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A poster advertising Living History Weekend 2022 at The Devil's Porridge Museum.

Living History Weekend 2022

By Events

Saturday 30th July – Sunday 31st July 2022

All Activities Free with Admission into the Museum.

 

Get an insight into what life was like during World War One and World War Two with our living history weekend.

 

 

The Scottish Home Front Living History Society will give people an insight into how both civilians and soldiers lived during the Second World War by using the equipment, vehicles, and clothing from that time. They will help to make the past feel more tangible by showing the equipment working and demonstrating how it works and what it felt like to use. You will get to handle many of the objects, which will help to bring the past to life.

They will also have some suffragette reenactors to give an insight into the struggles of women protesting for the right to vote and how this affected their everyday lives.

 

Five people dressed as Suffergettes outside.

 

On War Service will be offering the opportunity to learn about First World War with an insight into medical care during that time. They will be inside the museum in uniform to share their enthusiasm and show you some medical equipment and domestic treasures from the time. Over the weekend they will be providing short specialist talks on the Spanish Flu Pandemic, the Role of the VAD and WW1 Hospitals in Dumfriesshire, and the Treatment of Shell Injuries. You can see the full talk programme for the weekend below.

 

 

You can learn more about On War Service on their website here: https://onwarservice.org.uk/onwarservice/homepage.html 

 

A photo form the 2019 Military Vehicle Event.

We hope this Living History Weekend event will build on the success of our Military Vehicle Weekend in 2019. You can read more about this here>

 

Another photo of a Military Vehicle Weekend event at The Devil’s Porridge Museum in the past.

Canary Girls poster for online talk which happened in 2022.

Canary Girls Online Talk

By Events

Thursday 9th June 2022

Canary Girls – the forgotten heroines of WW1 and WW2

 

Learn about the important role that munitions workers had in both World Wars & the Canary Girls project which campagins for a memorial to them in the FREE online talk.

 

Book your place and learn more here>

The talk will :-

• Introduce a Canary Girls project, started in Cumbria, campaigning for a memorial to the munitions workers, mainly women, of both World Wars in the National Memorial Arboretum.

• Explain what the women were actually doing in the factories in both world wars; where the nickname Canary Girls came from and the risks they faced daily.

• Look at the precedents they set in challenging gender roles and social class in fashion, sport, factory design and working conditions for women.

• Consider why they are called the forgotten heroines and finally, look at how they have been and are being remembered.

The talk will be given by Valerie Welti. After over 30 years as a teacher in London, in her retirement in Cumbria she has taken on various voluntary roles. One of which, with the Canary Girls Memorial Project, has reignited her interest in history.

THIS IS AN ONLINE TALK. THE ZOOM LINK WILL BE SENT OUT ON THE DAY.

The top of a newspaper from Saturday, November 23, 1963.

Doctor Who & the Newspaper From 1963.

By Collections blog

Today is the 58th anniversary of Doctor Who; the longest running Science Fiction TV show. To celebrate The Devil’s Porridge Museum’s Digital Marketing Apprentice, Desray has written this blog post.

Front Page of the Newspaper from 1963.

When helping the museum’s other SVQ students re-organize the museum’s collection, I was delighted to a copy of The Daily Telegraph newspaper dating from the 23rd November 1963.

 

‘Week-End Broadcasting’ section of the newspaper.

The headline of the newspaper (and much of its content) is quite rightly dominated by the shocking news of the assassination of 35th American President, John F. Kennedy the day before. This is a very impactful and significant event, but I instantly became distracted by a section on “Week-End Broadcasting Programs.” Under that day’s listing was none other than the first episode of Doctor Who.

 

It’s listed as:

“ 5.15. Dr. Who (play series) – “An Unearthly Child” part 1: William Hartnell, William Russell, Jacqueline Hill, Carole Ann Ford.”

 

This episode followed schoolteachers Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill) whose concerns about their student, Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford) led to an adventure starting in a scrapyard, which neither of them was quite expecting. In fact, the schoolteachers would not find their way back to London for a couple of years to come (or 1965 to be more exact).

Cast of the An Uneathly Child on set and in character. From the left Jacqueline Hill, William Russell, William Hartnell and Carole Ann Ford. Source: Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4718425

The first incarnation of The Doctor was played by William Hartnell, who is also mentioned in the newspaper.

.

This first broadcast of Doctor Who program received relatively low viewing figures. Largely, this was due to the shock of the John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Power cuts in part of the UK are also likely to have influenced these viewing figures.

 

Fortunately (and very unusually for the time) the first episode of Doctor Who was repeated before the following episode, the next week. This secured much better viewing figures.

 

Sydney Newman was the initial creator for the sci-fi program and the Head of Drama at BBC Television at the time. He intended the program to be educational with information about science and history. Additionally, he wanted there to be “no bug-eyed monsters” like in other science fiction.

 

He also appointed the producer for Doctor Who, Verity Lambert. This meant she became the youngest (at the time) and the first female drama producer for BBC Television. Sydney Newman told Doctor Who Magazine in 1993, “I think the best thing I ever did on that was to find Verity Lambert.”

 

Veritiy Lambert on Doctor Who Set. Source: By BBC, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16924758

She played big role in ensuring that arguably some of the TV program’s most iconic aliens appeared on the program and therefore securing its popularity.

 

Donald Wilson, the Head of Serials and Verity Lambert’s superior advised against the use of Terry Nation’s scripts which introduced the daleks. Sydney Newman also strongly disapproved of the daleks, which are likely to have fulfilled his idea of “bug-eyed monsters.”

 

However, Verity Lambert believed in the script, and it became the shows second serial. When the storyline aired it was very successful, so much so that another serial featuring the daleks was released the following year (‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’). The daleks were very popular, so much so that ‘Dalekmania’ ensued, and they continue to be one of the most well-known aspects of Doctor Who today.

A Dalek in front of the TARDIS from Doctor Who.

Verity Lambert stayed as the Doctor Who’s producer until 1965 when she moved on to produce other shows created by Sydney Newman for the BBC. She then went on to produce and work on many things in the entertainment industry, including the BBC series Jonathan Creek.

 

In 2002 she was even awarded an OBE for services to television and film production.

 

Sadly, she died in 2007, a short time before her 72nd birthday.

Delia Derbyshire. Source : This image was capped by Khaosworks (talk • contribs) from the documentary Doctor Who: Origins – This image was capped by Khaosworks (talk • contribs) from the documentary Doctor Who: Origins, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4706104

 

Another person who had a huge impact on Doctor Who is pioneering Delia Derbyshire. Although the theme tune for the program was composed by Ron Grainer, it was realised and utterly transformed by Delia Derbyshire. In fact, Ron Grainer didn’t recognize it when she first played it to him.

 

The theme tune was created before computers and synthesizers were in wide use, which meant it was very time-consuming and precise work. She had to record individual sounds onto tape, adjust the pitch of each note separately and splice them all together to create the music at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. The resulting theme tune was rather unique and unlike what had been heard before.

 

Although Ron Grainer tried to credit her as co-composer of the theme music, Delia Derbyshire was not credited on-screen until the shows 50th anniversary in 2013 (‘The Day of The Doctor’).

 

Sadly, she died in 2001. She has been awarded a posthumous honorary doctorate for her pioneering contributions to electronic music, by Coventry University in 2017.

 

Sources and further reading:

 

  1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/news/briefhistory/daleks.shtml
  2. https://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/news/briefhistory/beginnings.shtml
  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verity_Lambert
  4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Newman
  5. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/1g30zmn37Db4y2FTFb5pF9N/verity-lambert
  6. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/5sB4bRslfXm1rkQP04ZdVFg/sydney-newman
  7. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/3x2xw0QVqY7Fjmj386RDl30/ron-grainer
  8. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/51LC2shThjnCNR8dd4z2SRQ/delia-derbyshire
  9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delia_Derbyshire
  10. https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ten-pieces/classical-music-ks3-delia-derbyshire-doctor-who-theme/zd4k382
  11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delia_Derbyshire
  12. http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/550923/index.html
  13. Strevens, M. (Producer). (2013). An Adventure in Time and Space.
Naughton and Sister Imelda

A closer look at one of our conference papers

By News

A closer look at one of the talks that will feature in our online conference on May 20th and 21st. Tickets available now via Eventbrite:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/148423724355

 

Talk Title: They Were Soldiers, These Women: A Women’s Army Corps Officer in the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force

Talk delivered by Patrick Naughton

 

The family’s recent discovery of primary documents (letters, diary, etc.) from one of my ancestors who served as a Captain on the staff of General Dwight Eisenhower as he commanded the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) during World War II (WWII) highlights a unique perspective of the war.

 

What makes this Captain’s experience so distinctive is the fact that they served in the Women’s Army Corps. Marcella Naughton’s two years with SHAEF provided her a front row seat to meet, witness, or experience almost every influential person or event in the European Theater of Operation. Naughton’s personal story shines a light on an underappreciated American experience in WWII: that of the 210,000 female officers and enlisted soldiers who honorably served their nation during the conflict. It also presents a unique viewpoint on SHAEF operations, which up to this point have primarily been documented from a male perspective.

 

The current desire to achieve true diversity and inclusion in western militaries and society at large makes this article especially poignant to discuss and publish now. I addition, her issues with Post Traumatic Stress after the war will also speak to a whole generation of warriors from the past twenty years of conflict – men and women. The first draft of the article is complete and currently sits at 12,898 words with endnotes.

Biographical information about speaker:

Patrick Naughton is a U.S. Army officer and a Military Historian. He is currently serving as a Legislative Liaison to the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C. Naughton is a recipient of the General Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award, a former Interagency Fellow, and a Congressional Partnership Program Fellow with the Partnership for a Secure America. He holds a Master’s degree in History from the Army Command and General Staff College and a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has published in several venues and his work can be found at: www.patnaughton.com.

Bolckow's Ladies Football Team.

More details about our Women in Wartime Conference: Women’s Football in World War One

By News

Picture above – Bolckow and Vaughan 1913 (Dorman Museum)

Continuing a look at some of the papers and speakers in our forthcoming ‘Women in Wartime’ Conference.

You can find out about all the speakers and book your ticket here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/148423724355

The following paper will be delivered by Martin Peagam.

 

Two Cup Finals and then Banned for Life: women’s football in World War One

50 years ago the English FA rescinded a ban on women playing football.

100 years ago women were banned from playing football.

104 years ago 30,000 spectators gathered to watch an all-women football cup-final at Ayresome Park, Middlesbrough.

World War One brought women into the workplace out of necessity. As soon as that need was gone, women were sacked from jobs they had proved very competent at.

World War One also brought women into football grounds previously reserved for men. Not as spectators, but as players. But they were too successful and popular. And so, they had to be banned.

The story can be told through the emergence and demise of the Munitionettes Cup.

A football cup competition created in response to the popularity of competitive women’s football in the North East of England, the Munitionettes Cup saw major football grounds in North East England filled to capacity with spectators, watching women who only a few years earlier would not have even kicked a ball.

Drawing on stories from Teesside, this presentation looks at how women came to play in two cup finals, and represent their country in international fixtures at sport, then saw them discarded by the sport’s governing body.

It also examines what motivated the players, including how one woman laced up her boots in memory of her brother and boyfriend, after both died serving their country.

Picture – Women Furness Shipyard 1917 – Teesside Archives

BIOGRAPHY – Martin Peagam.

Popular local history researcher, speaker and guide in Cleveland and Teesside.

Secretary – Cleveland and Teesside Local History Society

Chairman – The Captain Cook Birthplace Trust

Coordinator and Contributor – Local History Month Middlesbrough and Stockton

Member – ‘The Friends of the Stockton and Darlington Railway’

Member – ‘The Battle of Stockton Campaign’

Member – Community Steering Group High Street Heritage Action Zone – Middlesbrough

Co-presenter – CVFM Radio Community Show, talking about local history

Contributor to:

‘The Architecture that the Railways Built’ series

BBC News Afternoon

BBC Look North

ITV News Tyne Tees

BBC Radio Tees.

To read in more detail about another paper, see: https://www.devilsporridge.org.uk/a-closer-look-at-our-women-in-wartime-conference

Marion Barrett

A closer look at our ‘Women in Wartime’ conference

By News

We’re delighted to announce that tickets are now on sale for our ‘Women in Wartime’ conference.  2 days of talks, 6 panels, 24 speakers, a keynote address and a musical perfomance.  You can find out about all the talks and buy your ticket online here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/148423724355

We’re going to share a few more details about each of the speakers and the talks they will deliver over the next few posts.

 

Talk Title: ‘Great Grandma Barrett Was a Shining Woman’: Reflections on the Radium Girls and Industrial Disease

During World War I and World War II, thousands of young women on the east coast of the United States  participated in the war effort by working as radium dial painters, including my great grandmother, Marion Murdoch O’Hara Barrett.

Dial Painters worked with radium and used the lip-point technique to create glowing watch dials, buttons for soldiers, and navigational equipment. At night, encouraged by industrial propaganda that held radium as beneficial to health, Marion brought home in sellable radioactive paint chips to give to her children as glowing toys.

This industry had horrifying impacts on their health and that of their families.  Marion died at the age of 76, suffering from dementia and aluminum deposits on the brain- the result of her time in industry. Many of her children died fairly young, succumbing to cancer, autoimmune disease, and cardiac illnesses.

This conference paper will explore Marion’s work within the dial painting industry and its impact on her health and her children’s well-being within the greater context of industrial disease.

 

Biography of speaker:

Erin Becker is the Visitor Services & Volunteer Coordinator at the Long Island Maritime Museum in West Sayville, NY.

Her research interests focus on the convergence of women, labor, and the environment through a global extractive maritime economy. Her work in museums grapples with investing local peoples in their resources (archaeological, historical, and environmental) as stakeholders through outreach, education, and the development of public programming.

She has written for Gotham Center for New York City History, New York History Blog, Read More Science, and Global Maritime History. She is the co-host of the Scholars Beyond the Tower: Conversations from our Fields podcast. She can be found at @ErinE_Becker on Twitter.

Above: photograph of Great Grandma Barrett

Mabel Alice Read being awarded a medal.

Worker of the Week: Mabel Alice Read

By Collections blog

Worker of the Week is a new weekly blogpost series which will highlight one of the workers at H.M. Gretna our Research Assistant, Laura Noakes, has come across during her research. Laura is working on a project to create a database of the 30,000 people that worked at Gretna during World War One.

Hello, and welcome to the very first edition of our new weekly series! This blogpost really demonstrates just how valuable sharing stories with us (and any Museum ) is!. A member of the public recently got in touch with us, enquiring about a lady named Mabel Alice Read.

 Mabel had been very briefly mentioned in our blog about Women Police Officers at H.M. Factory Gretna. The Women’s Police Service (WPS) was formed in 1915 by Margaret Damer Dawson, and one of its largest wartime units patrolled H.M. Factory Gretna and nearby towns. Over 150 women officers worked at Gretna, and we know very little about most of them.

Previously, Mabel’s name appeared on a valuation roll record from Gretna. However, a member of the public reached out to us and shared that Mabel was the focus of an article of the Policewomen’s Review that mentioned, not only her time at Gretna, but also her later work as a policewoman!

The Policewoman’s Review, Vol III, No, 32., December 1929. Document source: East Sussex Record Office, ESRO ref ACC 6572/3

In this article, it is written:

 

“Miss Mabel Alice Read was appointed Police Woman at Hove in July, 1919. She had previously been trained in the Women Police Service, and had practical experience in Government Munition Factories at Gretna.”

 

Although this mention of Gretna is only brief, this article gives us a real insight into Mabel’s professional development as a policewoman. It is clear that after the war, Mabel continued her policework in Hove in earnest. In a report written in October 1921 that summarised her duties, she states that she dealt with: ‘Wayward girls…drunks, women, prostitutes…illegitimate baby cases…lost children’ amongst other duties.[1] This list suggests that Mabel’s policing was very much gendered—she dealt with women and children a lot of the time. This was a crucial aspect of early policing for women, and one of the arguments that proponents of women in policing focused on: that women police officers were better placed to deal with enquiries and issues by women members of the public. Mabel herself asserts this in here report: ‘In cases of attempted indecent assault when I have obtained statements the mother or relative of the child have expressed gratitude at the sordid details being collected by a woman instead of a man.’[2]

Despite this, the Chief Inspector’s praise of the Hove Policewomen was faint. He argued in a letter that ‘a very considerable portion of their time appears to be occupied in typing or other internal administration or filing in the Detective Department’ and stated that he, an assistant inspector, and an inspector agreed that they ‘know of no result effected generally by the women patrol.’[3]

A really interesting case that Mabel was involved in happened in 1928, when she went undercover to ensnare a clairvoyant, Leoni Ward. Mabel visited Ward, who told her ‘that a dark man was in love with her and was about wherever she went, but that he was no good to her. She would marry the dark man and would have two children. The boy would be a great man, the girl a clever musician. Ward also said that Miss Read would travel and see the Sphinx, but must not touch it, as an evil spirit would harm her. She could see Miss Read “standing on a marble slab dressed in white, with pearls and diamonds all down the front.”’[4] At Hove Police Court, Ward ‘was fined £2 for “using palmistry and clairvoyance to deceive.”’ This was against Section 4 of the Vagrancy Act 1834, which prohibited ‘every person pretending or professing to tell fortunes, or using any subtle craft, means, or device, by palmistry or otherwise, to deceive and impose on any of his Majesty’s subjects.’[5]

Palmistry always puts me in mind of Professor Trelawney

It was great to find out more about Mabel’s post-Gretna life and her role as a pioneer policewoman. Thank you so much to the member of the public for bringing Mabel to our attention. I am very excited to go through the records the Devil Porridge Museum has on women police officers when the COVID-19 situation allows. Hopefully, I’ll find out more about Mabel and her fellow officers. If you are doing research on anyone connected to H.M. Factory Gretna, do get in touch on our social media pages or email me at laura@devilsporridge.org.uk. We’d love to hear from you!

 

[1] Copies of correspondence and reports concerning the work and duties of policewomen in Hove, ESRO Reference: ACC 6572/2, Oct 1921, East Sussex Record Office

[2] Copies of correspondence and reports concerning the work and duties of policewomen in Hove, ESRO Reference: ACC 6572/2, Oct 1921, East Sussex Record Office

[3] Copies of correspondence and reports concerning the work and duties of policewomen in Hove, ESRO Reference: ACC 6572/2, Oct 1921, East Sussex Record Office

[4] ‘”Evil Spirit” Warning”, The Berks and Oxon Advertiser, 27 April 1928, p. 7.

[5] https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo4/5/83/section/4

Mabel Farrer

Members of the Women’s Police Service at HM Factory Gretna

By Collections blog

12,000 young women were employed to work at HM Factory Gretna during World War One (The Devil’s Porridge Museum tells the story of this amazing factory and the people who worked there).  Over 150 police women were also employed to help supervise the female workforce.

This is the second in a series of blog posts about women police, to read part one see: https://www.devilsporridge.org.uk/womens-police-service-at-hm-factory-gretna

We don’t always know very much about the women who worked at HM Factory Gretna (sometimes we don’t even know their names) but we do know a little more about the members of the Women’s Police Service (WPS).  They signed a letter/petition to Winston Churchill so we have many of their names (more on this in a future blog), we have some good photographs of them, we know where they stayed and we know a little about their training.

One family member also provided us with this invaluable account of Mabel Farrer, who was born at Braithwaite in Cumbria and was a member of the WPS at Gretna during the War.

“Auntie Mab was one of the first women appointed to the then new Women Police Service in 1916 by Damer Dawson herself. Her training in London under Dawson and Commandant Mary Allen’s direction comprised ‘a small amount of military drill and a few visits to Police Courts, and we were sent in our sweet innocence to improve the moral tone of Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square’!  Rules were strict though and education and compassion were guiding aims as the Women Police had very little powers other than those conferred under wartime legislation.

By Margaret Damer Dawson(Life time: 1920) – Original publication: Mary S. Allen ‘Lady in Blue’ 1932Immediate source: Mary S. Allen, ‘Lady in Blue’ 1932, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30515234

After this basic training, Mab was sent to Gretna and became the one of the first female policewomen there starting work in January 1917. Her pay was £2 a week  and she was provided with all uniform. After one year’s service she was given an addition 1/- a week boot allowance, and at some time during this period, she was promoted by Dawson to the rank of sergeant.

Members of the WPS at HM Factory Gretna,

At the time, Gretna had huge munitions factories and included the new townships of Gretna and Dornock, and there was an enormous female population working in the munitions factories for the war effort.  Other women police trainees followed and eventually there were [up to] 170 Women Police there. One group of policewomen had charge of the factory gates and kept up a constant patrol inside the danger areas and in the townships where most of the workers lived. They also escorted the trains full of female workers to and from the factory (mainly from Carlisle) and had to take numbers of sick girls home after their work hours, most of them suffering from ‘the effects of the special nature of their work’. (It was a criminal offence for workers to leave their employment in the munitions factories).

If you look carefully at this photograph of workers at a Factory station, you can see members of the WPS on the platform (they’re wearing long skirts and hats).

The policewomen also searched all workers going in and out of the factory, on entering to ensure they did not take in metal or other articles which could cause an explosion if brought into contact with machinery and on leaving, ‘for any factory property to which they had become attached’!

Women working in the Factory. Like many other observers of these young women during the War, Farrer commented on their cheerfulness.

She notes ‘It is surprising how little one remembers of two busy, happy years but one cannot forget those cold still nights walking alone between the buildings where high explosives were being manufactured at top speed. We rarely spoke to anyone except when we met a truck loaded with cordite, gun cotton etc being pushed quickly by two very young girls from one dangerous building to another. These youngsters usually sang at their work and if we greeted them with ‘it’s a rough night for you’ they would reply ‘it’s worse for the boys and they continued to sing of the ‘little grey home in the west.

Mabel Farrer photographed while working at HM Factory Gretna. She is seated in the centre of the front row.

She reported to three people! Although employed by the Women Police Service, she was sworn in as a ‘Special Constable’ for Dumfrieshire, Cumberland and the City of Carlisle. Part of the time she was in Carlisle itself in charge of a group working there and when there she reported to the Chief Constable. But she also reported to the Women Police Service office in Gretna. However she was paid by the Ministry of Munitions which had been set up by the Munitions of War Act 1915. She continued to be paid by them until the end of the war.

Mabel’s name appears on a valuation roll record from Gretna along with the names of other female police officers.

At the end of the war, British Police were just beginning to appoint women to their ranks and in October 1918, Northampton Police Force appointed its first two female police officers and Auntie Mab became the fourth to be appointed in December 1918 with the rank of ‘Police Constable’ with Powers of Arrest and her name placed on the roll of Court Officers.

Uniform was provided and comprised navy serge tunic and skirt over riding breeches and a military type navy overcoat. No shirts, ties, or gloves were supplied until some years later. Hours of duty were generally 8 and pay was £2 a week and no additional pay given for overtime. Policewomen were employed almost exclusively working with women and children and this included ‘women found wandering, neglected children, suicides, searching female prisoners, attending court, taking statements, indecency complaints, escorting female prisoners to jails etc’ and she also notes taking them to Dover and Holyhead for deportation. She also had to visit cinemas and read the synopses of films reporting to the Watch Committee suggesting a private viewing if considered too explicit.

She served at Northampton for 28½ years retiring in June 1947 with the rank of Sergeant and with a pension of £182 per annum. You no doubt remember she then lived with Auntie Flo and Uncle Maurice at 24 First St, Chelsea. After Uncle Maurice died, they moved to Newcastle.”

Our next article on the Women’s Police Service at HM Factory Gretna in World War One is coming soon.

If you would like to know more about women’s work at HM Factory Gretna in World War One, the following books from our online shop might interest you:

The Devil’s Porridge Museum Guidebook

Lives of Ten Gretna Girls booklet

 

Gretna’s Secret War

 

Munition Workers’ Poems

Agnes Barr Auchenloss

National Doctors Day

By Collections blog

12,000 women worked at HM Factory Gretna in World War One and one of the most remarkable must have been Agnes Barr Auchenloss.  National Doctor’s Day seemed like a perfect time to share her story.

Agnes Barr Auchenloss

Agnes was  born on May 30th 1886 in Paisley.  She graduated from the University of Glasgow with a MB_ChB in 1911.  Her name appeared nine times on the prize lists and she achieved first class certificates in Anatomy and Surgery during her time at University.  After graduation, she worked as a doctor then moved to South Africa.  She married Gosta Lundholm in Cape Town and gave birth to their first child in 1915.  

Gosta Lundholm

Gosta was a chemist and his father was an associate of Alfred Nobel.  His family originated from Sweden but had lived in Scotland for many years before the War and both Gosta’s father and mother had British citizenship.  Gosta studied in Edinburgh, London and Zurich before travelling to South Africa to work as a chemist with the British South African Explosive Co. Ltd at Modderfontein in the Transvaal (this factory made explosives for use in the Rand goldmines). 

In June 1916, the family moved to Eastriggs so Gosta could work in HM Factory Gretna (as an explosives expert, his skills were in demand during war time).

The Ridge in Eastriggs where Agnes lived.

This talented and intelligent couple lived at the No. 9, The Ridge Eastriggs with their son and both contributed to the war effort in their own way.  Gosta assisted in the construction of the plant.  He was regarded as one of the leading chemists in the Factory and was appointed Assistant Section Manager of the Nitro Glycerine section in 1917, a position he held until the end of the War.   

Agnes worked as a Medical Officer in the Factory throughout the War.  She was introduced to the King and Queen during their visit to the Factory in 1917 and said to the King, “It’s good to be in the hands of a kent face” which the King is said to have understood and appreciated when the phrase was explained to him. 

After the War, they returned to South Africa and had another son.  In 1929, they returned to Scotland when Gosta took up a position at an ICI detonator factory in Ardeer.  

Gosta was known as a man who was absolutely dependable with an agreeable personality.  He was said to have a lovely singing voice and enjoyed the opera, sailing and tennis.  Agnes was always helping people who were unwell and generously gave her time to the sick and injured throughout her life.  Gosta died aged 82 in 1969.  Agnes died aged 86 in 1972.   

Group of Gretna Girls.

Munition Workers Poems Part 2

By News

This is another of the poems from the book which we have in the Museum’s shop. We are posting poems from this book written by women for Women’s History Month this month. This one was written by Elizabeth Easthaugh about the munitions factory in Gretna and is called “Farewell, Cordite!”.

 

You can see the poem below:

 

If you would like to purchase the full book you can see it here:

Munition Workers’ Poems

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