University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/36426 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. TIMBERTOWN GIRLS: GRETNA FEMALE MUNITIONS WORKERS IN WORLD WAR I By Chris Brader Submitted for the degree of PhD University of Warwick February 20011 Abstract This thesis explores the relationship between age, class and gender among female munitions workers at the government explosives factory at Gretna in south-west Scotland during World War I. The Ministry of Munitions not only organised the construction of a factory nine miles in length, but also built two new townships to house a migrant workforce, which was drawn from all parts of the United Kingdom and Ireland. Teenage girls comprised a considerable proportion of this workforce. Significantly, welfare provision at Gretna, both inside and outside the factory, was far more extensive than at many other munitions establishments. This thesis focuses on the relationship between welfare supervisors, women police, social reformers and the female workers. While some middle and upper-class women attempted to claim new areas of social space during World War I, by embracing industrial welfare work or police work, their authority was often defined by their relationship with young, working-class females. Class was important in this relationship. However, welfare workers, for example, not only claimed authority because of their superior social standing, but also because they were often significantly older than much of the female workforce. The thesis concludes that the youthfulness of Gretna munitions workers was a significant component of their wartime identities and experience. Acknowledgements The research and writing of this thesis has been made possible by the award of a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council, to whom I must record my thanks for providing financial support for this project. Members of staff at a number of libraries and archives have also greatly assisted me through both their expertise and interest. I am particularly indebted to those at Carlisle Record Office and at the Imperial War Museum, London. I must also record my thanks to the YWCA and the Transport and General Workers Union for permission to consult their files at the Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick. The opportunity to present portions of this thesis at a number of conferences has been of great assistance. I would like to thank those who organised conferences at the University of Warwick Humanities Research Centre, and the Economic History Society's New Researchers Sessions at the 1999 annual conference at St. Catherine's College, Oxford. Thanks are also due to the encouragement of Dr. Bin Lancaster and Dr. Joan Hugman, who also allowed me to give the Edward Allen Merwrial Lecture at the 1999 annual conference of the North East History Society, at the University of Northumbria, in Newcastle. I am also indebted to those who offered comments and suggestions during these conferences. Staff and students at the Centre for Social History have also offered much encouragement during my years of postgraduate study. Particular mention must be made to Professors Carolyn Steedman and Tony Mason, who offered sound advice, rigorous criticism and a sympathetic ear. Their supervisory sessions were of immense help in suggesting fruitful areas of enquiry, and ensuring that the thesis actually became something more than simply an idea in my head. Finally, my greatest debt is to Liz and Michael Brader for their unwavering support and understanding. This thesis is dedicated to them. Abbreviations CJ - Carlisle Journal CN - Cumberland News CRO - Carlisle Record Office D&GC&H - Dumfries and Galloway Courier and Herald DA - Dumfries Archive DL - Dumfries Library IWM - Imperial War Museum AO - Annandale Observer PRO - Public Record Office WWC - Women's Work Collection Contents Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction The Historical Debate 3 Gender, Class and Generation 5 Chapter 1 - Women and Work at Gretna The Construction of Gretna 17 Age, Class and Ethnicity of Gretna Workers 21 Recruitment of the Workforce 28 The Impact of the Gretna Factory 33 The Work Process 37 Chapter 2 - Workers and Supervision Duty and Faithful Service' 49 The Meanings of Welfare 51 Policing the Worker - Welfare Supervisors 54 Trade Unions 65 Gretna Workers and Trade Unionism 68 A Docile Workforce? 72 Timekeeping and Absenteeism 79 Chapter 3 - Munitions Workers and Housing A Model Township? 85 Female Housing Provision 90 Gretna Hostels 93 A Lady's Life? 96 Adapting to Hostel Life 100 Feeding the Workforce 104 Girls in Lodgings 106 The Housing Problem 108 Chapter 4 - Munitions Workers and Drinking A Civilised Drink? 117 Women and Drinking 119 Social Reform and the Pub 127 The Central Control Board 132 Munitions Workers and Pubs 137 From Pub to Tavern 144 Chapter 5 - Munitions Workers and the Cinema 'A World on Wings': Cinema and Leisure 152 Cinema and its Audience 155 Cinema in the Carlisle and Gretna Area 158 Film, Censorship and the State 170 The 'Model' Cinema Experiment 180 Chapter 6 - Women and Factory-based Recreation The Rationale for Factory Recreation 187 Dancing 190 'Keep Them Off the Street' 195 The Provision of Sport 199 Women and Football 206 Chapter 7 - Munitions Workers and Public Behaviour 'The Greatest Danger' 220 Women and Policing 222 The Women Police Groups 224 The NUWW Patrols 227 The Women's Police Service 231 A New Sexual Identity? 236 Conclusion 250 Appendix 258 Bibliography 265 Introduction 'Nobody will prophesy what will happen to Timber Town when the war is over. The girls all say that when the big guns cease to demand high explosives they are going home. Timber Town may disappear and the girls will scatter, but those who have felt the pulse of patriotism there beating strong and true will not forget the war emergency community, the work they did and the spirit in which they toiled. '1 The quotation above is taken from a newspaper article written by a Scottish minister who had worked among female munitions workers at the Government explosives factory at Gretna, in the south-west of Scotland, just a few miles from the border with England. Known locally as 'Timber Town,' because many of the workers lived in wooden huts or bungalows, female operatives were brought in not only from the Borders region but from many other parts of Great Britain. Gaelic speakers from the Highlands fishing industry worked alongside daughters of North-East miners and shipbuilders, Lancashire and Yorkshire textile workers and Irish girls, all of them persuaded by an extensive Government recruitment campaign that their efforts would be decisive in winning the war against Germany. At its peak, towards the end of 1917, the Gretna factory employed 19,733 workers - 60% of whom were female. It was, additionally, a young workforce: over 60% were aged under 18 and 80% were single. Those who were married were often skilled male workers, chemists or administrators who brought their families with them. 2 These skilled workers and their families lived 1 Timber Town: A Happy Community of Girls , Qumberland) N(ews) July 28, 1917. 2 P(ublic) R(ecord)0(ffice), Mun 5/100/360/42, Ministry of Munitions Report on Labour in Government Establishments, December 1917. LABS/I, L13, evidence of David Gilmour to Committee on Women in Industry. November 16, 1918. See Chapter 1 for an analysis of the class, age and gender of the workforce. 1 in the newly erected houses in the purpose-built townships of Gretna and Eastriggs. Laid out in a simplified version of garden city designs, such developments have been seen as influential in post-war public house building and planning. 3 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle described the townships of Gretna and Eastriggs as 'miracle towns' in a syndicated article of 1916, praising the quality of housing and the Herculean efforts involved in constructing a nine-mile length factory in around nine months. 4 This was indeed an impressive feat, yet it did not tell the whole story. Behind the permanent housing lay rows and rows of temporary wooden hostels and huts, laid out on a military grid. These were the homes for many of the young, single girls, and a clear indication of their status: temporary homes for temporary workers. Contemporaries were under no illusions about the reality of such wartime circumstances. Gretna was 'a wartime emergency community', to use the phrase in the Cumberland News article quoted above. Ministry of Munitions officials, advocates of government intervention in areas such as housing and welfare provision, and voluntary philanthropic organisations were quick to justify such measures as a means of improving working- class lives. At Gretna this meant providing model working conditions, and offering social and recreational facilities for the young workforce. When Lord Guthrie opened the YWCA Institute at Gretna in 1917, he clearly had this educative aspect in his mind. He was 'greatly struck to see the habits that these women were in some cases forced to learn, (my italics) and it would be a blessing to them and their future children all their lives.' J.C. Burnham, the Superintendent of the Gretna factory, also thought that female workers subjected to the 'refined conditions of life and the many uplifting influences with which they were surrounded were raised to a far higher social status and were immeasurably better fitted to be citizens and home makers of 3 See S.