We tell their stories: Women of the World Wars

Did you know Commonwealth War Graves commemorates over 3,600 servicewomen who died in the World Wars? Discover some of their stories today.

We Tell Their Stories

Women in the World Wars

Image: Members of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAACs) tending the graves of fallen British soldiers in a cemetery at Abbeville, 9 February, 1918 (© IWM (Q 8469))

Hundreds of thousands of women from across the Commonwealth served in the armed forces during the earth-shattering World Wars.

As well as making a huge contribution to the war efforts of the First and Second World Wars, they also helped change society. 

For example, by the end of the First World War, women had finally gained the right to vote. The first female British police officers were on the beat too, while millions entered the workforce, working dangerous jobs in munitions factories and the like. 

Their experiences helped build a world where women could contribute more to society, but many felt the call to go beyond civilian roles and serve in uniform like their male counterparts.

In terms of military service, organisations like Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS) and the Territorial Nursing Service (TFNS) gave women the opportunity to do their bit.

Women’s Great War military service was not restricted to nursing.  In December 1916, the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was founded, using women to lighten the support burden so more men could be freed up for frontline service.

WAAC members took on a variety of roles, including drivers, mechanics, cooks, clerks, waitresses, and seamstresses. All these jobs were vital for supporting the army in the field.

All told, some 100,000 Commonwealth women served in the armed forces in World War One.

This number was dwarfed by the number of women who enlisted in the Second World War.

When female conscription was introduced in December 1941, women were given a choice: work in industry or join one of the three auxiliary units:

• Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS)
• Women’s Auxiliary Airforce (WAAF)
• Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS)

Over half a million women in uniform served in these three organisations, in addition to those who served in the likes of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), Air Transport Auxiliary, First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), Women’s Voluntary Service (WVS), and the National Fire Service.

Image: ATS plotters at work 428 Battery, Coast Defence Artillery (© IWM (TR 567))

In the Second World War, women saw their service roles greatly expanded. 

For instance, some WRNS recruits were part of the code-breaking intelligence teams at Bletchley Park. WAAFs were integral to air defence during the Battle of Britain, acting as radar operators and plotters to help predict and monitor enemy aircraft attacks.

Then there were the SOE operatives. The shadowy espionage and intelligence organisation employed 3,200 women, 39 of which became field operatives.

This was extremely dangerous work, calling for women to be dropped into occupied territories to work as wireless operators and couriers for local intelligence networks and resistance groups. They risked arrest, capture and execution. Of the 39 women SOE operatives sent into the field, 15 were killed.

How many women does Commonwealth War Graves commemorate?

Commonwealth War Graves commemorates 3,600 servicewomen of the World Wars.

They are commemorated in war cemeteries or by war memorials across the globe, from single graves in churchyards close to Commonwealth War Graves’ Maidenhead headquarters to the magnificent Singapore Memorial.

The Stories of Women at War

Member Barbara Ellen Goodwin

Image: Member Barbara Ellen Goodwin (copyright unknown)

Barbara was one of eight children born to Samuel and Elizabeth Harvey of Stown Bedon, Attleborough in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. Samuel Harvey was a well-known innkeeper and horse trader and, as of 1911, the family were living in the Swan Inn in the Norfolk village of Great Massingham.

Barbara’s oldest brother, Arthur, worked for Midland Railway, Derbyshire. It’s believed that Arthur was able to get Barbara a job as a barmaid. While there, Barbara met dairyman Walter Goodwin, and the couple married in December 1916.

Walter was called away to war, serving with the Royal Field Artillery, at which point Barbara returned to Great Massingham.

Determined to do her bit, Barbara joined the Women’s Royal Air Force on 2 April 1918. Her service number was 611.
She was appointed to the headquarters of 7th Wing, RAF at King’s Lynn, working in the aeroplane repair shops at Narborough Aerodrome. 

Boasting five workshops, seven hangars, seven sheds, two coal yards, three dope sheds, two sergeant’s messes and a Dope room, Narborough was the largest aerodrome in the UK at the time. It employed hundreds of women from the surrounding who worked tirelessly to maintain the nascent RAF’s military aircraft.

Barbara was joined at Narborough by her sister Mary. The pair worked in the aeroplane repair shops, helping keep fighter and bomber craft airworthy for frontline and coastal protection duties.

Sadly, Barbara fell victim to the great influenza pandemic which swept the world in the wake of the Great War. She succumbed to her illness on 4 November 1918 at the Crown pub in Great Massingham, home of her sister Florence.

In the First World War, it was often the case that a young man would leave behind his partner or family for overseas service, never to return. In the case of Barbara and her husband Walter, the roles were reversed.

It was Walter who returned home to find his young wife had sadly passed away. Walter had been serving in Egypt at the time of Barbara’s death. His war records included a memo requesting his whereabouts so he could be informed of Barbara’s passing, but Walter was not demobbed until 1919.

Barbara was laid to rest at St Mary’s Church in Great Massingham. Her colleagues from Great Massingham were in attendance with women of the WRAF at Narborough, forming a guard of honour around her Union Jack-draped coffin.

Sister Clarice Isobel Halligan

Image: Sister Clarice Isobel Halligan (Public domain)

Clarice “Claire” Halligan was born in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia on 17 September 1904, one of eight children and the third daughter born to Joseph and Emily Halligan.

Claire and her siblings enjoyed a carefree childhood, playing by the Yarra River in their hometown of Kew, buying ice creams and punting on the river.

As a devout Christian, Claire grew up with a keen desire to help others. From a very early age, Claire had settled on nursing as her profession. Claire completed her medical training before working at the Melbourne Hospital and Women’s Hospital Melbourne.

Following her faith, Claire temporarily left Australia in 1934, working as a missionary at Port Moresby, landing in July. 

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Claire had returned to Australia and was determined to do her bit. She enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service in Melbourne on 11 July 1940. 

She joined the 2/13th Australian General Hospital on 20 December, going on to serve in hospitals in Malacca, Malaysia and Singapore.

Following the attacks on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, Imperial Japanese forces swept across Asia’s Pacific seaboard. With Japanese forces encroaching swiftly on Malayasia and Singapore, nurses and civilians began to be evacuated.

Clarice and 65 fellow Australian nurses, alongside 250 civilian men, women, and children as well as wounded Australiana and British servicemen, were evacuated aboard the SS Vyner Brooke on 12 February 1942.

Two days later, Vyner Brooke was spotted by Japanese aircraft while at sea and bombed, plunging its passengers into the sea.

A great many passengers were killed or wounded in the initial bombing. Claire was badly injured, suffering deep shrapnel wounds to her legs. Taken by her crewmates to a lifeboat, Claire managed to get off the sinking Vyner Brooke.

The lifeboat capsized once it hit the water but Claire, probably in agonizing pain, was able to keep hold of the upturned boat. Eventually, it washed ashore on Bangka Island off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia.

The survivors came ashore on Radji Beach. Among those who had made it off the Vyner Brooke were 23 of the 65 nurses aboard, including Claire. A lifeboat had landed ahead of Claire’s band of survivors and set a bonfire, towards which the party now moved.

About 100 refugees had made it to Radji Beach. It was suggested that the civilian women and children head for the city of Muntok, which they duly did. The nurses stayed put, setting up a Red Cross shelter and tended to the wounded.

For two days, they waited while more able-bodied soldiers went inland to seek help. Unfortunately, they only found Imperial Japanese soldiers.

At first, the male survivors were rounded up and ordered to march over a headland away from the beach. They were then lined up and killed by a burst of machine gun fire.

After massacring the men, the Japanese infantry returned to the beach and turned their attention to the nurses. The 23 women were told to form a line and then ordered to march into the sea.

Just like the men, they were then cut down by machine gun fire. 22 of the 23 nurses were killed, including Claire Halligan.

Claire, together with her compatriots, is commemorated on the Singapore Memorial in Kranji War Cemetery.

Ensign Eliane Plewman

Image: Ensign Eliane Plewman

Eliane Plewman was born Eliane Sophie Browne-Bartoli in Marseilles, France on 6 December 1917. Her mother, Eugene Henry Browne-Bertoli, was English while her mother, Elisa, was Spanish.

Eliane was educated in England and Spain before moving to Leicester to work for a clothing and fabric importers/exporters. She had a talent for languages, speaking English, French, Spanish and a little Portuguese.

Eliane worked in the Press Section of the British Embassies in Madrid and Lisbon until 1941. She returned to the UK in 1942, taking up a job in the Ministry of Information’s Spanish Press Section.

In the UK, Eliane married Irish-born soldier Thomas Plewman in July 1942. At the time of their marriage, Thomas had just been commissioned as an officer in the Royal Artillery.

Mid-February 1943 saw Eliane recruited into the Special Operations Executive as a field agent. She was put through extensive training, learning all the skills required of an SOE operative: hand-to-hand combat; radio communications; espionage and sabotage techniques; and weapons handling.

Despite her tiny, svelte figure, Eliane is said to have been a strong athletic performer. She scored highly on SOE psychiatric tests, with her instructors describing her as “calm, efficient, and conscientious, with admirable composure.”

Parachuted into France on the night of 13-14 August 1943, Eliane was assigned to the Monk intelligence network run by Captain Charles Milne Skipper. 

As the network’s courier, Eliane provided the communications link between saboteur groups, intelligence networks, and local French resistance operating in the Marseilles, Roquebrune, and St. Raphael area.

According to SOE Head Major General Colin Gubbins, Eliane was:

“Dropped in the Jura and was separated from her circuit for some time. Instead of remaining in hiding she showed outstanding initiative and made several contacts on her own which were later of great value to her circuit. 

“For six months Plewman worked as a courier and her untiring devotion to duty and willingness to undergo any risk largely contributed to the successful establishment of her circuit. 

“She travelled constantly maintaining liaison between the various groups, acting as guide to newly arriving agents and transporting wireless telegraphy equipment and compromising documents."

SOE field agents and intelligence networks were in constant danger of discovery and dissolution by the feared Gestapo. Such was the fate of Monk.

The networks organise Captain Skepper and several other operatives were arrested following a raid on their Marseilles safe house on 23 March 1944. Several Gestapo agents were left to arrest anyone who came to visit.

On 24 March, Eliane and Monk wireless operator Arthur Steele visited the safe house and were promptly arrested. 

Eliane was first taken to local Gestapo headquarters and interrogated for four weeks. She was then transferred to Fresnes Prison outside Paris, where several other female SOE operatives were being housed.

On 12 May, Eliane was transferred again with seven other SOE agents to Karlsrhue Prison in Germany. They were kept there in appalling conditions until they were moved one final time to the infamous Dachau Concentration Camp.
Eliane was accompanied on the move to Dachau by SEO agents Yoalnde Beekman, Noor Inayat Khan and Madeleine Damerment. They arrived shortly after midnight on 13 September 1944.

The following morning, the ladies were led from their cells into a courtyard, forced to kneel, and executed with shots to the back of their heads.

Eliane is commemorated on the Brookwood 1939-1945 Memorial in Brookwood Military Cemetery, Surrey, England. She was posthumously awarded the King’s Commendation for Brave Conduct and the Croix de Guerre 1939-1945.

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