At our first in-person meeting back at St Margaret’s House, Kathleen Sherit gave us a lively and fascinating talk about women in the armed forces.
Jo Salter has been the first woman to qualify as a Tornado pilot. Catherine Jordan is a naval aviator, ship’s captain and mother of three. Chantal Taylor is a combat medic. That was made possible by the remarkable women who went before them.
In the First and Second World Wars, women were only allowed non-combat roles, if they got pregnant they were dismissed and senior ranks women were single. In 1917, women were employed in traditional roles to replace men so that they could go to the front.
Helen Gwynne-Vaughan turned down a place at Oxford because they didn’t award degrees to women, studied botany at King’s, married another botanist and after he died, took up a post that sent her to France to set up the Women’s Army Corps. She created the hugely successful WAAC. In 1918 the War Office called them home but she argued for them to stay for communications. Queen Mary had them renamed the Queen Mary Army Corps and the Air Force called for her to put their equivalent on a sound footing. In World War II, she set up a service to train women to be officers. She took charge of the Auxiliary Territorial Service until the early 1960s. She was retired on the grounds of age – but with the King’s Commission.
In World War II women’s roles expanded: operating barrage balloons, boat crew in the harbours – and by the end, there was division between what women were allowed to do and what was called ‘combat’.
Mary Tyrwhitt got rank titles for women. Deputy in the ATS by the end of the war, she took charge in 1946. She had a navy father and wanted women to be able to protect themselves – but came up against opinion that much as the Russians had women snipers, here, a soldier’s duty was to protect his womenfolk. In a world where female officers were often addressed as ‘Miss’, she proposed that women officers used army ranks. She became Brigadier Mary Tyrwhitt.
Air Commodore Joy Tamblin introduced small arms training for women. She joined up at 17 and a half, at Bletchley Park. Inspired, she went to Durham University to study Geography and became a town planner. But that didn’t last long – bored, she joined the Air Force and became an accountant officer, posted to Aden. She became fed-up with women being denied jobs they could fill because they depended on post-holders being armed. She visited a station where a forward-thinking officer had taught a woman how to fire a gun so that she could take her turn. She argued for women being armed – but it was still not called combat.
Flight Lieutenant Julie Gibson was the first woman to qualify as a pilot in the RAF. She studied aeronautics but was turned down by the University Air Squadron on non-combat grounds and reluctance to train women 'before marriage or motherhood’. When the Sex Discrimination Act came in, women were allowed in. There was high demand for World War II pilots and difficulty recruiting. There were women in university air squadrons who were better than male candidates but still the combat rule applied, so they got involved in training, some helicopters and transport. Julie Gibson was the first female captain of a Hercules transporter.
Anthea Larken was a traditional naval officer who accepted the need for women to go to sea. She became aware in the mid 1970s that the Navy was changing. Women were denied promotion because they didn’t go to sea. In the 1980s, the Navy had recruitment problems. Boys were joining later, with family ties, and WRENs were leaving. The answer was to send women to sea in a handful of ships until, other NATO nations having mixed crews, minister for armed forces Archie Hamilton pushed for change. The first women served on HMS Brilliant, in the Falklands. In 1993, the WRNS was disbanded and became part of the Royal Navy.
Now, it could not be denied that women were in a combat role.
Kathleen Sherit was in the Royal Air Force as a training specialist. She retired as a group captain after 22 years’ service. Her book Women on the Front Line is published by Amberley Publishing.
Our next coffee mornings:
29th October 2021 on Zoom
12th November 2021 at 11.00, at Oxford House, Derbyshire Street,
London E2 6HG, where there is also an exhibition of old photographs.
Our next meeting, on 18th November at St Margaret’s House, 21 Old Ford Road, London E2 9PL at 7pm for 7.30, will have our very own Sally Shanley, a healthcare professional, speaking about breast awareness.
We cannot guarantee that The Hall is a Covid secure environment but we will take the following measures to keep all as safe as possible:
1. Hand sanitiser on entry
2. Lots of space, but we will leave the door open to the garden.
3. Masks are optional, but we encourage them for when moving around the room.
4. Temperatures will be taken on arrival.
5. List of attendees in case of subsequent Covid cases,
6. Please do not attend if you believe you have been infected with Covid-19, have been instructed to self-isolate if you or any member of your household have tested positive in the last 14 days.
