Founded in 1938 as the Women’s Voluntary Services for Air Raid Precautions to help recruit women into the ARP and to assist civilians during and after air raids. They provided emergency rest centres, feeding, first aid, and with the evacuation and billeting of children.
By 1943 the WVS (WRVS) had over one million volunteers. Post War the WRVS has become a leading organisation in the field of social care.
With over one million volunteers there is a good chance that someone in your family belonged to the WVS (WRVS) during WWII. The WRVS website is the best place to start any research into a family member who belonged to the WVS during the war. You can find out about the history of the service and down load many fact sheets, including the Roll of Honour which contains the names and details of 243 members of the WVS from Great Britain and Northern Ireland killed during the Second World War: WRVS(WVS) Roll of Honour
At Pictures can be found some photographs taken during WWII and later. This site is worth keeping an eye on as 2013 is the 75th Anniversary of the WRVS(WVS) and it is hoped that a publicly accessible on line catalogue which will include some 5,000 photographs, Narrative Reports, uniform and accessories and early policy documents will be launched. You can also sign up for a monthly Newsletter
National Monuments Record: Images of England.
There are over 300,000 images of English Heritage buildings, from lamp posts to lavatories, phone boxes to toll booths, mile stones to gravestones, as well as thousands of bridges, historic houses and churches that can be searched for and viewed. Kent is well represented.
You can perform a basic search or if you wish to use the advance search facility you need to register, but it is free. Images of England
No comments:
Post a Comment