AS troops from Oxfordshire fought the Germans in France and Belgium there was a lot of work left for those back home.

A new book about Oxford in the First World War has now revealed the variety of different roles taken on by women as they kept the home fires burning.

Oxford Mail:

Women ticket collectors at Oxford’s Great Western Railway station in June 1915. Transport was badly hit by labour shortages as men joined up and women found wartime employment opportunities as inspectors, bus conductors and delivery drivers

Oxford in the Great War, by Malcolm Graham, has been published by Pen & Sword to coincide with the centenary of the outbreak of the conflict.

Father and grandfather Mr Graham, 66, who lives in Botley with wife Ros, began writing local history books in the 1970s and has now completed about 20.

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As well as focusing on the bravery of troops from the Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars, and the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, Mr Graham’s book also highlights the war effort in Oxford itself, and the important role played by women.

Oxford Mail:

 England’s Day collectors outside a tobacconist’s shop, April 1916. St George’s flags and banners showing the mounted saint trampling the dragon encouraged patriotic giving and the day raised £600 for local war charities

He said: “The work that women did in Oxford during the war clinched the argument about women being allowed to take degrees at Oxford University, and it must have helped with the campaign for women to get the vote.

“By the 1920s women in Oxford were allowed to take degrees and that was very much as a result of the war effort.

“Even the greatest misogynists were convinced and any opposition drifted away.”

As the war progressed, women in and around Oxford had an increasing range of job opportunities.

Oxford Mail:

 Women workers, wearing triangular munitions pin badges, at W.R.M Motors Ltd in Cowley, about 1916. Shell production at the factory began in November 1915, and had risen to 3,000 a week by early January 1917, when William Morris was employing 33 women. 

Mr Graham found that as young men disappeared from shops, schools and banks, areas in which women already had a foothold, they were replaced by women and girls.

The grocery firm Grimbly Hughes had lost more than 60 men to the war by August 1917, and by then employed 34 women.

Cape’s the drapers had only four male employees by October 1917 and 53 women.

And Home & Colonial, a national chain with a branch in Queen Street, had an entirely male workforce before the war but employed 1,400 women by August 1916.

Oxford Mail:

Nurses and wounded soldiers in New College garden, about 1916. A tented hospital was established in the college gardens in November 1914 as the increasing number of casualties forced the Third Southern General Hospital to find extra space.

At Cowley St John Boys’ School, headmaster Herbert Tozer saw his last male teacher leave in January 1916 and reported that the entire staff consisted “of lady teachers”.

Women also began to be substituted for men on the railways and the buses and women ticket inspectors were first spotted at Oxford’s Great Western Railway station in May 1915, while female conductors made an appearance on the Iffley Road bus route in November.

The Rev George Moore, vicar of Cowley, strongly objected to the sight of women from the munition works smoking in the street from 15 years of age.

And after 21 men enlisted, The Oxford Times in April 1916 trialled a woman in the reporters’ room.

As the number of casualties mounted, key buildings in the city were taken over for the war effort.

The examination schools in High Street was transformed into the base hospital for the Third Southern General Hospital.

A tented hospital was also established in New College garden as the growing number of casualties forced the Third Southern General Hospital to find extra space.

Somerville College was conveniently located next to the Radcliffe Infirmary, and after the military took it over in April 1915 it became an officers’ hospital.

Oxford Mail:

Women volunteers make bandages and dressings for the Third Southern General Hospital at the Institute of Forestry in Parks Road, February 1917. In other rooms women were busy mending clothes and linen and making splints and slings for the hospital.

War kitchens were set up, including one in Jericho, to provide cheap food for those most affected by rising prices.

In Headington the war kitchen was established by the Headington Women’s Institute to cater for rich and poor and even attracted customers from Oxford who caught the bus up the hill.

While many women took on vital roles in industry and nursing, some concerns were raised about the public morality of a minority, according to Mr Graham’s research.

His chapter entitled While You’re Away reports about a public meeting at the Sheldonian Theatre in March 1917, hosted by the Rev RW Carew-Hunt, who wanted drastic steps to be taken against the “undisguised harlotry of the streets”.

An Oxford Vigilance Committee report on the Moral Condition of Oxford in November 1916 had warned of the spread of immorality and described central streets in the evenings as “crowded with young girls, whose dress, and frivolous, not to say impertinent, behaviour show that they are deliberately laying themselves out to attract men”.

Concern about these so-called “flappers” prompted the introduction of volunteer women patrols in Oxford before May 1916 to exert an element of moral control.

They were described as a great restraining force but they had no legal authority or power of arrest, and it needed a great deal of tact to carry out the work successfully.

Mr Graham’s research reveals that the volunteers attempted to deter the girls and move them along and they also noted and reported all instances of immorality.

The city council was so concerned about the number of women who needed “careful guarding” that it hired two policewomen in 1917, who, controversially, were paid more than male police constables.

The conflict touched every aspect of life – even the playground 

ACCORDING to Mr Graham, the war immediately affected children in the home as fathers, older brothers and other male relatives enlisted, and they had to rely on postcards and letters to keep in touch.

Oxford Mail:

St Giles Girls’ School Empire Day parade in the playground, May 1916. Patriotic events took on a new significance in wartime, when school children’s daily routine might include fundraising activities, entertaining wounded soldiers and collecting horse chestnuts   

As breadwinners left for the Front, some peacetime jobs were lost but some households benefited as wives and mothers received separation allowances and women had more job opportunities.

At schools, women teachers replaced men of military age and children got involved in the war effort through patriotic displays and fundraising.

Youngsters grew potatoes in school gardens, collected blackberries and entertained wounded soldiers. Guides raised money by giving concerts, while Scouts supported fundraising events, delivered messages and collected material for recycling.

Tales of heroism by soldiers and sailors stimulated children’s imaginations and toy manufacturers produced war games, models of the latest artillery pieces and even trench warfare systems with wire entanglements.

But many fathers and brothers never returned, and bad behaviour increased.

The adults who remained at home had much less time to look after and entertain their children.

  • Oxford in the Great War by Malcolm Graham is published by Pen & Sword, price £12.99.


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