The Munitionettes by DesignRaphael Ltd

The Munitionettes 1914 -1918

cence

A small book of research

The Munitionettes 1914 -1918

A small book of research

THE MUNITIONETTES 1914-1918

The Munitionettes – 1914-1918

Shaping Voices were delighted to receive Heritage Lottery funding for their project about the women who worked in the munitions factories in WW1. During the course of the war over 700,000 women – known variably as Munitionettes or Canary Girls – undertook this dangerous work with its risk of health problems and explosions. Despite the dangers, it brought a new sense of independence, camaraderie and a change in women’s social status. Our aim was to research the role of these women, to discover what it was like for them working in the factories, their contribution to the war effort, the social implications etc.; and to present our findings in an engaging manner to the public via booklet, performance and online facilities. Our first step was to seek volunteer researchers, experienced or not, who were interested in this area of research. In return they would receive a day’s training in research techniques, benefit from a visit to the National Archives at Kew, and would become part of a Heritage WW1 project with the opportunity to connect with like-minded people. After extensive advertising we attracted a group of seventeen people from various walks of life, age and location, out of which twelve attended the training day and continued to research and present their findings to us in the months that followed. At the end of the training day the group created a large list of munitions-related research topics from which they each chose avenues of exploration. We set up a designated Munitionettes online forum where members could share their work, ideas, links to websites, information, images and films. In early November 2014, the group came together to discuss their research experience. Some had started on one track and during their research found themselves caught up in quite another area of interest. For example, Penny Benford, who lives in Beeston, near Chilwell where one of the explosions occurred, had intended to do her research locally, but when her parents told

THE MUNITIONETTES 1914-1918

her that her Nana had run away from home in her teens to become a munitionette in the large Gretna factory, she couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t resist following her trail. A fascinating journey of discovery ensued, the results of which are truly inspiring. Another turned his focus to the extensive vocational training set up to initiate women into work that men usually undertook, making important connections between this early training scheme and vocational training of today. The manner in which people presented their findings varied from strictly academic, through to informal: lists, essay, a table, letters, comprehensive links to films and sites, photographs and images, scrapbooks, as well as poems and a diary which create a portrait of the period with a blend of fact and fiction. As a creative arts organisation we find that all forms of research are valid in preserving and presenting heritage/history, and we celebrate the potential of sharing our common history in ways that bring richness into our present day lives. In this booklet our aim is to give you a flavour of the work achieved, with a range of extracts from each of our researchersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; work. You can see all the research on a designated website: www.munitionettesww1svhlf.wordpress.com

Shaping Voices Jane Metcalfe January 2015

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Contents The Munitionettes – a background to their work

A-Z of Munitionette Topics

Penny’s Pilgrimage

Penny Benford

Ladies Football Teams

David Pullen 12

“As important as men...”

Helen Rudd 14

Research List

Sarah Gregory 17

“Never Mind”

Brenda Blythe 19

The Training of Female Munitions Workers in the Great War

Tom Delafons 20

Diary of a Munitionette

Michael Gould 24

Women of World War One Working with Hazardous Chemicals Explosions

Francesca Yamini 26 Cherine Maskell 32 Ken Palen 34

Sundry Research 36 The Researchers 39 Credits

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The Munitionettes – a background to their work At the outbreak of war in 1914, Great Britain found itself on the back foot. Whereas Germany had been amassing a formidable arsenal for years, this country had been enjoying the Edwardian peace and the fruits of Empire. Despite the awful disparity between the life styles of those at the top and bottom of the social hierarchy, and the similar disparity between the rights of women as opposed to those of men, ours was a country in a dream of lasting peace. The start of the war was a shattering explosion in the calm millpool that had been Britain and her Empire. The great ripples that ensued engulfed everything, and the class ridden society that had for years been so comfortable was dismantled for ever. Although in 1914 the Royal Navy still ruled the oceans, the British Army of trained fighting men was tiny compared with that of Germany, as was the stock of guns, explosives, and ammunition. In 1914 the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) held on charge 486 guns, and howitzers. By October 1918 this had risen to 6,700 (an almost 1400% increase) with an appropriate demand for ammunition. Even after a year of warfare on the Western Front, Prime Minister Lloyd George announced in 1915 in the Commons that “The Germans could send over 100 shells to our one!” From then on weapon and ammunition production was cranked up to a level devised to put us on equal terms with the enemy, despite the enormous “bleed” of skilled ammunitions men to active service. From 1916, when conscription was introduced, even more ammunition was needed to service the increased standing army, and even more women were needed to replace those men lost to the battlefield, and, indeed, on the battlefield. So women in their thousands were called upon to produce ammunition in ever increasing volumes, for artillery, both land-based and naval, small arms, and latterly for tanks and the Royal Flying Corps, and after the fluid battleground was reduced to static trench warfare, the deadly trench mortar. At outbreak of war, the Government had three National Workshops producing munitions, where men made up more than 90% of the workforce. By 1918, women constituted more than 80%. By 1916 this Government had 100 National Workshops and controlled 5,000 establishments through the Ministry of Munitions, employing some 800,000 women.

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A-Z – topics discussed and researched A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Accidents, acorns, acid, Asquith, archives Billeting, bombs, British munitions industry Conkers, canteens, children, class, canary girls, clothing, Chilwell Dilution, dance, dress, danger Exposure to chemicals, entertainment Factories, food, football Gretna, grit in the eye, garden cities Housing, health, hazards, Hayes Illegitimate babies Jaundice Keeping morale Lists of instructions for making munitions, loss of jobs after war Munitionette, munitions, memories, men, milk National factories, nurseries, “Never Mind” song Optional work, overalls, Oatine Protective clothing, police, paternalism, Pankhurst, poison, poetry Queen Mary visit Recreation, respectable homes, recipes Sex, shells, Silvertown, suffragettes, status, singing T.N.T Uniform, union Very strict safety rules, volunteers, vocational training Wages, water, welfare, Workers Union Explosions Yellow, young women Zeppelins

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Penny’s Pilgrimage Extract from my pilgrimage diary – Tuesday 28 October2014 It’s a sunny, mild and breezy autumn morning as I set off from my parents’ home in County Durham to travel to Gretna, making a similar journey route-wise to the one my Nana made in 1916. She would have been about 20 years old and would have taken the train, whereas I’m in the privacy of a car, the radio on, zooming along motorways and dual carriageways which would Nellie, Edith and Kate Button have been beyond the imagination then. Past the Angel of the North, the Metro centre and bypassing the extensive vista of Newcastle, a very different landscape to what Edith would have seen. Then travelling west through the countryside past rural symbols of the modern day – garden centres and brown tourist signs to tea rooms and craft centres. As I come within a few miles of the border and Gretna, I hit torrential rain the like of which I’ve not seen for a long time so it’s double speed on the windscreen wipers, and warnings on the motorway of high winds and a reduced speed limit. I wonder how Edith’s arrival to this remote place was? Bleak, sunny, warm, cold, welcoming, austere? I drive through Gretna and feel excited to catch glimpses of the red brick buildings I’ve read about. But first it’s on to “The Devil’s Porridge” in Eastriggs. It’s taken me two and a quarter hours to get here – I wonder how long it took Nana? Munitionette Hostels in Gretna as they are today

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Penny’s research is in the form of a scrapbook dedicated to her parents. She wrote this letter to them at the end of her journey.

Beeston, Nottingham Dear Mum and Dad When I saw in my local the Beeston Express that Shaping Voices in Sussex were looking for volunteers with or without experience, who would like to take part in a Heritage Lotteryfunded project about women who worked in the munitions factories in World War One, my interest was aroused. One thing that I really enjoy is hearing people’s life stories, and this particular subject intrigued me since I had heard that Nana Jewitt had worked somewhere “in munitions” – and I had the impression it had been quite a formative experience for her, one which she seemed to look back on with positive feelings (although this never made sense to me), of which I myself had never spoken to her. Another reason for my interest is the local connection, having lived for many years near Chilwell where there was a huge shell filling factory, the scene of a terrible explosion in 1918 in which 139 workers lost their lives. So I signed up, trekked down to Bexhill on Sea for some initial training in August, read lots of books and documents written by or about munitions workers, surfed the Internet, spoke to you about Nana, visited a local World War One exhibition at Nottingham Castle, went on a tour of Chilwell Barracks (formerly the Shell Filling Factory) watched a couple of TV programmes on munitions/the role of women in World War One, read a novel written by two local historians based on the Chilwell explosion, watched a local drama group’s production on that same subject, and finally went on a pilgrimage cum exploration of the site of HM Factory Gretna where Nana spent her munitions years. Just like when I was a child and had “those projects” to do at school I have got a bit carried away, with so many interesting elements, and like you Dad, once I get my teeth in to something I find it difficult sometimes to know when to stop. But the time has come to put something on paper and in the form of this scrap book (probably not that dissimilar to those primary school projects) I hope to document those elements which I have found to be of particular interest, from a time which saw radical and dramatic changes which touched upon my grandmother‘s life long before we knew her.

Much love, Penny 9

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The Devil’s Porridge Museum Why the name? When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle visited the factory as a war correspondent he described the explosive paste which was mixed by hand as the Devil’s Porridge. The factory produced Cordite RDB (Research Department B,) a smokeless propellant used in guns and rockets, which was devised early in the war when acetone, needed for the production of the more usual Cordite MD (MoDified), became scarce. Cordite was made from gun cotton and nitro-glycerine which gave this dangerous substance a sweet taste as this Lily Maud Godber recalls: “ It was ever so nice to eat, we used to suck it a bit and it was very sweet – but they used to say that you shouldn’t do that because it would affect your heart. But it was nice – just like little thin pieces of macaroni to look at. You could suck it away; it’d more or less disintegrate. They said soldiers used to do that to affect their heart to get out of the Army. Perhaps we’d have one piece a night.”

Photograph: Devil’s Porridge Museum, Gretna

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The factory produced more cordite than all other British factories put together. It was sent to shell filling establishments such as the one which was in Chilwell down the road from where I live in Nottingham. The fondness Edith apparently had for her time there and the The Ether Plant photos of her with her co-workers suggest that she experienced the camaraderie which is often referred to in the accounts of life in the munitions factories. Her fond memories may also reflect the efforts of the management at this State run “model” factory to keep their workers happy, healthy and productive (although I don’t imagine this was necessarily the case at all the other munition factories nor indeed all the time at Gretna). Possibly my Nana’s experiences have some parallels with going off to a campus university something which myself and my two sisters two generations on were able to do; a situation – that of women having equal access to education and employment – which the Munitionettes may have played some part in bringing about. Nana Jewitt was born Edith Button on 8th July 1896 in Blyth, Northumberland, and died in Morpeth in 1981. Penny Benford

Edith second from right with fellow munitions workers

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Ladies Football Teams My primary interest has been in the imagery and presentation of the hundreds of thousands of women who were temporarily employed in the munitions industry. Much of what was created then still dominates our image of these “Munitionettes” today and reinforces the idea that they were donning their bonnets and dungarees to support “our boys”. But amongst the many photos of young women filling shells or turning their cases on lathes were some of football teams named after their factory or town: Blyth Spartans, Blocklow, Vaughan, AEC, Dick , Kerr & Co, Mossband, Lothian etc..

The first recorded female Munitions team match was during Christmas 1916 when the Ulverston Munitions Girls played. By 1917 they were playing in leagues, with Blyth beating Blocklow in the 1917 Tyne Wear and Tees Alfred Wood Munitions Girls Cup. The most successful team that survived the Women’s football team from the Associated war was started at Dick, Kerr & Co, a Equipment Company Munitions Factory, Beckton, factory in Preston. Alfred Franklin

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saw employees playing in their lunch hour and suggested that Grace Sibbert, as the most skilled, should create a team, which (eventually) became the Dick, Kerr’s Ladies FC. They then started playing other teams made up from other parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire, Barrow-inFurness etc.. In December 1917 Franklin persuaded Preston North End to let them have a charity match against St. Helens which drew 10,000 people. Early on the women had adopted typical football kit – shorts, bare knees and thighs, striped open neck shirts and no head gear, shin guards in socks and proper football boots .They clearly took it seriously and were a proper football team (in the early 20’s after the women’s game was banned by the FA they went to North America and found themselves playing and beating male teams!). What is great is the huge variety of kit the teams wore for their team photos. Some retained the bonnets, or smock tops, longer shorts, thick stockings etc.. Others were very up front with plain un-striped tops (which made it more obvious that they were women), or taking up the strongman pose of male sportsmen. But then there is one with a young child instead of a ball on the captain’s lap. Most are clearly a group photo for their own record and amusement. One or two have a pretty reluctant look, more like conscripts but others look like an informal party having a laugh. It is said that Lloyd George, who pushed through the training and employment of women in munitions, supported these football teams, but it seems to have been basically a Northern thing. Was there a women’s team at Woolwich or in the Midlands? I rather like the idea that it just took off because some women enjoyed it and that some factory owners were happy to support them. It certainly wasn’t endorsed in LK Yates book on women munitions workers, which concentrates on more ladylike recreations like singing and dancing with a piano, amateur dramatics, gardening etc.. Apparently there was usually a wreath laying on the local war memorial or cemetery before matches in commemoration of the dead. Even though Pathé news liked them and made stars of several of the players, it is clear that the Football Association was wary, and after a big tour by a French “Ladies” team in 1920 and a match at Goodison Park that attracted 53,000, they banned Women’s football in December 1921. David Pullen

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As Important as Men (inspired by research) Nellie is 22 and lives in Hayes, Middlesex. These are her thoughts at 6.15 one morning in March 1917 as she cycles to work at the munitions factory...

‘For the first time us women Are as important as men. Nine-and-a-half hour shifts we do, But we get paid less than them. It’s dark. At least I’m nearly there, And I’ve got my bicycle light. There’s the factory just up ahead, It feels like it’s the middle of the night. Look at that corrugated iron fence. Where have the green fields gone? I want to cry. Now there’s a factory in muddy fields With military guards standing by. As I cycle to work I put on a brave face, Sitting upright with a sense of pride. “How can she work there?” some people say. Well, I’m not going to hide. It’s a man’s world alright, Look at us women doing the same as them. The machinery’s heavy, it’s dangerous work, But they don’t really like us, those men. They think that we’re out of control, “Follow the rules”, we’re told. We’re earning our money, doing our bit. Patriotism’s what it’s called. 14

THE MUNITIONETTES 1914-1918

They call us rowdy and forthright. We don’t behave as they want us to. But we get all the dirty jobs And get on with it – there’s a job to do. Life goes on, though we’re under attack. Work – us women prove that we can. We produce artillery, we’re filling and climbing – We’re more flexible than a man. We’ve got our friends to talk to here, Us women are coming into our own. The men, they always boss us around, Then sit around and moan. We’re answering Lloyd George’s call to arms, Keeping things going at home. We’re really helping our country, us girls, Though war means murder, I know. My skin’s turning yellow (canaries, we’re called), And my hair’s tied up all the time. I swallow dust when I breathe in And I should be in my prime. It’s noisy and dirty, with bad fuggy air, We’re a military target of course. But we don’t feel useless any more, In our way, we’re a military force. We have baths, we’re served in the canteen, A daily pint of milk we get too. It’s to do us good and help us with The kind of work we do.

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I’m working on the ‘Danger Zone; – I’m on the amatol section now – We fill up the shells, it’s toxic, And I can’t help feeling proud, We’ve all gained in self-confidence, Morale is high for us girls. We’ve got money to spend, we get out of the house. We’re liberated, a different world. It’s so noisy when we get in there, Sounds that fill me with fear. But there’s money jingling in my pocket, A really good sound to hear. I don’t half get tired these days. Here I am again, yawning. Fear when I go to bed, fear when I get up. What will this day bring? The truth is, I’m scared. What if there’s an explosion? What if I’m blinded? There’s always a risk, I feel caught up in all this confusion. But what does it matter anyway? We’re only mere women, they say Am I glad I’m a munitionette? Yes and No, I say.”

Helen Rudd

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Research List I started with a big list and then just went all over the show really... o 1.600.000 women were involved in aiding the war effort between 1914-1918. o 950.000 women were involved in munitions by the time of Armistice Day. o There were 700.000 in Germany. o The women worked 10-12 hours a day. o Prior to munitions work most women were servant/domestic. o Many had TNT poisoning. o They knew the work was dangerous but they carried on because of the people they loved who were at war. o Even if they were pregnant they would carry on. o They would develop yellow, burnt-like skin. o The munitions factory workers had rule books to follow. o Created the Healthy Act booklet – This booklet suggested other activities to stop people from drinking alcohol as drinking was seen as being as bad as the German enemy. Buying rounds in the pub, “treating”, was banned. o Rest huts were built to help the women relax. o “Munitions Mary” – unionist Mary MacArthur – was an icon. o People had various roles. It seems that the different levels of staff did not mix with each other. o The average ages of the women would be 21-40. o At IWM saw a section on Music Hall songs which were popular in WW1. Vesta Tilley. o Found some documents at the National Archive that may relate to this book I saw about protective clothing. They are mainly the cost of the item. Fascinating. www.archive.org/stream/protectiveclothi00grearich#page/ n1/mode/2up

Protective clothing for women and girl workers employed in the factories and workshops

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Found this in the Daily Telegraph: Betty Rennid from Oakington, near Cambridge, writes: “During the First World War, my mother, Mrs Lillian Standen, was a forewoman at Woolwich Arsenal. At the time, she was engaged to my father and they were married on one of his annual seven days leave in 1917. “Workers at the Woolwich Arsenal were screened on arrival at work to ensure that they weren’t carrying any metal objects. On one occasion, a girl was found to have her keys in her pocket. She was reprimanded, but because Mum was the forewoman and responsible for the girls, she was the one who was punished. ‘‘Her punishment was to be sent to another munitions factory near Bristol for a number of months. Each weekend she would travel back to London to her widowed mother (Mum’s brother was killed at the battle of the Somme) and return to Bristol on Sunday evening. ‘‘Not one for wasting time on train journeys, Mum managed to crochet her curtains and table covers, some of which I still have. On her return to London, the Zeppelin raids had begun, but this didn’t stop her cycling to the factory each day.” www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/inside-first-world-war/ 10273760/your-memories.html

Sarah Gregory

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Entertainment I looked at entertainment and I found a song written by the factory girls who worked in the Light & Co Munitions Works, Brighton. It was based on a Trench song, ‘Never Mind’, so I printed that out and on another website I found the chorus fits in with the tune of ‘If you’re Happy and You Know it Clap Your Hands’. It went on sale and the proceeds were used to provide comforts for British wounded soldiers in Brighton Hospitals. www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/page_id__10802. aspx?path=0p116p1549p

Most of my research is in a scrapbook but I wrote this poem which came out of the research

T.N.T

T.N.T. Packing shells, Hear the sound of Bow Bells. Girls laughing while they work, Packing shells; they don’t shirk. Men in charge think we can’t cope, But we all carry on Filled with hope. Fire at the factory; Girls are dead. Will this horror never end?

Brenda Blythe

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The Training of Female Munitions Workers in the Great War and a Message to the Future On the 25th of May 1915 Asquith, who was prime minister, sent an extraordinary letter of support to his colleague Lloyd George who was then setting up the Ministry of Munitions and about to drastically transform British society. In the letter he describes the wonderful attributes of his friend and fellow minister in almost lyrical terms, “I cannot let this troubled and tumultuous chapter in our history pass without letting you know what incalculable help and support I have found in you all through. I shall never forget your devotion, your unselfishness, your powers of resource, and what is (after all) the best of things, your self-forgetfulness.” It would be a mistake as a researcher or historian to try and second guess the motives or hidden meaning of these words, especially a hundred years after they were composed without more detailed analysis. However as a writer I will use freedom of expression to try and divine their significance. I think that Asquith wasn’t merely describing his friend, who might well have had many if not all of these sublime gifts; he was also communicating the spirit of that age. Asquith was an intelligent and highly educated man who would have been very sensitive to the profound changes taking place in civilisation during time of war. He would have been all too painfully aware of 20

the sacrifices being made by millions of young men on the battlefields of northern France and the deep impact this would have on Britain; in fact he lost his own son, Raymond, to the war in September 1916. When he uses the phrase ‘self-forgetfulness’ one can’t help but feel that this is what an entire generation of men were experiencing during the war; not just a forgetting but a self-annihilation so that an entirely new order could be born. Asquith knew this which is why his letter to Lloyd George was so impassioned. He also knew that the young women who had volunteered for work in the munitions factories represented the future and that the old patriarchal authority, which had existed since the time of ancient Greece was now coming to an end. It must have caused him the greatest pain as a gentleman of Victorian England and yet you can also sense from the letter that he was prepared to let go of that golden age, thereby allowing British society to be radically restructured. It was only a few weeks after Asquith wrote his letter that the Ministry of Munitions Act was passed on the 9th of June and Lloyd George had by then set himself up at Whitehall Gardens with the ‘embryo of the new Ministry’ as he put it. In the first week of June he embarked on a tour of the country

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to rouse the consciousness of the nation to the seriousness of the conflict in which they were engaged. Lloyd George was even then fully aware that ‘the war was an engineer’s war’ and that the establishment of a highly organised and specialised engineering industry was vital for the successful and victorious resolution of the conflict. One significant problem that Lloyd George found on his travels round the country was that of union power. The unions were obsessed with something called ‘dilution’; this was the employment of unskilled labour which of course was absolutely necessary

because most of the skilled men had been sent to the front. In fact women encountered such hostility in factories and workshops at the beginning of the war that they were forced to leave. This resulted in perhaps one of the most important innovations of the war and something that has a profound influence on our world to this day, which is vocational training. It was realised in the late spring and early summer of 1915 that technical institutes and educational establishments would have to train volunteers. The recognised engineering companies at the time would 21

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only take on men who had been through the traditional apprentice system which took years to complete. It became increasingly obvious that due to the urgency of the war an entirely new form of training was required that focused on specific skills such as how to turn a shell on a lathe. This led to the genesis of a revolutionary new form of education which trained female volunteers under conditions that they would find in the working environment. To accomplish this ‘Instructional Factories’ were set up, the most notable of which was in Loughborough which in 1915 was nothing more than a small technical institute. One of the main proponents of this new system was Herbert Schofield who applied for the job of principal at the college. Schofield introduced ‘training on production’ which effectively meant that volunteers were trained on the job whilst producing shells for the war effort. Critically the factories approved of it and on the 5th of November 1915 a memo was circulated around technical schools and institutes allowing them to train semi-skilled workers for munitions work. The training was to be absolutely practical without academic or bench work but focused entirely on the machines that the trainees would eventually use in the factories where they were placed. The small number of shells that the technical institutes produced would go into the war effort and the idea of the Instructional Factory had its origin in Loughborough. 22

The training course proved to be a great success and between January and April 1916 four hundred semi-skilled munitions workers were trained at Loughborough. They were put on work placement in the Cammell Laird factory which was delighted by the quality of the workers and requested more. Also by the end of February 1916 fifty seven courses had been set up around the country. By 31st August of that year 22,500 students received their training certificates of proficiency and of these 59% were women.

Conclusion It is clear now that the events of early summer 1915 were a pivotal moment in British if not world history. What an extraordinary confluence of forces were at play during that time. There was the supreme effort of Lloyd George and his realisation of the necessity to allow women to be employed in munitions work. Also Herbert Schofield waiting patiently for his opportunity to transform the way people could be trained, and who would never have got that chance if it hadn’t been for the war. It cannot be overstated what a dramatic alteration in the culture of that era it was to allow women into the hallowed sanctum of the engineering workshop which, up to that point, was an entirely male preserve. It must have been a daunting experience for those women to enter the factory environment for the first time but, of course, they proved to be excellent at their job and their efforts

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undoubtedly contributed greatly to the successful outcome of the war. Finally I’d like to go back to Asquith’s letter and draw parallels with our own present. He was aware of the sacrifice of an entire generation and that this would lead to monumental changes within British Society. When you look at the photographs of the Munitionettes hard at work on lathes performing difficult, dangerous and also exhausting tasks you can’t help but notice the intensity of their expressions and the enjoyment they took from the work. This human- machine interface is now even stronger within our world because of computer technology which gives us the hope of progress and also the threat of its undeniable power. It was exactly the same back then when industrialisation also benefited and threatened society. The true and also unforeseen beneficiaries of the First World War were, without doubt, women’s emancipation, education and the ability to guide technology in a positive direction all of which have relevance for us today.

References: Ministry of Munitions Bill: MUN 5/19/221/16 National Archives Manufacturing and the Great War, Author Wayne Osborne: Loughborough University Institutional Repository.

Tom Delafons

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Diary of a Munitionette (inspired by research)

Dear Bertie

Monday: I’ve just gone yellow, so I’m a real “canary girl” now. It’s all them acids. But they’re giving us lots of milk to drink as it’s supposed to make you less yellow. We’ll see. Tuesday: We had a ceremony last week in honour of the men of Syston who gave their lives for King and Country in South Africa. My Mum was so proud. I mean she was upset too. But she never let it show. Dad and Mr. Mulroney died on the same day at Majuba Hill. But Mrs. Mulroney didn’t attend. She said doing her bit at the factory was much more important. She never misses a day. Wednesday: There was a very nasty scare at the factory yesterday; a Zeppelin came over and dropped some bombs. One of them landed in the yard, but it didn’t explode. But two hit the fire station, and the Chief Officer had his head blown off. I didn’t see it. I was safe and sound in the canteen eating mince and mash. I framed the poem you wrote for me and put it on the wall next to our bed. “The Scent of Golden Curls” was such a lovely title. Mum says that it’s sentimental trash, and says I’ve got to keep a stiff upper lip. Thursday: Dr.Herbert did the service at All Saints on Sunday, because the Reverend Newton-Holder was down with the ‘flu.’ People have started dying with it up in Leicester. I don’t know what’s worse – fear of the factory blowing up, or fear of the flu. Mrs. Mulroney’s sister was blown up last month in a factory in Kent. They only found her hat afterwards. Doctor Herbert said God is with us, and will never leave us. We’ve got to make sacrifices for God, the King, and the country. I’m not so sure about that. Friday: I got a pay rise yesterday! So I celebrated by buying a photo frame for that picture of you looking so smart the day you got your uniform. And I got Fred a pop-gun and a little Kaiser doll, so he can shoot him. Saturday: Some of the girls have started a football team. It’s quite a thing to see. I haven’t got the energy but those young ones loves it! There’s a singalong club too. All them popular music

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Opera Singer Luisa Tetrazzini singing at the Hayes Munitions Factory

hall songs. I’ve been a couple of times, but as you know I can’t hold a tune, and I got a few funny looks from the other girls. A famous opera singer came to sing to us. She was very fat and warbly and dressed up in furs, but when she sang Home Sweet Home I had a little cry. Does you good now and then. Sunday: When you come home I want us to go and see Chu Chin Chow. Some of us girls sing the tunes whilst we’re working. Foreman doesn’t like it, but we works better and it helps the time pass. Twelve hours is a long day, but I just keep pinching myself to remember that it must be worse for you, dear. Mrs. Mulroney went to see it last week, and she says it’s the cat’s whiskers. They say it’s in for a long run. Here’s to you coming back safe and sound so we can go together. The rate we’re making bombs it’s got to be over with soon... hasn’t it?

Michael Gould

THE MUNITIONETTES 1914-1918

Extracts from A-Z of munitionette facts

Housing Lodgings Olive Taylor at Morecambe, in a seaside boarding house, spent 25s of her 27s wage on rent. She reported that there were five to a room, little food, and no laundry (Kate Adie, Corsets to Camouflage). Edith Button’s landlady in Gretna helped her to escape from a wrathful mother who had come to take Edith home. Jane Metcalfe’s Hannah Crossley, escaping from an explosion in Lancaster, was part of a party from her lodgings. The Woolwich Advisory Committee on Womens’ Employment compiled register of suitable lodgings and had separate register for women supervisors. Billeting May 1917: Billeting Act laid down standard rates and implemented compulsory billeting for munitions workers.

strange places were met and accommodation, possibly temporary, provided. Ministry of Munitions (MoM) instructions to Outside Welfare Workers: responsible to MoM for 1–H ousing: register of inspected lodgings should be available; to report to MoM if more hostels needed; 2 – arrival of workers; 3 – c ontact with agencies responsible for illness and maternity care of Munitionettes. Enough doctors? Be aware of those in lodgings; 4 – c are of children: OWW to report if need for more nurseries/creches; 5 – recreation: to stimulate provision of girls’ clubs, recreations centres etc. by voluntary effort; 6 – travel – keep watchful eye on stations; 7 – public order – also a watchful eye. Much emphasis on encouragement of voluntary initiatives.

August 1917: Billeting Board aims to find accommodation: success at Barrow, Hereford, but hopeless at Woolwich.

Landlords near munition works increased rents; this forced government to control working class rents countrywide by end 1915, and to consider

L.K. Yates, The Woman’s Part: local committees and employment bureaux compiled lists. Young women arriving in

Housing schemes e.g. Well Hall Garden Suburb, Eltham for Woolwich workers – 1000 homes, 300 flats,

THE MUNITIONETTES 1914-1918

managed by LCC, and also ‘temporary’ bungalows/huts. Over 10,000 accommodated on 38 different sites, usually on edge of existing towns (Gretna an exception) Gretna Factory built in 12 months, over 9 miles long. By May 1916 had two townships, Gretna and Eastriggs, c.12 shops – baker, laundry, central kitchens, post office, cinema, dental clinic, schools, institute, 5 new churches, telephone exchange, no pubs, up to 40 canteens, 125 mile track light railway. Arthur Conan Doyle: ‘. . .one of the wonder spots of the earth, as showing what man’s brains and energy can effect’. Christopher Addison, under-sec to Lloyd George at MoM, diary: ‘...You cannot expect decent workers earning good wages to crowd into the already overcrowded houses in these places’ [re permanent, as opposed to temporary buildings, Gretna and Eastriggs) Temporary accommodation – cottages, hostels, ‘colonies’. Cottages: wood or concrete, usually 1 storey, 3 – 5 rooms, usually for couples. Rent 5s6d – 7s6d pw for 3 rooms. Colonies: hostels, usually for unmarried

women and girls, 30 – 100 occupants (but one Midland hostel had 6,000 women – where can this have been?), kitchen, dining room, common room. Dormitories divided into cubicles, some single, some double. Bathrooms in dormitory blocks. Meals usually in separate building but sometimes in factory canteen. Recreation room, laundry. Lady supervisor, sometimes a recreation officer. ‘Need for upholding an atmosphere of religious and racial toleration’ (Yates). Permanent (estates like Well Hall, Gretna, Eastriggs)– 2 storey brick cottage, 2 – 3 beds, living room, kitchen, bath (and sometimes a bathroom). At what must be Gretna, Yates saw permanent brick cottages in blocks of 12 so that ‘ultimately they can be reseparated for family use’. Older women often housed in bungalows with housekeeper/cook. Yates impressed by pre-Christmas celebrations at un-named hostel and impromptu speech there by young munitionette: ‘We wish to take this opportunity of thanking our matron and our secretary for the most happy time we have had under this roof. We do it now beause we hope not to be here next year but instead to be welcoming our boys home from the Front’. 27

THE MUNITIONETTES 1914-1918

Extracts from A-Z of munitionette facts continued

Sex Unmarried mothers Kate Adie has graph showing illegitimacy didn’t rise during WWI. For working class, coitus interruptus and abortion were chief contraceptives. Adie also has story of abandoned Tyneside baby, the note round her neck reading ‘I am a munition worker, 17yrs. My mother put me out. Father of baby killed. Take care of her’. F. B. Meyer in 1917 called for young women ‘found interfering with soldiers’ in the streets to be ‘shut up to work in munition factories’.

Pregnancy Welfare supervisors were the link between worker and management. Pregnant women put on lighter work if possible; not allowed to handle TNT or work in explosives factory; no night work. If factory unable to keep her, pregrant woman would be transferred if possible to ‘lighter work outside the factory’ (Yates). Yates reported that in the dockyard s/he visited, no talking was allowed during working hours between the sexes. Clare Currey

THE MUNITIONETTES 1914-1918

Women of World War 1 On the eve of the World War 1 the position of women In British Society was largely unfavourable. “Women’s work”, mainly domestic service, was poorly paid and considered separate and inferior to “men’s work”. Women were still expected to revert to their natural roles of wife, mother and house keeper. Despite or because of this situation, Britain was home to the most active feminist movement in Western Europe, the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst founded the WSPU in Manchester in October 1903. Her daughter Christabel was to become a stalwart member. Emmeline and Christabel considered that the threat posed by Germany was a danger to all humanity and the British Government needed the support of all citizens. They persuaded the WSPU to halt all militant suffrage activities until hostilities ended in European mainland. Christabel warned of the German peril and urged women to keep the country going, to get the harvest in, and to carry on the industries. In her book UNSHACKLED Christabel Pankhurst explained how she responded to the news in 1914 that Britain and Germany were at war.

Mary MacArthur

“War was the only course for our country to take. This was national militancy. As Suffragettes we could not be pacifists at any price. Mother and I declared support of our country. We declared armistice with the Government and suspended militancy for the duration of the war. We offered our service to the country and called upon members to do likewise... As Mother said, “What would be the good of a vote without a country to vote in!” In 1906 Mary MacArthur founded the National Federation of Women Workers, a 29

THE MUNITIONETTES 1914-1918

union open to “all women” from whatever branch of industry they came from. By the time war broke out in 1914 the Federation had organised 300,000 women out of a total female work force of 5,000,000. As men marched off to the trenches and women began to take their place, the numbers working in factories and therefore eligible to join a trade union exploded. From 1916, she served on the governments Reconstruction Committee which had been established to advise the government about the conditions of woman’s employment after the war. The committee’s 1919 Report recommended that women should have a properly paid and organised training for industry, a minimum wage, a forty hour week and a fortnight’s annual holiday. Estimates by the Board of Trade of the number of women employed in the “new industries” in February 1914 compared to July 1916, 2,500 replaced men in iron and steel, 17,400 in engineering and 2,000 in electrical engineering. Females were employed to assist skilled men with lighter and less skilled work. Women given employment were more than the number required to maintain normal proportion between the sexes. Munition workers fell into two groups, those employed on destructive munitions, and those employed on work that could be used for civilian purposes. It was estimated 180,000 males and 65,000 females would continue in the same work at the end of the war. 510,000 males and 460,000females would lose employment. 500,000 males and 100,000 females would be dilutees and with the absence of further agreement with the Trade Unions presumably be displaced. At the end of the war the National Factories dismissed sixty four percent immediately. For destructive munition workers a period of notice was specified in their contracts varying from seven days to six months, four weeks. Many women would wish to remain in employment due to the wage earning habit. But many would return to their domestic duties.

Francesca Yamini

THE MUNITIONETTES 1914-1918

References Doyle P. (2012) â&#x20AC;&#x153;First World War Britainâ&#x20AC;? Shire Living Histories www.history learningsite.co.uk/womensrights.htm

Accessed 15/09/2014 www.national archives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/document_packs

Accessed 07/09/2014 www.spartacus=educational.com/Wfirst.htm

Accessed 15/09/2014 www.historylearningsite.co.uk/womens_social_poliotical_union.htm

Accessed 27/10/2014 www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Party_(UK)

Accessed 30/10/2014 www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmeline_Pankhurst

Accessed 30/10/2014 www.socialistparty.org.uk/print/19106

Accessed 08/09/2014 National Archives Documents Women War Workers Resettlement Committee Memorandum No.11

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Working with Hazardous Chemicals “Some of those ladies were paid extra because they were working in the most dangerous parts of the factory,” Mr Catton said. “It was probably more dangerous than firing a gun, in a sense.” www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-26225744

Between 1914 and the end of World War I, the number of women working in Britain’s munitions industry increased from 212,000 to 950,000. By June 1917, roughly 80% of the weaponry and ammunition used by the British army during World War I was being made by Munitionettes. Notably, women in the industry were paid on average less than half of what the men were paid and worked with hazardous chemicals on a daily basis without proper gear to protect them. Many women worked with trinitrotoluene (TNT), and prolonged exposure to the sulphur turned the women’s skin a yellow colour. The women whose skin was turned yellow were popularly called canary girls. Prolonged exposure to the chemicals also created serious health risks for the Munitionettes. Exposure over a long period of time to chemicals such as TNT can cause severe harm to the immune system. People exposed to TNT can experience liver failure, anemia, and spleen enlargement; TNT can even affect women’s fertility. Another ever-present hazard of the Munitionettes’ work was the risk of explosion. On several occasions the explosives the women were 32

working with ignited, injuring or killing the workers. Explosions at British munitions factories during World War I included the 1917 Silvertown explosion, in which 73 people were killed and over 400 injured, and a 1918 explosion at the National Shell Filling Factory, Chilwell, which killed over 130 workers. www.martinharrisonsmedalresearch. weebly.com/lumm-john-william.html Case of Toxic Jaundice due to “T.N.T.” (Tri-Nitro-Toluene) Poisoning

The yellow staining was caused by the handling of picrate/picric acid explosive. Picric acid was used as a Yellow dye over 100 years before it was used as an explosive. Lyddite was a commercial name for picric acid. See this extract from the diary of Miss G West who worked as a cook at a large munitions factory in Woolwich: July 22nd 1916

Today I was shown over the factory as a great favour. First I saw cordite made into charges. Each charge consists of five or six little bagsful and a core. Each little bag is shaped like a lifebelt. The quantity of cordite it contains has to be weighed to a pin’s head. Even the silk it is sewn up with is weighed. Each bag contains a different weight and the five or six are then threaded on the core. The core is made of a bundle of cordite like a faggot. The whole charge is then packed in a

THE MUNITIONETTES 1914-1918

box with a detonator. Then I was shown the lyddite works. This is a bright canary yellow powder (picric acid) and comes to the factory in wooden tubs. It is then sifted. The house (windows, doors, floor and walls) is bright yellow, and so are the faces & hands of all the workers. As soon as you go in the powder in the air makes you sneeze and splutter and gives you a horrid bitter taste at the back of the throat. After sifting, the acid is put in cans and stood in tanks where it is boiled until it melts into a clear fluid like vinegar. Then it is poured into the shell case. But a mould is put in before it has time to solidify. This mould when drawn out leaves a space down the middle of the shell. Before it is drawn out beeswax is poured in, & then several cardboard washers put in. Then the mould is replaced by a candle shaped exploder of TNT or some other very high explosive is put in. After this the freeze cap is screwed in and

then two screws have to be put in to hold it firm. The holes for these screws must not be drilled straight into the detonator. If they do the thing explodes. www.alphahistory.com/worldwar1/ west-munitions-factory-1916/

ďżź Cherine Maskell

THE MUNITIONETTES 1914-1918

Explosions

“ The whole heavens were lit in awful splendour. A fiery glow seemed to have come over the dark and miserable January evening.” The Stratford Express 1917

Factories were established in built up areas and it had a devastating effect when a TNT plant exploded at Ashton-under-Lyme, Manchester, where 53 died, and later at Silvertown, East London over 70 died – both residents and workers lost their lives. There was another explosion at Faversham, Kent 108 killed, thankfully no women were killed as the explosion happened on a Sunday when they didn’t work. This was exceeded by an explosion at Chilwell, Nottingham, where there were 134 fatalities. The Silvertown Explosion at West Ham happened in 1917 when TNT in a munitions factory owned by Brunner-Mond caught fire and exploded. An investigation into the blast after it happened did not find a cause for the explosion, although many people had worried that it had been down to sabotage or a German bomb. The investigation did find that the TNT had not necessarily been stored safely enough. It was also concluded that it had not been safe to purify TNT in such a highly populated area, but, by then, it was too late. www.eastlondonhistory.co.uk/silvertown-explosion-1917/

Two fire officers were killed at the time who both lived in the same street; but in those days firemen mainly lived near their fire stations, so you’d find that a little street or cul de sac was made up of firemen who worked at the station. In fact the fire station was destroyed through the explosion. I had a list of the casualties from the Silvertown one and it was quite interesting because there were a couple of family groups that all died in the explosion, you know, children, mother and father so obviously they were in houses that were close by. With 100,000 factories involved it’s amazing how few serious accidents there were; obviously there were the big explosions – the one in London and the one in Nottingham – but by and large when you think how dangerous this work was, I think that it was a very safe industry. Ken Palen

THE MUNITIONETTES 1914-1918

Gertrude Cursley – Victim of the Chilwell Factory Explosion

Gertrude Cursley was killed in the big explosion there on July 1st 1918 and her family found 15 minutes of filming of the women at work in the factory in a garden shed which is now being restored at the Imperial War Museum. Peter Cursley & Gerald Day (great-nephews) write:

“We have no information about our great-aunt except that we know that her husband was away at war. We also have a photo and a letter from The Ministry of Munitions of the War and a document stating that upon her death financial settlements were made to her 4 young children of £50 each, which you are welcome to use. Apart from that we have no more information about Gertrude.”

Letter to Gertrude Cursley’s relatives after the explosion at Chilwell Gertrude Cursley

THE MUNITIONETTES 1914-1918

Sundry Research “My great Aunt, Anne Smith, worked at Woolwich. I have a postcard of the Munitions Factory and photos of her in her protective clothing and one of her with a group of other young girls in front of a board showing the details of their section. I know that a lot of records at Woolwich were destroyed during the war so have not really followed up or researched Aunt Anne’s time.“ Sally Lymer

Anne Smith (first left back row)

The Woolwich Arsenal factory

THE MUNITIONETTES 1914-1918

Info wanted on Norwood area and Cove Family approx 1890 -1950 Interested in finding about this family William Robert COVE,Jessie COVE nee WALES children Frederick and Dorothy who married Charles PARSONS. William was quite high in the United Friendly Society and name mentioned in local newspapers for fundraising. they lived in Ladas Road, Crystal Terrace, Waldeck Villas. He was also a Head pipe fitter (Tate and Lyles?) Where would my grandmother gone to school in the early 1900? She also worked in munitions in the 1st world war where would this have been in that area? Also both father and mother & children were married at St Lukes church South Norwood. www.curiousfox.com/uk/mbprof2.lasso?eid=129562&-nothing

“I have a few pictures of my Nan, Dorothy Parsons (nee Cove) in her munitions dress with other women, outside, I think, where they worked.... She lived in west Norwood Surrey, so I don’t know where the munitions factory was that she worked in, although mum used to say that one of her relatives, either her Nan, mum or dad, worked at the Tate and Lyle factory. I think it was in Silvertown... Perhaps it was there.” Chris Giles

Dorothy Cove

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Blyth Spartans

Jean Morgan front row first right

Penny Benford received this email from Christina Richards:

“ My grandmother Jean Morgan did work at the Blyth munitions factory and played football for Blyth Spartans women’s football team. We are extremely proud of my grandmother for her war effort and for her achievements on the football field at a time when not everyone thought their sporting activities was acceptable recreation for women despite all profits being returned to the war effort or for the benefit of injured servicemen. My grandmother did not speak about her time in the munitions factory during the First World War and she rarely spoke about her experiences of playing football for Blyth Spartans. My grandmother had told my mam about playing football on her wedding day. When my mam spoke about it following my grandmother’s death, my dad was somewhat sceptical and it wasn’t until we came across match reports on the Internet for 17th October 1917, which was my grandmother’s wedding day, that my dad was convinced!”

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The Researchers “ I went to an exhibition in the Hastings Museum and the museum down in Somerset and I was utterly inspired by the posters on the wall asking you to do your bit for your country, including the women, and I was thinking: if I was around then I would really want to do my bit for the war.” “ I religiously counted all factories and that’s only the national ones – the filling factories, the shell factories the HM explosives factory, national projectile factory and chemical warfare factory…there are loads of other ones with most peculiar names, like a national balloon factory, ball bearing factory, fuse filling factories, box repair factories...”

‘“ What a huge logistical nightmare it must have been when we were being overrun by the Germans to set all this up very quickly so all these men suddenly get shot out to the front, all these women get shot into the factories.” “ On this photo I’m looking at there’s a man behind this pillar and he’s hiding himself away looking at the women doing all the hard work.” “ She worked 7 days a week 6 am to 5 pm and on night shifts every two weeks.” “ I think there’s no doubt that this whole experience had a massive impact on women. Some of the Munitionettes were incredibly young; I mean 14-20 and 14 year olds lying about their age!”

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“ I started off with one thing and ended up with a lot of other things.” “ I did realise that the picture that has come out from what we have unearthed is one of cheerful girls willingly doing the most ghastly things for over 3 years. Some of them must have been miserable - or homesick, for instance.” “ Men at the front were shocked that not only had they been replaced by women workers but that they had sometimes secured better pay than they had...” “ Another aspect of safety I found interesting was the fact that so many munitions and explosives were being shunted around the country on trains.”

“ When I saw in the Beeston Express that Shaping Voices were looking for volunteers, with or without experience, to take part in a Heritage Lottery funded project about women who worked in the munitions factories in World War One, my interest was aroused.” “ I discovered there was a bomb factory in Eastbourne. It made Christmas pudding bombs – look like mines to me!” “She had grey hair and her hair turned green.” “ After the war national factories dismissed 64% of the women immediately.”

THE MUNITIONETTES 1914-1918

CREDITS Creative Team Jane Metcalfe Clare Whistler Project Director Jane Metcalfe Project idea & Fundraising Rachel Lewis Research Trainer Anita Broad Admin Sophie Pullen Design DesignRaphael Ltd Print www.elephantprint.co.uk Researchers Penny Benford Brenda Blythe Clare Currey Tom Delafons Michael Gould Sarah Gregory Cherine Maskell Ken Palen David Pullen Helen Rudd Francesca Yamini also... Michaele Wynn-Jones Chris Giles Sally Lymer Teri Sayers-Cooper

Creative Reminiscence We would like to thank all our volunteer researchers whose commitment and contributions have helped to make this project a success.

Special Thanks Catherine Harvey (HMAG) David Pullen Jonny van Rekum Shaping Voices Board Sound Architect Tina Benson Shaping Voices is an East Sussex-based creative arts charity working with local communities, older people, reminiscence, heritage, performance and training. We have done our best to ensure that all research material, where appropriate, has been referenced and that all images are either in the public domain or have received permission from their owners to be reproduced here. We apologise for any errors or omissions. www.shapingvoices.org www.munitionettesww1svhlf.wordpress.com

The Munitionettes 1914 -1918

“ They are in the factories now, five hundred thousand of them all over the country, a ence vast army of female soldiers, who stand for British womanhood…” Our Girls: Their Work for the War, 1916