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| Women's Voluntary Services records reveal grassroots wartime life | Women's Voluntary Services records reveal grassroots wartime life |
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| Among thousands of second world war records available to the public for the first time, detailing the activities of more than 1 million women who joined the Women’s Voluntary Services to help with the war effort on the Home Front, there are glimpses of how desperate life was for many among the jolly accounts of mended toys, gloves knitted out of recycled scraps of wool, darned jumpers and cakes improvised from improbable ingredients. | Among thousands of second world war records available to the public for the first time, detailing the activities of more than 1 million women who joined the Women’s Voluntary Services to help with the war effort on the Home Front, there are glimpses of how desperate life was for many among the jolly accounts of mended toys, gloves knitted out of recycled scraps of wool, darned jumpers and cakes improvised from improbable ingredients. |
| One of the 31,400 pages of diaries, detailed reports submitted in quadruplicate every month from more than 1,300 cities, towns and villages, recounts the aftermath of a flying bomb hitting the Hertfordshire town of Rickmansworth – one of 97 that fell on the small town during the war killing 91, injuring more than 300, and leaving thousands homeless. | One of the 31,400 pages of diaries, detailed reports submitted in quadruplicate every month from more than 1,300 cities, towns and villages, recounts the aftermath of a flying bomb hitting the Hertfordshire town of Rickmansworth – one of 97 that fell on the small town during the war killing 91, injuring more than 300, and leaving thousands homeless. |
| The report tells how a woman “in a very upset and nervous condition” had made her way with her three children to the WVS in nearby Aylesbury after the blast. She was told to go home and promised that the street representative would take special care of her and make frequent visits during alerts. The report adds the grim detail: “The woman is a pacifist, and a very unpopular person in her road.” | The report tells how a woman “in a very upset and nervous condition” had made her way with her three children to the WVS in nearby Aylesbury after the blast. She was told to go home and promised that the street representative would take special care of her and make frequent visits during alerts. The report adds the grim detail: “The woman is a pacifist, and a very unpopular person in her road.” |
| After a series of air raids on Bath – in which a child who had been evacuated from London was one of the victims – the report admitted “a few Street Leaders wavered, but in the main the spirit behind the Housewives Service was not lost”. It continued: “Several Street Leaders built outdoor Cooking Stoves in their Streets, of which they had seen a demonstration only a week previously.” The report includes the number of gas masks recovered for repair, disinfection and re-issue from “children, deceased persons, salvaged etc.” | After a series of air raids on Bath – in which a child who had been evacuated from London was one of the victims – the report admitted “a few Street Leaders wavered, but in the main the spirit behind the Housewives Service was not lost”. It continued: “Several Street Leaders built outdoor Cooking Stoves in their Streets, of which they had seen a demonstration only a week previously.” The report includes the number of gas masks recovered for repair, disinfection and re-issue from “children, deceased persons, salvaged etc.” |
| In Grimsby they were mending and remodelling clothes for people who had lost everything. The donations included three boxes of clothes sent by Red Cross workers in Bolivia. | In Grimsby they were mending and remodelling clothes for people who had lost everything. The donations included three boxes of clothes sent by Red Cross workers in Bolivia. |
| There was cake as well as tea to keep up spirits in the tiny Hertfordshire village of Stone – but the cook wasn’t at all keen on sampling her own efforts. ”The organiser found catering a little difficult, one night the teas served numbered 28 and the next 430, and the cake permits were almost negligible. However, thanks to dried eggs, dried milk, and even powdered saccharin, the organiser, with a cookery book in one hand, managed to make what at any rate looked like cakes. She was very thankful that she didn’t have to eat any of the efforts herself.” | There was cake as well as tea to keep up spirits in the tiny Hertfordshire village of Stone – but the cook wasn’t at all keen on sampling her own efforts. ”The organiser found catering a little difficult, one night the teas served numbered 28 and the next 430, and the cake permits were almost negligible. However, thanks to dried eggs, dried milk, and even powdered saccharin, the organiser, with a cookery book in one hand, managed to make what at any rate looked like cakes. She was very thankful that she didn’t have to eat any of the efforts herself.” |
| The insistence on typed returns in quadruplicate, with copies sent to headquarters and regional offices, ensured that the bulk of the records survived even when the main archive was partly weeded in the 1950s to remove anything considered uninteresting. The importance of the archive, of the war as experienced at the grassroots, was marked in 2010 when it was recognised by Unesco as part of the UK contribution to the Memory of the World register. | The insistence on typed returns in quadruplicate, with copies sent to headquarters and regional offices, ensured that the bulk of the records survived even when the main archive was partly weeded in the 1950s to remove anything considered uninteresting. The importance of the archive, of the war as experienced at the grassroots, was marked in 2010 when it was recognised by Unesco as part of the UK contribution to the Memory of the World register. |
| The online archive was launched as an English Heritage blue plaque honouring Stella Reading, the founder of the WVS, was unveiled at the organisation’s wartime headquarters, 41 Tothill Street in Westminster, now a hotel. Reading, who was born in Constantinople in 1894, and would become a life peer and the first woman to take a seat in the House of Lords in her own right, ran the organisation which she founded in 1938 and was termed “the army that Hitler forgot” from a single room in the building. It grew to a membership of more than 1 million, estimated as one woman in ten, by 1942. | The online archive was launched as an English Heritage blue plaque honouring Stella Reading, the founder of the WVS, was unveiled at the organisation’s wartime headquarters, 41 Tothill Street in Westminster, now a hotel. Reading, who was born in Constantinople in 1894, and would become a life peer and the first woman to take a seat in the House of Lords in her own right, ran the organisation which she founded in 1938 and was termed “the army that Hitler forgot” from a single room in the building. It grew to a membership of more than 1 million, estimated as one woman in ten, by 1942. |
| The plaque was unveiled by Dame Patricia Routledge, the actor best known as Hyacinth Bucket, star of the BBC comedy Keeping Up Appearances. She said: “The women of the WVS made great sacrifices for this country, but the breadth of their contribution has been hidden from view until now.” | The plaque was unveiled by Dame Patricia Routledge, the actor best known as Hyacinth Bucket, star of the BBC comedy Keeping Up Appearances. She said: “The women of the WVS made great sacrifices for this country, but the breadth of their contribution has been hidden from view until now.” |
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