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Women at war

Female accountants and articled clerks also volunteered for or were called up for the armed forces or other civil defence roles as well as filling jobs vacated by men who were serving. Here we highlight some of those women.

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This list will not be in way exhaustive, as we only have once source to go on - The 1939 Register of England and Wales. Many women will have signed up for various roles after this register was taken (29 September 1939) and therefore will not be know to us. By 1939 there would have been in the region of 120 qualified female chartered accountants.

Was your female ancestor in uniform in WW2?

If you have a relative who was a chartered accountant or later became one and served in one of the services, please let us know.

Photograph of a World War 2 proopaganda poster
Recruitment poster for the Woman's Royal Naval Service on display in the West Approaches Museum in Liverpool.
  • Alice Barger - Air Raid Warden
  • Vera Burton (later Bell) - ARP Reserve first aid post, British Red Cross (Bedford)
  • Hermine Clutton-Brook (nee Thrupp) - we are unsure what Clutton-Brook did as part of her 1939 Register entry has been redacted, due to the person below her possibly still being alive
  • Narcissus De Vries - Secretary and foreign correspondent
  • Anne Elizabeth Dickson (later Waley) ATS, 6th Middlesex Company assistant
  • Ruby Dimes (Cotton) - Secretary (Civilian) at the Admiralty. (Her husband Leslie was a communications laboratory assistant for the War Department)
  • Mildred Driver- ARP Ambulance driver (Great Yarmouth)
  • Olive Granger (later Allen) - WVS part-time auxiliary nurse (Penarth)
  • Desda Irving -  ARP Voluntary warden
  • Sylvia Knowles - Volunteer ambulance (part time)
  • Jean Laidlaw - third officer, Women's Royal Naval Service
  • Ethel Lovelock - ATS Anti-Aircraft Regiment
  • Elizabeth Richards (and her mother and father) - ARP Warden (Birmingham)
  • Evelyn Smith (later Widgery) - Voluntary Aid Detachment  (Smith lived with employer who was a Special Constable)
  • Dorothy Thompson -  Auxiliary ambulance Driver (St Johns) (Slough)
  • Judith Mary Todd - London Ambulance Service (part time)
  • Janet Wathes  (and her building society bookkeeper sister Ruth) -  ARP part time ambulance (Tamworth)
  • Constance Wilkinson - ARP Ambulance Driver (Her Chartered Accountant father was a Special Constable)
  • Vivienne Witty -  Air Raid Warden (Hull)
Photograph of a World War 2 ATS anti aircraft crew
ATS ANTI-AIRCRAFT GIRLS AT NIGHT ACTION STATIONS (H 15453) Original wartime caption: Operating the 'range-finder'. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205483783
Photograph of a World War 2 ATS anti aircraft crew
Posters recruiting women into the war effort: 'ARP look to you' - issued by the Women's Voluntary Services. MH 13413 Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205132682
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