Women in Wartime - Sepia Saturday

This week's Sepia Saturday theme is "Groups" with a prompt photograph showing a group of nurses.  Cue for me to feature women in uniform  in wartime, with thanks to my local heritage group Auld Earlston in the Scottish Borders  which  holds the photographs below in its collection. 

 

 A group of VAD nurses in World War One in 'Earlston 

The Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) referred to a voluntary unit providing field nursing services, mainly in hospitals.  It was   founded in 1909 with the help of the Red Cross  and  Order of St. John.  By the summer of 1914 there were over 2,500 Voluntary Aid Detachments in Britain and members eagerly offered their service to the war effort. 

 Most volunteers were of the middle and upper classes and unaccustomed to hardship and traditional hospital discipline, but for many this was an opportunity for freedom from their restricted home environment. 

VADs carried out duties that were less technical, but no less important, than trained nurses. They organised and managed local auxiliary hospitals   throughout Britain, caring for the large number of sick and wounded soldiers. As the war went on, the growing shortage of trained nurses  opened the door for VADs to work overseas.

Well known VAD's included crime writer Agatha Christie, who said  "It was one of the most rewarding professions that anyone can follow”.   Vera Brittain was most famous for writing "Testament of Youth: an autobiographical study of the years 1900–1925".   She became a VAD in 1915 and was posted to France in 1917. She lost both a brother and a fiance in the war and wrote  a  vivid, moving and poignant account of her experiences.  Well worth reading.  

 

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 Onto World War Two and nurses joining a parade in Earlston to mark War Weapons Week.  

 Voluntary organisations were  on parade, including nurses and the Home Guard.

 

 Children taking part in the fancy dress parade  - spot the little girl in a nurse's uniform.  

In 1941 War Weapons Week was held across Britain as a major national fund raising campaign to provide for the replacement of weapons,  lost in the evacuation from Dunkirk.

Each town was given a figure to raise. Earlston's target was £8000. In fact "the patriotic investors of Earlston" raised £23.006, 18 shillings and 4 pence - a phenomenal amount and equivalent to over £1 million pounds today. [Source: Measuring Worth]

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 Land Army Girls gathering in Earlston for service on local farms. 

The Women's Land Army  was a  civilian organisation,  created during the First and Second World Wars,  to recruit  women to  work in agriculture, replacing men called up to the armed forces.  At first volunteers were sought. but  numbers  were increased by conscription.   By 1944 the Women's Land Army  had over 80,000 members across Britain.   It was officially disbanded in 1949. 

 A personal account of life as a Land Girl 1944-45   is given HERE by Barbara  as part of Auld Earlston activities in gathering wartime memories. 

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Members of Earlston Girls Training Corps 

The first Girls Training Corps units were formed in 1941.with the aim  to prepare young people aged 14 to 20 (too young for official war work)   for service in their community and to support the war effort upon reaching adulthood.  

Activities included learning to act as bicycle couriers, learning morse code and airforce recognition, gymnastics, homemaking, craft-work, public affairs, land navigation, learning first aid and marksmanship,  firefighting, and assisting with air warden duties.Within a year of forming, over 120,000 girls had joined a GTC company.  

The GTS was disbanded  in 1948.  (Source:  Wikipedia) 

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Earlston women munition worker.  A member recalled being sent to college in Edinburg to learn how to operate a lathe. She said there were two shifts working seven days a week involving dozens of women.
 
Around 950,000 British women worked in munitions factories during the Second World War, making weapons like shells and bullets. Munitions work was often well-paid, but involved long hours. Workers were also at serious risk from accidents with dangerous machinery or when working with high explosive material. Some munitions workers handled toxic chemicals every day. Those who handled sulphur were nicknamed ‘Canary Girls’, because their skin and hair turned yellow from contact with the chemical. [Source: My Learning.Org ]

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Sepia Saturday give bloggers an opportunity 

to share their family history through photographs.

 

 

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