Can you identify this lady’s uniform?
QThese pictures turned up in my father’s old photo album. Can you identify what sort of uniform the lady ( left) is wearing? I believe my father’s cousins did some nursing during the 1914/1918 war. Rosemary Stone, by email
AThis is an intriguing photograph although, unfortunately not quite in focus, so details that would give definitive identification are very difficult to see. However, they show a variety of female uniform worn during the First World War, as women increasingly became involved during the course of the conflict. Following the general lines of fashionable dress, their uniform also needed to fulfil practical and durable roles. A calf-length skirt and hip-length tunic or jacket followed these criteria and was used for many of the uniformed roles that women undertook during the war, as can be seen here.
Converting women’s attitudes on making individual choices about their dress to wearing regulation uniform for a role they had volunteered for was seen as challenging and the subject of contemporary newspaper articles. There were also numerous complaints by women across the services about their uniform, how they were expected to wear it and how practical it actually was. Uniform or an allowance was given if women signed up to a particular service as an incentive, which could give a certain amount of freedom in choosing suitable clothing. How strictly uniform codes were enforced depended on the type and arena of service. Those working abroad at the front saw dress codes strictly enforced, while those who remained at home working, for example, in factories or on the land often experienced more flexibility.
The lighter-coloured uniform suggests a khaki colour, the type of uniform with brass buttons and four large pockets suggesting a role in Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps or the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY).
The darker, perhaps navy colour, suggests a trained nursing role, with an unidentifiable badge on her cap.