h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, UK: the Role of Women Workers - A2272420
Author: Zarquon's Singing Fish! (ACE & Scout - and now a Sub!!!) - U182827

This is a bit of a mammoth and there was a lot more I could have included, including figures for output, the fight for equal pay and what happened to the women after the war.

So - I'm happy to be Peered at.

"although hundreds of women made cartridges at the Royal Arsenal until 1972, when they were all dismissed 'for reasons of social and economic well-being'. "

Is there a date discrepancy here?
Or does it just seem a strange comment to me only?

You make reference to "flannel" cartridges.
I'm not arguing, but I thought they were made of linen before they went over to greased paper...
I will see if I can find a reference.

http://www.royal-arsenal.com/cartridge.html

This is the best I've been able to find so far.

It deals with a slightly middle period in your narrative.

http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/femvets.html

Look at the bit about Anne Bailey about halfway down.
There is a reference to flannel being collected for cartridges.

Hi ZSF,

Another great entry

Just to prove that I read it from beginning to end, here are a couple of things I found.

the Arsenal was one of the placed that young ladies eager to do their bit would make for.

Should that be places?


What had been boy's jobs - the dead end jobs - became women's work.

I think it should be boys' (the jobs of plural boys).

The concerns that the Woolwich Arsenal was too close to London were well founded. It was bombed very early in WWII. My grandfather, who worked there, was one of the casualties.

Awu.

Thanks for the comments. I'll correct the typos. There were air raids in the First War too, and it was a cause of complaint that the workers weren't warned until a quarter of an hour before the attacks, when it was too late to do anything about it. In the second world war, I heard a recording of one of the workers saying that they just got on with it. They heard the bombs and didn't worry until they hit. Not sure I would have been so sanguine.

tonsil,

I've just been through the links you've given - my date was wrong - it was another typo - I think my fingers just naturally type 19xx! The http://www.royal-arsenal.com/ site is a great one - I've linked to another part of it and I know the person who wrote it. The bit about the execution of the Sepoy Rebellion soldiers makes grim reading.

One of these days, someone will have to explain to me what these pence, shillings and quid are...

Uhh... right. The entry. Nice one A few nitpicks-

I’m not sure why you attribute quotes with small text. It’s perfectly fine to use normal text to attribute it.

“Her salary of £500” £500 per what? Year? Month? Week? Day? Hour ?

“Miss Barker was loved by her workers, who she referred to as 'her girls'. “

Would she refer to them as her girls or my girls? I wouldn’t refer to h2g2 as “his favorite website” when talking about me

“and would only dismiss a pregnant girl of the man”

“...if the man” perhaps?

“and were known as 'canaries'.” --> “and the workers who did this were known as 'canaries'.” perhaps?

"with such weak beer' --> ‘with such weak beer'

Jodan,

I'll fix those typos too, Didn't I explain what shillings and pence were? I thought I had? 20s to the £1, 12 pence to the shilling, therefore 240 pence to the £1. Easy!

I have to admit that my source for Miss Barker's salary is not entirely clear. I've assumed it was per year, although it could have been per month, which would have given her an annual salary of £6000 - probably a bit high. Not sure what to do here. I'll ask Mike Neill, who wrote the material for the http://www.royal-arsenal.com/ website - he may know.

The small text for the attributations to the quotes - I just think it looks nicer. Whoever gets to sub it may disagree!

OK, made the amendments.

There were some fascinating things in the source materials about the men's attitudes to the women and also about the restrictive practices that they had. One rather nice one is about a man who boasted about the tolerances he worked to and was fiercely proud of his skill. When later his daughter (I think it was) worked in a laboratory to much finer tolerances, he passed no comment whatever!

Fab entry.

Sorry to be really nitpicky, but this sentence could be structured better:

>>Random searches were made to ensure they weren't stealing equipment, which were resented.<<

I think it would read better if you put: Random searches, which were resented, were made to ensure they weren't stealing equipment.

But really, fab stuff.
The links are interesting too.

You can pick all you like, Sho - that's what PR is for. I'm happy to reword it.

I'm pleased with the links and glad you like them.

Can't wait to see this on the front page, it really does mark the beginning of emancipation as we know it, IMO.

of course, now I have "link madness" I'll never get out of it

Thanks, Sho!

There were some really formidable women who organised these things, eg Lady Denman in the Women's Land Army. Tonsil's link provided me with a great link to one on Mrs Pankhurst, but there were many others. There doesn't seem to be anything on the net about Miss Lilian Barker, though, sadly. Apparently, she handled problems with the women - disputes and protests - rather magnificently, although she wasn't above resorting to blackmail, eg saying that every bit of production lost due to disputes was like giving the ammunition to the enemy.

It's obvious that underlying the pride of the men in their skills and their denigration of the women's contribution there was a great fear of what women could achieve, if they were allowed to! This was one of the reasons that jobs were broken up into their component parts, so that women would not be able to do the full job.

so.... write a guide entry on Lilian Barker then...

I'll think about it. It would mean going back to the Heritage Centre and poring over old papers. I can only do this when little is at the Saturday Club, so it may take some while.

I was considering taking a look at the role of women in the Royal Navy. Apparently, there were women on board ship in Nelson's time and they fought alongside the men - there was a TV programme about it last week. Not sure how easy it would be to get hold of material, though.

Hi ZSF

Great entry

I think it's pretty well documented that women were on board Naval ships in the 18th and 19th Centuries. I seem to recall reading somewhere that entire families were on board some of the time. I'm not sure when it stopped, nor why. I'll see if I can find my source of info...


Fb

Maybe we could do a joint entry, Fb?

I've just found the most brilliant link: http://www.pro.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/britain/p_alcohol.htm.

*Note to Editors* I have permission to link to the: http://www.royal-arsenal.com/ link - even though it says links should not be made. Apparently, other links have been made to the site, and although it might change in the future, there will be an automatic forwarding link to it.

This is great ZSF !

Going back to look at all the links now - Back next week ?