

Agnes was the younger sister of Robert Baden Powell and was most known for her work in establishing the Girl Guides. Following the creation of the Boy Scouts, Baden Powell organised a gathering at Crystal Palace which included girls. Public opinion at this time was against mixed activities and so a separate organisation for a sister group, the Girl guides was set up by Agnes who was a very accomplished and educated woman. She was an excellent musician who played the organ and the violin, was an admired cook and had knowledge of 11 languages. She made aeronautical balloons using silk and made many flights in hot air balloons, becoming an honorary companion of the Royal Aeronautical Society from 1938 to 1945.

Agnes enjoyed sports, camping, and other outdoor activities, traits that would later influence the Guide program. By April 1910, 6000 young girls were registered as Girl Guides. In 1912 she became President of the Girl Guides and in 1916 she wrote the Guides first handbook. The Guide movement was officially recognised in 1915. Agnes stood down as president in favour of Princess Mary but remained vice-president until her death in 1945.

girlguidingcymru.org.uk/blog/agnesbadenpowell

Elizabeth Choy Su Moi OBE

Elizabeth Choy was born in Kudat North Borneo (Sabah) on 14th 1910. The Yong family were devout Christians and she grew up with Kadazans who are an ethnic indigenous group in Sabah, where she was taught that all work was noble no matter how menial.

She was named Elizabeth by her choice because the German missionaries she lived with had difficulty with her Asian name. She was educated in Singapore and studied at the convent of the Holy infant Jesus. She eventually became a teacher at St Margret School and later at St Andrew’s Boys School in Stampford Road, Singapore. On August 16th, Elizabeth married Choy Koon Heng at St Andrew’s Cathedral.

When the Japanese invaded Singapore in February 1942 she volunteered as a nurse with the Medical Auxiliary Service. When she and her husband lost their jobs, they set up a canteen at the Miyalo hospital and were soon running services for the internees of Changi prison, including medicine money and messages.

Following the sinking of 7 Japanese ships in the harbour, 57 internees were suspected of providing the British with information and were tortured. 15 died as a result on October 10th 1940, a day that became known as the Double Tenth Massacre. Her husband was arrested on October 29th and she followed soon after. Elizabeth was tortured in front of her husband and sentenced to death. She was held in prison for 193 days and was eventually released but her husband was a prisoner until the end of the war.

After the war the British Red Cross invited her to England where she was hailed a war heroine and awarded an OBE. Lady Baden Powell awarded her the Bronze Cross, the Girl Guides’ highest honour. Rajah of Sarawak Charles Brooke presented her with the Order of the star of Sarawak and the Singapore government awarded her the PIngat Bakti Setia for her service to education

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Choy

Her Honour Ena Collymore Woodstock MBE OD

Ena Collymore Woodstock MBE OD was born in Spanish Town Jamaica on 10th September 1917. As a young woman she was among the first Jamaican women to volunteer. She was accepted for the Auxiliary Territorial Service. Not wanting to work in an office, she trained as a radio operator. She said the there was an overall enthusiasm in Jamaica to be part of the war effort and she wanted to do her part. She was assigned to an anti-aircraft unit and served behind enemy lines in Belgium.

After the war she stayed in England and studied law. On her return to Jamaica, she qualified as a barrister and was the first woman to actively practise. She had a distinguished career as a judge and was a trailblazer for other women.

Ena was involved in so many organisations and excelled in all of them. She was Chief Commissioner of the Girl Guides Association of Jamaica and under her leadership some significant projects were undertaken including summer camps for the less fortunate children in Kingston and island wide literacy programmes.

www.forces.net/heritage/history/remarkable-life-british-armys-oldest-surviving-female-veteran

Lady Gertrude Denman

Lady Gertrude Denman was director of the Women’s Land Army during WW2 and President of the Women’s Institute from 1917-1946. Gertude, known as Trudie, was married to Thoman Denman 3rd Baron Denman and fifth Governor General of Australia from 1911-1914.

Back in Britain she helped found the Women’s Institute. She was elected president in 1917 and was re-elected every year until 1946. Prior to the advent of WW2, Britain had been importing 70% of it’s food. Women were once again called up to work on the land.

The Women’s Land Army was reinstated and Gertude Denman was made the director of the WLA. They produce 95% of the food needed to feed the nation. By 1944 it had 80.000 members. Lady Denman was also an active supporter of women’s rights and campaigned to improve women’s lives through organisations that transcended political boundaries. She was however a member of the Liberal party but she demonstrated how women of wealth and privilege exerted influence in the post suffrage era.

Amelia King

Amelia Elizabeth King was born in Limehouse in London, 1917.

Her father, Henry King, born in Georgetown, British Guiana, worked as a firefighter in the Merchant Navy, and her brother served in the Royal Navy. Amelia worked as a box maker before the Second World War and she volunteered to join the Women's Land Army in September 1943.

Amelia was refused entry into the Women's Land Army during the Second World War because she was black. Her case was debated in the House of Commons and was covered in many international newspapers. The decision would eventually be reversed and she was able to formally join the Women's Land Army in October 1943. She worked at Frith Farm in Fareham, Hampshire for A. E. Roberts until 1944. Roberts’ grandchildren remarked he was a ‘’can do’ person and had no time for petty prejudices. He would have given anyone a chance if they were straightforward and hardworking”.

Amelia later reflected: “I said to them, if I'm not good enough to work on the land, then I am not good enough to make munitions. No one has ever suggested that my father and brother were not good enough to fight for the freedom of England”.

merl.reading.ac.uk/news-and-views/2020/08/breaking-the-colour-bar

Joy Lofthouse

Joy Lofthouse was one of the Female Few, an ATA girl. She and her sister joined the Air Transport Auxiliary after they saw an advert in a magazine for women who wanted to learn to fly. Only 17 0out of 2000 were accepted. she was one of only 168 ATA girls who flew aircraft. Her job was to deliver planes from the factories to the airfields where the were then flown by RAF pilots.

Hers was a dangerous job with the weather being er greatest enemy and they flew without instruments radios or navigational aids. Joy was able to fly 38 different aircraft.

It was also a seen as a glamorous job as the girls had a distinctive uniform with gold stripes to denote rank and they became aviation celebrities seen on the front cover of magazines. They were in reality brave, inspirational, and fearless women who risked their lives for their country. The contribution she and her fellow ATA girls made to victory by supplying the FAF and the Fleet Air Arm cannot be overestimated.

Connie Mark

Constance Winifred Mark MBE BEM was a Jamaican community organiser and activist. She was born and raised in Jamaica when it was part of the British West Indies. In 1943 she was 18 and war was raging across Europe and the Far East. As so many women did during WW2, Connie felt it was her duty to support the war effort. She was recruited into the ATS (The Auxiliary Territorial Service). In this role she served in Jamaica as medical secretary to the assistant director of medical services in the British Medical Hospital (BMH).

Her duties included typing up the medical reports of the people who had been injured in the war including injuries received in bombings and combat. There was a mood of fear in Jamaica as there was across the whole world at this time but they also were positive that Britain would win this war.

Dame Maud McCarthy

Maud McCarthy was one of the most highly decorated women’s leaders of the First World War. As Matron-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders from 1914-1919, Maud sailed on the first troop ship to leave England. She arrived in France on 12th August 1914 and proved to be not only an inspiring and indefatigable leader but also an undaunted and highly skilled administrator. She remained in charge for the entire war and became known as the nurses general. What many people do not know was that Maud was Australian.

She was an outstanding woman of her time taking on enormous challenges under difficult conditions, and was an outstanding leader, a great role model and a pioneer in the field of nursing and military leadership. She was a woman who dedicated her life to military nursing who was responsible for nursing hundreds and thousands of casualties from 1914 to 1918.

www.awm.gov.au/articles/blog/dame-maud-mccarthy-the-nurses-general

Second Officer Kalyani Sen WRINS

The role of the Wrens and their contribution to the war effort is well known. Less well known is the role of the WRINS. The Women Royal Indian Naval Service. Even less is known about Second Officer Kalyani Sen who was the first Indian Service woman to visit the UK. In 1942 the threat of a Japanese invasion of India was looming large. The British Indian Army formed the Women’s Auxiliary Corps of which the WRINS were a section, for female volunteers to contribute to the war effort. This was the first and only time until 1992 that women served in the Indian Army in non-medical roles. Second Officer Kalyani Sen was invited by the Admiralty to visit the UK for a two-month study of comparative training with the WRENS.

A picture of her visit was published in all major Indian publications as well as The Herald Scottish newspaper. This encouraged many young women in India to join up in spite of the prejudice in India for women working with men.

Violette Szabo

Violette Szabo was a British-French SOE (Special Operations Executive) during WW2. She was the second woman to be awarded the George Cross for bravery which was awarded posthumously. She married Etienne Szabo a decorated non-commissioned officer in the French Foreign Legion in 1940 and who was killed in action in 1942. Following his death, she accepted an offer to train as a field agent in SOE as a way of fighting the enemy that killed her husband. Her previous service in the ATS brought her to the attention of SOE. She was given security clearance in 1943 and was selected as an agent in July of that year.

Violette was commissioned as a section leader in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (F.A.N.Y) which was often used as a cover for female spies.

She carried out many successful and dangerous missions but was captured in 1944 after putting up fierce resistance. She was interrogated and tortured by the Gestapo. Szabo was executed aged 23 along with two fellow agents. Denise Bloch and Lillian Rolfe. Her code poem was ‘The Life that I have’ by Leo Marks

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violette_Szabo

Susan Travers

Susan Mary Gillian Travers was a highly decorated British nurse and ambulance driver who served with the French Red Cross during WW2. Born in 1909, her father was Royal Navy Admiral Francis Eaton Travers and his wife Eleanor. As a French speaker she served with the French Expeditionary Force in Finland in 1939. After the fall of France, she joined the Free French under General de Gaulle. Travers was assigned to drive Colonel Marie- Pierre Koenig and was posted to Libya. She was the only woman to serve officially in the French Foreign legion and served in Syria and Lebanon. Whilst driving the general’s car the roof was torn off when it was hit by a shell. Aided by a Vietnamese driver she fixed it on the spot. She later drove a self-propelled anti-tank gun. She was wounded in the Italian campaign when she drove over a land mine but later served in Indochina.

Charlotte ‘Betty’ Webb MBE Legion d’Honneur

Betty Webb was 18 years old and studying at a domestic science school near Shrewsbury when war broke out. She volunteered for the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) and after her basic training was sent to Bletchley Park about which she knew nothing and where she signed the Official Secrets Act and was not allowed to speak about anything that went on there. 9000 women worked at Bletchley and the significance of the work that they carried out there was not known until the 1990’s. Some never spoke about their work ever. Many of whom were involved in the construction of the Colossus computer. It is only in recent times that they have been recognised. Born a hundred years ago Betty spent her childhood in Shropshire. As a school girl her mother thought she should learn German and as a result took part in an exchange programme in 1937 in Nazi Germany. At Bletchley she became a ‘codebreaker’ and played a part in the vital deciphering of the secret communications of the Germans and the Japanese and contributing to the breaking of the German cipher Enigma. She had no idea how important that information was until 30 years later. After the war she was seconded to the Pentagon to assist the Americans with the war in the Pacific. Her book No Moore Secrets was published in 2023.

Women’s wartime organisations

In 1941 all unmarried women and childless widows between the ages of 20 to 30 were liable for call up. They were given a choice of working in industry or joining one of the auxiliary services. The following list shows some of the organisations that women joined either through conscription or voluntarily to help the war effort.

ROC

Royal Observer Corps was a civil defence organisation formed for the visual detection, identification, tracking and reporting of aircraft over Great Britain. Largely made up of volunteers they played a crucial role during the Battle of Britain. They provided early warnings of incoming air raids and especially the infamous V1 and V2 bombs. 1941 saw the introduction of women into the Royal Observer Corps.

ATS

The ATS was formed in 1938. By 1940 250 000 women were in service. They carried out Over a hundred different roles included anti-aircraft batteries. It was the largest of the women’s services and was a voluntary organisation during WW2. They were deployed as orderlies, drivers, postal workers, and ammunitions inspectors.

ARP

Women who joined the ARP as wardens became ambulance attendants searching for survivors and recovering bodies. Women were paid £2 an hour as part time volunteers. They patrolled the streets and put our incendiary bombs and give first aid to injured civilians. They wore dark blue battle dress and beret. One in 6 was a woman.

WVS

For over 80 years the WVS and WRVS has inspired women who give up their time to help others. Founded by Lady Reading to help with Air Raid Precautions it is the largest volunteering organisation in British History. By 1943 over a million women had volunteered in every aspect of wartime life.

Red Cross

Women in the in the Red Cross during WW2 served under fire in field hospitals evacuation hospitals on hospital trains and ships. After declaration of war in 1939 the British Red Cross joined the Order of St John to help the sick and the wounded. During WW1 many famous women who served as VAD nurses including Agatha Christie, Vera Brittain, Freya Stark. Gertrude Bell and Clara Butt. Throughout WW2 the Joint War Organisation sent 20 million food parcels, medical supplies, educational books to prisoners worldwide. During the German occupation of the Channel Islands. the Islands were saved from starvation with food parcels delivered by the Red Cross ship the SS Vega.

Wrens

Women were admitted into the Royal Naval College Greenwich. During the war they were moved to Devonport house where over 8000 Wrens were trained. Their jobs included bomb makers, cook, clerks, electricians and air mechanics. This list was expanded as the war progressed and many also worked at Bletchley Park.

WAAF

The Women’s Auxiliary Air Force was the female auxiliary of the Royal Airforce during World War 2. Established in 1939 their number exceeded 18000 by 1943 with over 2000 enlisting every week. WAAF’s did not however serve as aircrew. The women of the WAAF were a vital part of the RAF’s war effort and demonstrated the contribution women made to Britain’ s Armed Forces.

Women’s Institute

The first WI in Britain was founded in Anglesey in Wales in 1915. At the outbreak of war, the Institute had groups in 5,500 villages across the country. Lady Denman the WI’s chairman realised that they could be invaluable on the home front. They organised and looked after evacuee’s, ran market stalls during food rationing showing people how to use limited sources and use home grown products.

Bletchley Park

The Government Code and Cypher School later became GCHQ and during WW2 it was based at Bletchley Park. It depended predominantly on a female workforce. All were required to sign the Official Secrets Act and many took their secret work to the grave. Many who worked there were just out of school. They were a mixture of military and civilian employees and from a variety of backgrounds. The work force grew from 200 at the start of the war to over10.000.

SOE

The Special Operations Executive was set up in 1940 to wage a secret war. It was tasked with sabotage and subversion. Based at 64 Baker Steet the agents were called Baker Street Irregulars. Women were critical for SOE missions. They were able to be inconspicuous take on secret identities and were trusted with the nation’s greatest secrets. They showed courage daring and sacrifice.

FANY’s

First Aid Nursing Yeomanry was founded in 1907 is not part of the regular army but was active in nursing and intelligence in both wars. They also served in SOE. By the end of the war 3000 FANY’s had served with SOE as trainers, coders, signallers and as special agents 12 who were murdered by the Nazis. The Kenyan section was sanctioned by the War Office in 1941.

Girl Guides

In 1909 Agnes Baden Powell was asked by her brother Robert to set up girl’s organisation similar to the Boy Scouts. For more than 100 years, around 250 million Girl Guides and Girl Scouts have been changing lives and building a better world through leadership development, community action, service to others, service to others, peer education and advocacy. During WW2 Girl Guides across the world were active doing a variety of jobs to contribute to the war effort. They were proficient electricians, first aiders and signallers and could send Morse code at a speed of 30 letters a minute.

Women’s Land Army

The Women's Land Army (WLA) made a significant contribution to boosting Britain's food production during the Second World War. Before the Second World War, Britain had imported much of its food. When war broke out, it was necessary to grow more food at home and increase the amount of land for cultivation. With many male agricultural workers joining the armed forces, women were needed to provide a new rural workforce. The WLA had originally been set up in 1917 but disbanded at the end of the First World War. It reformed in June 1939 under Lady Denman the WLA’s Hon Director. Lady Denman was aware of the importance of identity and the Land Army’s uniform was designed by top Paris designer Charles Worth.

Women were initially asked to volunteer to serve in the Land Army and, from December 1941, could also be conscripted into land work. At its peak in 1944, there were more than 80,000 women – often known as 'land girls' – in the WLA. Land girls did a wide variety of jobs on the land including milking, rat catching, ploughing, digging ditches, gathering crops, managing poultry and lambing. Many lived in the countryside while a third came from London and the industrialised cities of North. They worked in all weathers and conditions and could be directed to work anywhere in the country.

Women’s Timber Corps (Lumber Jill’s)

The Corps was created in 1942 to help with the war effort in forestry. they had a maximum strength of between 6000 and 13000 in 1943. Their work included Felling, tractor driving working with horses and in sawmills. The work was heavy and hard. Although they were disbanded in 1946 there was no recognition of their work until 2000.

ATA

The Air Transport Auxiliary allowed women pilots to ferry aircraft to Royal Air Force ferry pools. By Ma1 1940 the ATA were transporting all military aircraft from factories to maintenance units to have munitions installed. The female pilots were called the Attagirls. Commander Pauline Gower was tasked to set up the women’s section.

One in eight of the ATA were women. Unusually women received the same pay as the men.

AFS

The Auxiliary Fire Service.

The women who answered the call to be ambulance driver were truly tail blazers. They had to overcome deep suspicion from their male counterparts.

This was dangerous and difficult work as they would be called out 24 hours a day and during air raids, often becoming casualties themselves. Women were actively recruited as ambulance drivers and medic to fill the shortage of men.