We Also Served: The Forgotten Women of the First World War

We Also Served is a social history of women’s involvement in the First World War. Dr Vivien Newman disturbs myths and preconceptions surrounding women’s war work and seeks to inform contemporary readers of countless acts of derring-do, determination, and quiet heroism by British women, that went on behind the scenes from 1914-1918. In August 1914 a mere 640 women had a clearly defined wartime role. Ignoring early War Office advice to ‘go home and sit still’, by 1918 hundreds of thousands of women from all corners of the world had lent their individual wills and collective strength to the Allied cause. As well as becoming nurses, munitions workers, and members of the Land Army, women were also ambulance drivers and surgeons; they served with the Armed Forces; funded and managed their own hospitals within sight and sound of the guns. At least one British woman bore arms, and over a thousand women lost their lives as a direct result of their involvement with the war. This book lets these all but forgotten women speak directly to us of their war, their lives, and their stories. AUTHOR: Dr Vivien Newman, an expert on women’s experiences during the First World War, works at the University of Essex. Dr Newman is also working on a collection of women’s First World War poetry and a book on children’s experiences during the conflict, both due to be published by Pen and Sword. She is a regular speaker at national conferences and for groups including the Women’s Institute and the Western Front Association.
30 b/w illustrations