The Women's Voluntary Service

When war was declared on 3rd September, 1939, the WVS had 165 000 members drawn from groups unable to 'join up' or do essential war work. These were the elderly, the young, the housebound, or those with dependants. Men were not excluded and occasionally helped with jobs such as driving which not many women could do then.
The work quickly diversified and the organisation soon changed its name to the WVS for Civil Defence. The work of the WVS was organised in close cooperation with Government Departments and Local Authorities. One of its first tasks was to evacuate one and a half million children from the big cities to the country. In London children under five went to one of three WVS receiving nurseries. Every child had its head washed and was given any clothes he or she lacked, and then personally escorted in a train or car by a WVS member to country nurseries. In two years 30 000 little children were evacuated. One WVS member travelled 126 490 miles in three years and escorted 2 526 children under five. Members also staffed hostels, clubs, sick bays and communal feeding centres. They opened clubs for mothers, provided transport for hospital patients and undertook welfare work for the troops.
In May 1940, Germany invaded the Low Countries and the war, as far as Great Britain was concerned, really began. A total of 22 250 refugees of 40 nationalities poured in. As the first arrived at Alexandra Palace, WVS members provided food and clothing. The free world sent millions of garments during the war. In addition, clothing was bought on behalf of the Lord Mayor's Air Raid Distress Fund. It was the job of the WVS to distribute this clothing to those whose homes had been bombed out. Clothing depots were established throughout the country and every garment had to be unpacked, sorted and stored. The first mobile canteen was built and several WVS centres were asked to garnish camouflage nets. Soon thousands of women were spending the odd half hour weaving scrim on to a net backing.
By 1941 air raids were a reality in Swansea, Liverpool, Cardiff, London and other major cities. WVS organised rest centres for those left homeless after a raid. Countless thousands of meals were served, washing facilities organised and clothing issued. As well as Civil Defence duties, WVS undertook unexpected jobs such as distributing 45 million ration books, cycling into harvest fields with pork pies, and darning the socks of the British Army. At the end of 1941, the WVS enrolled its millionth member.
Thrift became an absolute necessity and by 1942 a big economy drive was under way. Make-Do-and-Mend became a way of life: paper, string and food was hoarded and WVS members knitted socks from old sweaters. Members swept up nuts and bolts from aircraft factory floors and sorted them for re-use. As Britain greeted the American troops, WVS members learned to make coffee and ran 200 British Welcome Clubs which provided hospitality for allied troops, organising dances and sight-seeing tours. Members also worked in the Compassionate Leave Camps helping servicemen with domestic problems.
By 1943 WVS members were staffing Incident Inquiry Points set up in the bombed localities to give information about the dead and injured. They often had to break bad news to the bereaved, even having to escort them to the mortuary to identify the dead. Members also took on lighter tasks and collected 56 million books for the troops, sorted the contents of 6 000 kitbags left by US Forces departing for Africa and distributed fruit juices.
In 1944 raids continued on London and East Anglia. Mobile canteens were set up to help with the evacuation of affected areas. In September Germany was invaded and the WVS was asked to take on Services Welfare there. Before the end of the year the WVS had launched two campaigns - training in household repair work; and encouraging thrift in fuel consumption. In December 2 700 unaccompanied children and 900 mothers were escorted back from Wales to the Home Counties. The Household Gifts Scheme was started with members collecting and distributing gifts of furniture to bombed-out families. Many thousands had lost all their personal possessions and could not afford to replace them. Lorry loads of furniture arrived from all over the country as well as from overseas including rugs from India, cotton cloths from Nigeria and blankets from Canada. In eighteen months over 110 000 families were helped.
On 8th May 1945 the war in Europe was over but WVS members were sent to South East Asia Command for troop welfare work. As the troops pushed through Malaya to French Indo-China, so the WVS went too. On August 15th the war against Japan was also concluded.
The members of the WVS had coped with unimaginable difficulties but they had not been constrained by regimentation and had a reputation for never saying no. Members had received many awards for gallantry, including two British Empire Medals, five George Medals and seventy-eight Empire Awards. Sadly, 241 members had died whilst on duty.