How Britain Built an Army of Munitions Workers

 

Females Only Canteen, Phoenix Dynamo Munitions Factory, Bradford

By 1915 it was apparent that Britain was not manufacturing enough ammunition to supply the front lines. Too few shells were being produced, and too many of those that were, failed to explode. In response to this "shell scandal," the Government created a new Ministry of Munitions which increased Government control over weapons production, created 73 new factories and repurposed many others. Hundreds of thousands of new workers rapidly stepped up production. In April 1915, just two million rounds of shells had been sent to France. By the end of the war, that figure stood at 187 million rounds. The Ministry of Munitions by that time had grown into a massive enterprise, employing roughly 3 million workers across over 20,000 factories.

Almost All the Text and Photography the Editor Has Found on the British Munitions Industry During the War Emphasizes the Invaluable Contribution of Its Women Workers, Still the Majority of the Staffing Was Male
(Yes, loaded toward the supervisory level and better paid on the average.)

After the introduction of conscription in March 1916, the government encouraged women to take the place of male employees who were serving at the front. By war's end,  For every 100 servicemen in the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force, and British Army, there were 78 men and women working in the munitions factories,  The munitions  industry workforce, stood at 2 million strong. 

Boiler Suits Were Practical;
Long Skirts Risked Getting Caught Up in Equipment

Around 700,000 to nearly 950,000 women worked directly in British munitions factories by the end of the war (with over 1 million women total entering the broader industrial and war workforce). Known as Munitionettes—these women became the poster girls for the war effort and were frequently photographed and filmed to emphasize the importance of their contribution to the war effort.

At the Woolwich Arsenal

Every aspect of munitions work grew in scale and the workers had to be cared for.  For example, female workers at the vast shell filling factory in Chilwell in the suburbs of Nottingham (above) lived in an industrial complex that was like a small city, with its own power station, 125 miles of railway track, 34 railway engines, giant laundries, a ballroom, a cinema, two purpose-built townships, and kitchens producing 14,000 meals and 13,000 loaves of bread a day. Conditions could be brutal, even given this enormous infrastructure. Long shifts were commonplace in the factories and there are reports of women passing out after working 12 hours continuously, without eating. The work was often crushingly monotonous, workers often found themselves doing jobs that had been simplified into a series of unskilled tasks. 

Work in the factories was hazardous. Employees handled explosives and noxious substances known to cause a range of medical disorders, from skin complaints to bone disintegration. Manufacturing mustard and other gases was particularly perilous; sickness rates were so high at HM Factory in Chittening Road in Bristol that workers were entitled to one week of holiday for every 20 days worked. Women handling toxic TNT (trinitrotoluene) turned their skin yellow, earning them the nickname "canary girls."

Results of 1918 Explosion at Chilwell, National Shell Filling Station

Fatalities in the factories were not uncommon, and the filling factories where workers assembled the metal and explosive components of shells, were particularly vulnerable. An estimated 600 people were killed by accidental explosions during the course of the war. The greatest loss of life occurred in July 1918 following an enormous explosion in the mixing house at the National Shell Filling Station at Chilwell in Nottinghamshire. One hundred thirty four people lost their lives and hundreds more were injured. Despite extensive damage, the factory was back up and running within four days. 

Sport, especially football, was encouraged among the new female workforce, and many munitions factories established their own ladies’ football teams. In 1918, knock-out competition the Munitionettes’ Cup attracted 30 teams; matches drew crowds of tens of thousands of spectators and raised large sums of money for the war effort. Despite their popularity, in 1921 the FA banned women’s football matches at their grounds, and this ban was lifted only in 1971.

The Mighty Woolwich Arsenal Employed Over 80,000 Workers During the War, Afterwards, Employment Fell to 6,000

Following the Armistice, Britain’s Ministry of Munitions ordered an immediate, abrupt shutdown of mass arms manufacturing. Vast stockpiles of materials and heavily secured sites, such as the HM Factory Gretna cordite plant (which alone employed 17,000 women), were rapidly decommissioned, sometimes in a single day. [Exact statistics about the numbers and rate of the enormous layoffs have been lost in the "fog of war." One suggestive statistic is that by 1919, 600,000 females had registered as unemployed. The transition to civilian manufacturing triggered a minor postwar economic surge, but  the rapid influx of millions of discharged soldiers paired with the sudden erasure of defense sector jobs plunged the United Kingdom into a deep economic recession by the early 1920s.

Sources:  World War One at Home,  BBC;  Imperial War Museum; Western Front Association