Gabrielle ‘ Bobby’ West

Gabrielle West, known as ‘Bobby’, was born the daughter of a vicar in 1890. In 1916 she trained as a policewoman and by 1917 was working at a munitions factory close to the Welsh mining village of Pembrey in Carmarthenshire.

By June 1917 Bobby West was encountering a number of frustrating problems in controlling the female munitions workers at the factory.

The girls here are really rough and very unruly simply because they always get their own way and they know it. Endless rules are made and we have to enforce them. The girls strike and go and yell outside the main office for an hour or two. The manager or his assistant comes out, hears their grievance and says it shall be removed, and it is. They promptly find a new one.

Strikes and rows are more sport than filling shells. We have already had half a dozen strikes which all ended in the same way. Two shifting women dismissed – strike – reinstated. Three girls dismissed for laziness – strike – reinstated. Girls wish for a rise – strike – rise given. Girls object to being controlled during their dinner hour or when they leave the plant – strike – now they do what they want. It is therefore almost impossible to keep any sort of order, because they know they will not be punished for disobeying.

Last week a girl refused to let me search her. I telephoned the inspector who went to see the assistant manager who said the girl was to be turned out of the factory. We turned her out. Other girls rather awestruck. She went down to the manager, wept and said she was sorry, etc, and by and by turned up with a paper to say she was to be allowed back to work. Other girls very cock-a-hoop of course. In the evening, a box of matches and some cigarettes were found by the charge hand inside an empty shell in that girl’s shop. No wonder she wouldn’t be searched.

Nothing could be more dangerous than smoking in an explosives factory.