Jambusters (43 page)
Authors: Julie Summers
Gillies, Midge,
The Barbed Wire University: The Real Lives of Allied Prisoners of War in the Second World War
(London: Aurum Press Ltd, 2011)
Goodenough, Simon,
Jam and Jerusalem: A Pictorial History of Britain’s Greatest Women’s Movement
(London: Berkeley Publishers Ltd, 1977)
Hampton, Janie,
How the Girl Guides Won the War
(London: Harper Press, 2010)
Harrisson, Tom and Madge, Charles,
War Begins at Home
by Mass Observation (London: Chatto & Windus, 1940)
Hertfordshire Federation of Women’s Institutes,
The Hertfordshire Village Book
(Newbury: Countryside Books, 1986)
Hertfordshire Federation of Women’s Institutes,
Pride in our Past
(Newbury: Countryside Books, 2008)
Jenkins, Inez,
The History of the Women’s Institute Movement of England and Wales
(Oxford University Press, 1953)
Kitchen, Penny (compiler),
The Women’s Institute for Home & Country, War, Peace and Rural Life As Seen Through the Pages of the WI Magazine 1919–1959
(London: Ebury Press, 1990)
Lawson, John and Silver, Harold,
A Social History of Education in England
(London: Methuen & Co, 1973)
Livingstone, Sir Richard,
Education for a World Adrift
(Cambridge University Press, 1943)
Longmate, Norman,
How We Lived Then: A History of Everyday Life During the Second World War
(London: Arrow Books Ltd, 1973)
McCall, Cicely,
Looking Back from the Nineties
(Norwich: Gliddon Books, 1994)
McCall, Cicely,
Women’s Institutes
(London: William Collins, 1943)
Middleton, C. H.,
Digging for Victory
(London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1942)
Nicholson, Virginia,
Millions Like Us
(London: Viking, 2011)
Richards, Guy and Dalton-Morris, Shirley,
Longcot: A Village in the Vale
(Faringdon: Shirley Dalton-Morris, 1999)
Robertson Scott, J. W.,
The Story of the Women’s Institute Movement in England & Wales & Scotland
(Kingham: The Village Press, 1925)
Roffey, James,
A Schoolboy’s War in Sussex
(Stroud: The History Press, 2010)
Sheridan, Dorothy (ed.),
Wartime Women: A Mass Observation Anthology
(London, William Heinemann Ltd, 1990)
Stamper, Anne,
Rooms off the Corridor: Education in the WI and 50 years of Denman College 1948–1998
(London: WI Books, 1998)
Titmuss, Richard,
History of the Second World War: Problems of Social Policy
(London: HM Stationery Office and Longmans, Greene and Co, 1950)
Townsend, Colin and Eileen,
War Wives: A Second World War Anthology
(Glasgow: Grafton Books for the Leisure Circle Partnership, 1989)
Tyrer, Nicola,
They Fought in the Fields: The Women’s Land Army: The story of a Forgotten Victory
(London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1996)
Waller, Jane and Vaughan-Rees, Michael,
Women in Wartime: The Role of Women’s Magazines 1939–1945
(London: McDonald Optima, 1987)
Ward, Dorcas,
History of Bradfield in Berkshire
(Frilsham: Dorcas Ward, 2011)
Weightman, Christine,
Remembering Wartime Ascot, Sunningdale and Sunninghill 1939–1945
(Ascot: Cheapside Publications, 2006)
Zweiniger-Bargielowska, Ina,
Austerity in Britain: Rationing, Controls and Consumption 1939–1955
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000)
PERIODICALS, REPORTS AND LEAFLETS
Beveridge, William,
Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Social Insurance and Allied Services (the Beveridge Report)
1942
Elliott, Walter,
Transfer of Population in time of War
, broadcast on 6 January 1939 (Ministry of Health)
Ministry of Agriculture,
Allotment & Garden Guide, September 1945 Vo. 1, No. 9
Ministry of Information,
Make Do and Mend
(London, Ministry of Information 1943)
Report of the Committee of Post War agricultural Education in England and Wales
(HMSO 1943)
Town Children Through Country Eyes: A Survey on Evacuation, 1940
(Dorking, NFWI 1940)
Good Housekeeping
, August 1941
Home & Country: The Journal of the Women’s Institutes
, monthly magazine with county supplements, 1938–1946
Dig for Victory Leaflet No. 11:
Bottling and Canning Fruit and Vegetables
UNPUBLISHED SOURCES
Bowman, Jennifer,
Redlynch WI: the War Years
(Redlynch Review, 2009)
Cox, Vera,
Country Markets, A Pioneer Venture by the National Federation of Women’s Institutes
(London, NFWI 1940)
Drage, Dorothy,
Pennies for Friendship
(privately printed, 1961)
Stamper, Anne,
Countrywomen in war time – Women’s Institutes 1938–1945
, Paper delivered to the Second International Conference on the History of Voluntary Action, held at Roehampton Institute, University of Surrey, 9–11 September 2003
Stamper, Anne,
What the WI did in Wartime
Walker, Collins and Hood, M. McIntyre,
Fifty Years of Achievement, Federated Women’s Institutes of Ontario
, 1948
Woods, Katharine,
Headington WI Memoir: From Canada to Headington Fifty-Five years ago
, 1973
Wright, Gertrude, The First Thirty Years: Mobberley Women’s Institute, 1958
Minute books and summaries from WI institutes: Arnside, Audlem, Barham, Barrow, Barthomley, Bickleigh, Burton and Puddington, Bywell, Coningsby & Tattershall, East & West Hendred, Feniton, Goostrey, Hookwood, Hooton, Leigh, Mobberley, Preston Patrick, Radley, Revesby, Ringmer, Smethcote, Tetney, Washington Station WI, Willaston
County Records and annual reports: Cheshire, Derbyshire, Dorset, Hampshire, North Lincolnshire, Oxfordshire, Surrey,
FROM THE WOMEN’S LIBRARY
NFWI Marketing Subcommittee Record Books
MISC 171 Item 2627 BBC Wartime Kitchen and Garden Interviews (1992–3)
5FWI/A/3/6-7 Box 46 Report on the AGMs at the Royal Albert Hall
5FWI/D/1/2/92 Women in Forces
5FWI/CT/1/3/2/1 Advice to Presidents on how to conduct meetings
5FWI/H/15 Personnel files
5FWI/H/16 Post-War planning
5FWI/D/1/2/84 Women Police 1939–45
5/FWI/H/15 1939–1945 War
5FWI/B/2/1/116 WI Movement – General 1944–1986
5FWI/B/2/1/115 Lady Denman
5FWI/H/14 Box OS72 Wartime Scrapbook of Miss Elizabeth Hess
5FWI/A/3/73 World War II and after, 1940–77
The Post-War Relief of Europe, report of the conference held in London on 11 March 1943
FROM THE IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM
IWM 99/74/1 The papers of Mrs Constance Miles (b.1881)
IWM 08/20/1 Papers of Mrs Denys Blewitt
FROM THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
cab/66/16/28 Rationing of Clothing (Memorandum by the President of the Board of Trade to the War Cabinet)
cab/68/7/2 Food Situation of the United Kingdom, July 1940 (Report submitted by the Minister of Food to the War Cabinet)
cab/68/8/54 Food Situation of the United Kingdom, July 1941 (Report submitted by the Minister of Food to the War Cabinet)
cab/68/2/39 Supply and Production October 1939 (Report submitted to the War Cabinet on the imports of wool)
cab/66/57/19 Tenth Report of the Shipping Committee, November 1944 (Report regarding imports of food, materials and munitions)
cab/67/5/34 The Effects of Severe Rationing (Report on the experiment conducted in Cambridge in 1939 to assess the effect of severely limiting food intake for the population)
cab/67/5/27 Standard Clothing (Memorandum by the Chancellor of
the Exchequer on the viability of issuing a range of standard articles of clothing at controlled prices)
cab/66/42/20 Post-War Reconstruction – Third Quarterly Survey 1943
cab/66/56/36 Supplies from North America in Stage II (note by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Minister of Production, 1944)
WEBSITES
www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/
www.iwm.org.uk/
www.londonmet.ac.uk/thewomenslibrary/
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
www.oxforddnb.com/
www.thewi.org.uk
PHOTOGRAPH CREDITS
The author and publishers would like to thank the following copyright-holders for permission to reproduce images in this book:
The Mary Evans Picture Library:
1
,
2
,
18
,
21
,
27
National Portrait Gallery:
3
The National Federation of Women’s Institutes:
4
,
9
,
22
,
23
,
26
,
28
Mary Diggle:
14
Caroline Dickinson:
12
Dorcas Ward:
16
Peggy Sumner:
11
Getty Images:
10
Sybil Norcott:
13
Mrs Milburn’s Diaries: An Englishwoman’s Day to Day Reflections, 1939–45:
7
,
25
The author and publishers have made all reasonable efforts to contact copyright-holders for permission, and apologise for any omissions or errors in the form of credits given. Corrections may be made to future printings.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am so very grateful to everyone who has been involved in
Jambusters
and for the enormously generous response from the Women’s Institute. It has been a great privilege and fun in equal measure. First and foremost I would like to celebrate those women whose stories feature prominently in the book and who give it the voice from the war years: Caroline Dickinson, Mary Diggle, Ann Tetlow and Dorcas Ward talked to me about their mothers, Ruth Toosey, Dr Gwen Bark, Betty Sims and Miriam Ward respectively, bringing colour and humour to their stories. Betty Houghton, Sybil Norcott and Peggy Sumner told me about their own personal experiences of the WI in wartime, which provide vivid detail, and Chris Downes shared with me the glorious diaries and memoir of her great-aunt, Edith Jones. Thank you all so much.
I received wonderful encouragement from several ladies closely associated with the WI’s archives and have pleasure in thanking them for their help: Helen Carey, Sue Cox, Virginia Lawrence, Edwina Oldham, Linda Oliver and Anne Stamper.
Every book needs a heart and this one, especially, has benefited from the generosity of Institute members who have delved into attics, boxes and memories on behalf of their wartime predecessors, and it is to them that I owe a great thanks: Jenny Andrews,
Sheila Arbuckle, Frances Armstrong, Christine Bailey, Elsie Bainbridge, Margaret Banner, Heather Bartlett, Heather Beaumont, Alwyn Benbow, Anne Bennett, Jill Bexon, Gillian Blake, Jeanette Booth, Jenny Bowman, Jill Broadley, Jeannetta Brodrick, Jean Burgess, Linda Carew, Yvonne Cherry, Celia Cleobury, Linda Cooper, Lilian Cowen, Bridget Crow, Mary Daniels, Sara Downey, Jane Finnerty, Margaret Funnell, Joan Grisedale, Margery Hall, Alison Hannaford, Marilyn Hawkins, Jenny Hayes, Mary Hodgson, Evelyn Hodson, Jenny Holloway, Anne Huddleston, Lesley Hunter, Janice Jones, Jean Lane, Eileen Lloyd, Annie Manson, Audrey McKinnon, Dawn McLaren, Janet Melvin, Gwyneth Moores, June Moran, Hilary Morris, Liz Nicholls, Pauline Norbury, Gill Offley, Anne Peacock, Chris Phillips, Brenda Powell, Gill Pratt, Jill Pratt, Betty Prickett, Val Reynolds, Jean Ridgeway, Joyce Ridgeway, Christine Salisbury, Joan Simpkins, Clare Slack, Margaret Smith, Charlotte Stead, Amaryllis Stock, Jan Talbot, Gill Tanner, Margaret Vivian, Jenny Warren, Sheila Westall, Heather Wilkin, Maxine Willett, Jane Williams, Christine Wootton, Elizabeth Wrigley, Jackie Wylie and Linda Young at the WI Markets. I would also like to mention Margaret Clephan of Goostrey WI, who was so supportive of the book and sadly died in 2012.
The Women’s Library in London, which holds the National Federation of Women’s Institute archive, provided a treasure trove of material and I am grateful to the librarians there who do such an outstanding job with important national collections on women’s issues. The Department of Documents at the Imperial War Museum was as hospitable and helpful as ever and I thank them warmly.
Finally I would like to thank those who have helped with the production of the book: my agent Catherine Clarke, my editors Angela Herlihy and Mike Jones, my copy editor Martin Bryant,
Briony Gowlett and to those who gave me permission to quote from their own works or offered support and encouragement: Lizzie Collingham, Midge Gillies, Stephanie Hickish, Terry Mitchell, Penny Noble, Stephen Rockliffe, James Roffey, Dianne Shepherd, Nigel Stanley, Nigel Stoneman, Gillian Summers, Tim Summers, Erica Toosey, Michele Topham, Annabel Warburg, Maxine Willett, Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska. Finally, thanks to my husband, Chris, and my sons Simon, Richard and Sandy who chip in and help with cheerful comments and chocolate biscuits to keep me going.
INDEX
Aberdeen, Lady
ref1
Abinger WI
ref1
Adams, Mrs
ref1
Agricultural Organisation Society (AOS)
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3
,
ref4
,
ref5
Aid to Russia fund
ref1
Aldington WI
ref1
Allied Medical Advisory Committee
ref1