depth charge workers, armourers, sailmakers, tracers and draughts- women, photographic workers, technical storekeepers, valve testers and wireless telegraph operators.
Blue uniform with distinguishing badges was worn by all ranks and ratings. The service was demobilized in Dec. 1919.
The Women's Royal Air Force. On April I 1918 the R.A.F. was formed by the amalgamation of the R.F.C. and the R.N.A.S. Seven thousand women in Q.M.A.A.C. and 2,033 ln the W.R.N.S. had been attached to R.F.C. units and to R.M.A.S. stations before the amalgamation. These were transferred to the W.R.A.F. and formed the nucleus of the service. The chief superintendent was Lady Gertrude Crawford, who was succeeded in May 1918 by Miss Violet Douglas Pennant as Commandant. Dame Helen Gwynne Vaughan, hitherto Chief Controller Q.M.A.A.C., France, was appointed Commandant in Sept. 1918. Mrs. Pratt Barlow was Deputy Com- mandant, and Miss K. Curlett Assistant Commandant over-seas.
Five hundred and sixty-six officers and 51,764 other ranks passed through the Service, the strength at the time of the Armistice being rather over 25,000. (The constitution and regulations were similar in outline to those of the Q.M.A.A.C. and the W.R.N.S.) The Ser- vice consisted of mobiles and immobiles in approximately equal proportions. In addition to the administrative, clerical and domestic work common to all the Services, the women were employed on meteorological work and as despatch riders, dopers, painters, acetylene welders, carpenters, magneto repairers, photographers and drivers. Fabric workers did duties of all kinds from the covering of aeroplane wings to the mending of the finest balloon silk. The uniform was first khaki, then blue, with the badges of the R.A.F.
The corresponding rank of officers and other ranks is shown below :
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The medical arrangements for the W.R.A.F. were in the hands of Director of Medical Services R.A.F. under whom Dr. Laetitia Fair- field served as Woman Medical Director. A woman medical officer was on the medical staff of each of the R.A.F. Areas, and a medical woman was detailed for duty at each of the W.R.A.F. depots and larger camps. They had hon. rank corresponding to that of the R.A.F. medical officers and by means of regular inspections and efficient care, preserved a high standard of health.
In March 1919 the first overseas draft embarked for service in France and 500 officers and other ranks formed part of the Air Force of Occupation on the Rhine. Demobilization took place
I March 31 1920.
In relation to the W.R.A.F. the experiment was tried of running
I a women's service as nearly as possible (having regard to the fact that the women were enrolled and not enlisted) as a part of the force to which it was attached. Thus correspondence was carried out through the usual Air Force channels; officers and other ranks of the W.R.A.F. were under the orders of senior R.A.F. officers; women officers were attached to the staff of the Air Officers commanding areas and were allowed to sign for them letters dealing with the W.R.A.F. ; the officer in charge of W.R.A.F. inspection was a member of the staff of the Inspector General R.A.F. and the Commandant was stated in Air Ministry weekly orders to be on the staff of the Master General of Personnel and instructed to sign letters dealing with W.R.A.F. in the same way as directors and heads of independ- ent branches; so that her correspondence, like theirs, carried the authority of the Air Council. The same principles were followed in the medical arrangements. By these means the need of a special section of R.A.F. officers dealing with the W.R.A.F. was obviated; economy was effected, and the administration of the W.R.A.F. was carried out on Air Force lines. The result was indicated by the terms of Air Ministry Weekly Order No. 1110 (promulgated Oct. 7 1920) : " In issuing orders for the final disbandment of the W.R.A.F. the Air Council desire at the same time to express their appreciation of the good work done by the Force both during and after the period of
, hostilities. In spite of much difficulty and in the face of hostile and unjust criticism, the W.R.A.F. has left a record of which it can well feel proud. During hostilities the good work it accomplished went far towards enabling the R.A.F. to reach that dominating position in the air which had such a direct influence in the achievement of the final Victory. Subsequent to the Armistice, when it was nec- essary to disperse a large number of airmen to civil life, it was the W.R.A.F. which made it possible for the R.A.F. to meet the de- mands made upon it, and maintained the services at the Aerodromes until new male personnel could be enrolled. The necessity for the demobilization of the W.R.A.F. is now imperative, but in returning xxxii. 34
to civil life, Commandant Dame Helen Gwynne Vaughan, D.B.E., Officers and Members may feel assured that they carry with them a debt of gratitude from the Nation."
(B.) NON-ENROLLED WOMEN
Anti-Gas Department. On April 22 1915, at the battle of Ypres, the Germans first made use of poison-gas, and within 36 hours some sort of improvised mouth pad had been issued to every man in the line. Anti-gas work was begun at once, and men worked night and day to devise a really sound method of protection. Early in June 1915 Miss Beaver was appointed superintendent of the Camden Laundry Smoke Helmet Impregnating Station, where the work of drying and packing gas helmets had been largely carried on by members of the Women's Emergency Corps. When it was decided that gas helmets could be repaired for re-issue after use at the front, Miss Beaver and Miss Carey Morgan were sent out by the War Office to organize depots for repair work with French labour at Abbeville and Calais. They were at once given the status of officers of the Army Ordnance Department, but were not actually gazetted till June 1916. They wore a nigger brown uniform with the badges and buttons of officers of the Army Ordnance Department. Six V.A.D.s were attached to the Abbeville depot and four to Calais; they afterwards transferred to the W. A.A.C. as Administrators. The French depots closed down when the " box respirators " had super- seded the helmet types and the repair as well as the manufacture was carried out in England.
Practically the whole of the work on gas-mask manufacture was performed by women. There were 34 factories employing 12,000 under the immediate control of the Anti-Gas Department and 160 contractors employed a further 90,000 on work for the Department. In Aug. 1917 a number of educated women were trained for in- spection work on the mask of the respirator and drafted out to the factories. They wore an indoor uniform of scarlet and were called " red-coats." Ultimately 800 to 1,000 of these were appointed, and 100 were promoted to the duties of check inspecting, formerly per- formed by sergeants of the Anti-Gas Department. They were known as sergeants also, and were interchangeable with the men. A few lady superintendents were appointed over " sergeants " and " red- coats," and Miss Carey Morgan was made officer in charge of the principal repair factory. In all about 50,000 respirators were issued.
Army Pay Corps. The Army Pay Department was one of the earliest in the army to substitute female clerks. In July 1915, 479 were working and by Jan. I 1916 there were 4,556 female clerks and 13 lady superintendents. The engagement was a weekly one and there was no form of contract till Aug. 1917- By that time the de- mands made for women by the W.A.A.C. and other organizations were so insistent that a form of agreement to serve for the duration of the war and three months afterwards was signed by the super- intendents and a portion of thenvomen doing skilled and semi-skilled work. These wore a badge but no uniform, and by March 1918 there were 5,171 of them out of a total of 17,500. Miss Constance Holmes, lady inspector, was responsible for the welfare of the women under Sir J. T. Carter, " Accounts 2 " War Office, who was " at a loss to find words to adequately express his appreciation of the valuable work performed by the Women Clerks for the Army Pay Depart- ment during the war."
Army Remount Department. Owing to the withdrawal of male personnel from Remount Depots, women accustomed to hunting and to the superintendence of considerable stables of horses, were employed on remount work early in 1915. The first women's estab- lishments were organized near Pangbourne by Mr. Cecil Alden, who worked on a contract basis for the War Office, employing what labour he chose. In 1915 he had 10 depots for the stabling of 520 convalescent horses from veterinary hospitals in the vicinity of Aldershot, and half the depots were staffed by women. They did the entire work from beginning to end, and horses were issued fit to units direct from their stables.
The next women's depot was organized near Chester by Mrs. Rigby, and from these beginnings the employment of women spread until nearly 200 were working as grooms in 15 depots directly under the Remount Department. The Charger dep6t at Russley Park under Lady Birkbeck was the largest staffed entirely by women, and at Dr. Rimington's depot near Chester women schooled horses rejected by their units as incurably vicious.
Navy and Army Canteen Board. When the Navy and Army Canteen Board (then called the " Army Canteen Committee ") started operations in April 1916, only 20 women clerks were em- ployed. During 1917 the Board's activities, were enormously ex- panded to include catering for the Imperial Overseas Forces and for the American and Allied Troops. It was decided in March 1917 to institute a N.A.C.B. Women's Corps in mobile and immobile sec- tions, and by the date of the Armistice the women employed in connexion with canteen organization in the mobile corps numbered 10,000 and the clerical staff in the immobile corps 2,000. After the Armistice 500 members of the Q.M.A.A.C. and 8 officers were transferred to the N.A.C.B. Women s Corps to carry on the work in France during the dispersal of British troops, and 120 went with the army of occupation to Cologne. Although the women wore uni- form and were under the orders of the chief superintendent working under the Department of the Controller of the N.A.C.B., they were
