National Army Museum : Exhibitions : WAACs at War

Jobs for the girls

WAACs shelter in trenches for an air raid, 1918. NAM 1995-01-28-89

Women were employed in a variety of jobs. As well as cooking and waiting on officers, they served as clerks, telephone operators, store-women, drivers, printers, bakers and cemetery gardeners. The WAACs had a different command structure to the male Army. Officers were called ‘Officials’ (Administrators and Assistant Administrators), Non-Commissioned Officers were referred to as ‘Forewomen’ and other ranks as ‘Workers’. Thus in name at least, the WAAC resembled the factory structure familiar at home, rather than a military formation.

The work of the WAACs was also much appreciated by their male colleagues. On 13 May 1918, Private Thomas Dyson Fuller wrote home: 'The WAACS can cook much better than the old Army cooks used to, so we shall miss them when we get to a battalion up the line.'

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Danger and disease

The WAAC also shared the dangers of their male colleagues. Air raids on the camps and depots were frequent and in one, on 30 May 1918, nine women died in an air raid at Abbeville, with six wounded. Marjory Peacock knew one of the dead girls, writing of her funeral:

Margaret Selina Caswell, who died in the air raid of 30 May 1918. NAM 1998-01-34-3

'Graves in France were just long trenches so before Trixie was buried some of us went out into the woods and gathered daffodils and brought packets of hair pins from the canteen and went down into the grave and lined her part of it by pinning daffodils to the sides before she was buried.'

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Other women fell victim to the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918-19 which killed millions across the world, as Lia Parfitt remembered:

'The Spanish Flu epidemic swept over the whole command like a whirlwind leaving many vacant places in our ranks…Every hospital was filled beyond capacity, and as soon as we were able to stand on our feet we were discharged for light duty.'

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Honoured by the Queen

With the German offensives on the Western Front in March 1918, the women of the WAAC were in grave danger as the Germans advanced rapidly through the British front. Forewoman Ada Gummersall, later recalled this tense time:

Members of the WAAC relax outside their hostel, c1917. NAM 1995-01-23-20

'In March 1918 our troops were driven out of their trenches and were in general retreat. It was an anxious time for all of us. We could hear the guns of the enemy quite close and were told by the Red Cross that arrangements were being made to evacuate us to England if it became necessary.'

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Thanks to proper organisation the WAAC was evacuated from the danger area safely and the battle turned in favour of the British once again. Their overall conduct led to Queen Mary becoming the patron of the Corps. On 9 April 1918 it was renamed Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps (QMAAC) in honour of their bravery.

Hostility all round

Members of the WAAC enjoy a game of cricket, c1917. NAM 1995-01-23-46

Surprisingly, QMAAC attracted a mixed reception from the press and public. Some wives and mothers resented their male relatives being sent to danger at the Front to be replaced by women whilst newspapers suggested that improper relations took place between QMAACs and 'Tommies'. This last rumour persisted, despite an investigation and report in March 1918 by Miss Tennyson Jesse, which found that only 21 women had been sent home pregnant in the past year.

Surplus to requirements

By 1918, nearly 40,000 women had enrolled in the QMAAC. Of these, some 7000 served on the Western Front, the rest back in the United Kingdom. With the end of the war, the QMAAC were no longer of use in an army being cut down in size to peacetime levels. On 27 Sept 1921 the QMAAC was formally disbanded. The Corps maintained a very healthy Old Comrades Association and these links remained throughout the period between the wars. Some women organised themselves into an ‘Emergency Service’ which could be mobilised if required.

This opportunity arose with the rise of Hitler and on 9 December 1938, the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) was formed. Many former QMAACs rejoined the new service, which served with distinction in the true tradition of the female pioneer soldiers of the First World War.