British Women Workers

These ladies are shown working in industrial settings during World War I. Some are in directly war-related industries, while others are not, but they all aided the war by taking the place of men who would have had the jobs but were instead away at the war.

British rubber workers in Lancashire spreading 

machine for coaling canvas for tire making, 1914

  

British woman winding cotton from spools 

on to rollers at lace factory in Nottingham

 

British women aeroplane workers near Birmingham 

welding frame tugs for planes, 1914

 

British women chemical workers in the Midlands taking limestone 

from stock, loading and wheeling barrows of lime to wagons, 1914

 

British women chemical workers in the Midlands, 1914

 

British women oil workers in Lancashire moulding cakes, 1914

 

Source: University of British Columbia, World War I British Press Photo Collection

Horace Warner

Here is another set of Mr. Warner's photos of London's East End street kids, who he called 'Spitalfields nippers'. 

 In this image, captioned “Quite Clean ’Nuff”, 

a boy washes his face in a Spitalfields yard

  

 Jeremiah Donovan, six, was nicknamed 

'Dick Whittington' because of his pet cat

  

 Joey Lyons and Nellie Slark - the story book

  

 The “Sisters Ellis” wear matching dresses, probably made 

by their mother, a worker in the garment trade

  

 

 Spitalfields Nippers

Edward Backhouse Mounsey

One further set of photos from the cruise of the Nereid in 1869.

 Geiranger

  

 Geiranger. Mountain Torrent

  

 Hoisting the Main

  

 Kjendal's Brae

  

 Near Geiranger

  

On board the Nereid

 

Source: National Library of Norway

Horace Warner

In 1901-2, Horace Warner took photos of East End street kids, who he called 'Spitalfields nippers'. A self-taught photographer in his personal life – and a wallpaper printer for William Morris in his professional – Warner took 240 photographs of the local children, of which only 30 survive. Here is a brief film about Mr. Warner and his work.

 A girl wears a fine dress from an earlier era, 

probably obtained at the nearby Houndsditch rag market

  

 Annie, seven and one-year-old Nellie sit sad and hungry 

on sacking outside their house in Spitalfields

  

 At the Whitechapel Gallery to see the Burne Jones exhibition, 1901

  

 Brothers

  

Celia Compton

  

In Pearl St (now Calvin St)

Christina Broom

Another set of Ms. Broom's photos of English suffragettes.

 Suffragette procession promoting the Women’s Exhibition held 

at the Prince’s Skating Rink, Knightsbridge, May 1909

  

 The Prisoners' Pageant, including key members  of the WSPU, 23 July 1910

  

 The Putney and Fulham WSPU shop and office, London, 1910

  

 The Women’s Coronation procession, June 1911

  

 The Women’s Social and Political union (WSPU) drum and 

fife band at the Women’s exhibition, May 1909

  

Younger suffragettes promoting the Women’s Exhibition, May 1909

Edward Backhouse Mounsey

Edward Backhouse Mounsey was an English photographer. In the summer of 1869, along with other tourists he sailed on the yacht Nereid to Norway, one of the first foreign tourist boats that visited that country. They visited, among other Alesund, Geiranger, Molde, Stavanger, Veblungsnes og Romsdal. 

 Afternoon on Deck - Nord Fjord

  

 Brixdals Brae

  

 Group at Geiranger

  

 Hoisting Coals - Aalsund

  

 Stavanger - The Enocksens

  

 Storhatten

  

 Summit of Storhatten

  

Source: National Library of Norway

Julia Margaret Cameron

Ms. Cameron was a pioneering art photographer from England.

Elaine "And reverently they bore her into Hall", 1875

  

Ellen Terry at age sixteen, 1864

  

King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid, 1875

  

Pray God Bring Father Safely Home, 1872

  

Queen Esther before King Ahasuerus, 1865

  

The Rosebud Garden of Girls, 1868

Christina Broom

Christina Broom was a Scottish photographer who, among other things, documented the women's suffrage movement.

Barbara Ayrton-Gould dressed as a fisher girl representing 

Grace Darling, promoting the Women’s exhibition, May 1909

   

Christabel Pankhurst, co-founder of the Women’s Social and 

Political Union, inside the Women’s exhibition, May 1909

  

Nurses and midwives marching to the Royal Albert Hall, London, April 1909

  

 Suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst (front row, third from left), 

at the flower stall of the Women’s exhibition, London, May 1909

  

Suffragettes taking part in a pageant organised by the 

National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, June 1908

Land Girls

The Women's Land Army (aka "land girls") was an organization set up in the UK during the First and Second World Wars to bring women into the countryside to do agricultural labor, freeing up the men for combat.  If you want to get much more of the flavor of farm life during World War II in England, watch the Wartime Farm series - they talk about the land girls during several of the episodes.

These are all photos of World War II land girls, mostly in England, a few in Australia.

Then there was the Women's Forestry Corps, where women did timber harvesting. These women were known as "lumberjills".

 Note the young lady at left with the notepad. In the "Wartime Farm" show they tell 

how the lumberjills were tasked with taking detailed measurements of their take, 

so that the ministry had good information on which to allocate the timber.