Munitions Gallery

Honours for Women during WW1

Double page spread featuring portraits of women given New Year honours for war work. Toprow from left to right - Mrs Clementine Churchill CBE, Ladies Auxiliary Committee (Munitions Section), Y.M.C.A, Ellen , Lady Askwith, CBE (as before), below is Flora, Lady Lugard DBE, joint founder of War Refugees Committee and Founder of the Lady Lugard Hospitality Committee, Miss Frances Louise Stevenson, CBE, Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, Miss Laurence Alma-Tadema, CBE, joint founder of the Polish Refugee Fund (daughter of the artist Lawrence Alma-Tadema), Edith Harriet, Lady Sclater DBE, President of the Work Room and Smokes Fund, Mrs May Webster DBE, Chairman of the British Women's Hospital Committee and the Three Arts Fund, Miss Florence Mary Cass, OBE, a telephonist who showed courage and devotion to duty in charge of an exchange during an explosion. Bottom row, Miss Ella Trout, OBE, who rescued a drowning sailor by pulling out to a torpedoed steamer, Miss Mabel Eleanor Clarke of Poplar, OBE, a telephonist who showed great courage and devotion to duty during air-raids, Olive Crofton, Lady Smith-Dorrien, President of the Hospital Bag Fund, Margaret, Baroness Ampthill GBE, President of the Bedfordshire Branch of the British Red Cross Society, Member of Council, Head of the Voluntary Aid Department at Devonshire House, Mrs Amy Pomeroy MBE, an Australian lady, honoured for executing a task requiring exceptional courage and self-sacrifice and Miss Kathleen Burke, CBE, awarded the honour for carrying out the "thousand dollars a day" lecturing tour in America for war hospitals. Date: 1918

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

Brave Women Who Wait by F G Kimberley

Flyer headed Brave Women - Who Wait, or The Munitions Girls Love Story by Mrs F. G. Kimberley. First produced Wolverhampton on 29th November 1915 and Elephant and Castle 21st January 1916. The scene shows a busy munitions factory with female workers being visited by a well dressed lady asking What Are You Making? Why, Shells to Help Kill Them As Killed Our Loved Ones Yonder, is the reply. Touring to Grand Theatre, Luton on 11th September 1916. Date: 1915

© The Michael Diamond Collection / Mary Evans Picture Library

Women Munitions Workers Keighley WW1

On 23rd September 1916, the West Riding Volunteer Regiment organised a flag day and procession with marching bands. It included an attractive tableaux or float by the Keighley National Shell Factory which had munitions workers in Khaki, working on a lathe. Various signs on the float read, Keighley Made Shells Made on Keighley Made Machines by Keighley Girls, Britain's Equivalent to the Famous French 75mm Shell, The 18-Pounder Shell and We are Hoping one of these presents from Keighley will hit the Kaiser in the Tummy. The National Shell Factory, Keighley, Yorkshire, was located at Eagle Mills, Dalton Lane and was opened in 1915. Date: 1916

© The March of the Women Collection/Mary Evans Picture Library