Push for women to join the war effort
An exhibition“which only the war could have made possible” was held in Stirling 100 years ago.
It was an effort to recruit women to jobs on the land and for service roles offered by Queen Mary’s Auxiliary Army Corp.
The two-day event was held in Stirling Lesser Arcade Hall and featured speeches by several ladies and also a captain from the Royal Air Force.
It was suggested the training to be given to the women would be of “much advantage to them in the future”.
However, we now know that was not the case as many women were forced out of jobs they had done during the war to accommodate men returning from the Front.
According to the Observer, the first attempt to “enlist the assistance of the fair sex in helping to win the war” came in 1916 when the Women’s Legion was set up.
Its aim was to substitute women for men in Army kitchens and cookhouses, and while the move had difficulties it proved a success, said the Observer.
A year later the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corp, later re-named Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corp, was formed for the purpose of substituting women for men in certain Army roles at home and abroad. It was hoped the move would release fit men for more important roles.
In June, 1917, the first detachment of women left to take up duty in France and since then recruitment for the corp had continued and at that point it numbered between 40,000 and 50,000.
The women carried out a variety of administrative roles and shorthand typists received a salary of between 37 shillings and sixpence and 45 shillings a week, although a weekly deduction of 14 shillings was made for “board, laundry and quarters”.
There were also openings for cooks, pantry maids,domestic workers, messengers, telephone orderlies and storekeepers. Wages for assistant cooks and waitresses were between £24 and £26 a year.
Women who joined the corp wore a “neat, serviceable khaki coatfrock, warm top coat, khaki hat and various other articles of uniform”, said the Observer