The Role of Women and Work in World War One - General Background

From the late eighteenth century the Industrial Revolution used the labour of women, both single and married. Most women still worked in domestic service,  though many worked in textile production and even in coal mines. They often worked in poor conditions and treated unfairly, arguably like the plight of women in countries described as ‘Third World’ today. 

Air Defences at Croydon

In January 1916, as the aerodrome opened for use, an observation point was established in central Croydon. There were numerous reports of suspected signalling to the enemy Zeppelins during the raids of October 1915. Several volunteer observers and police officers were stationed on the Clock Tower of the Town Hall with a direct phone line and motor car ready to convey police at any point. 

The Croydon Zeppelin Raid: A Personal Connection

33 Leslie Park Rd, Croydon, 14 October 1915

The Fighting for War project has used this image of the Zeppelin raid on Croydon in 13/14 October on much of its publicity. It shows two women and a policeman standing in the rubble of 33-34 Leslie Park Rd, gazing into the crater caused by the bomb. We have used it partly as it is free to do so courtesy of the Imperial War Museum (IWM) and also because it shows people rather than just devastated buildings.

And then, rather excitingly, John Murrell got in touch as he was interested in the project and had seen the image used of his grandmother! John's grandmother was Mrs Naomi Murrell (16 March 1879 - September 1971), who lived in 34 Leslie Park Rd. Had the bomb been dropped a few meters in one direction, his granny may not have survived to pose with the policeman and her sister Sarah Kemp. IWM records give the address of the photograph as 33 Leslie Park Rd but John tells me that, according to the 1911 census, his grandmother lived at 34.

The photograph and story of Naomi Murrell recognising herself in an anniversary edition of the Croydon Advertiser featured in news story in the same paper in February 1969. The article is featured below.

Fighting for Air: Visit to RAF Museum, Colindale

On Saturday (18 November), some of the Fighting for Air team of volunteers went to the other side of London to visit the RAF Museum at Colindale or Hendon. We were there specifically to visit First World War in the Air galleries, which opened in 2014. The museum is on the site of a former aerodrome, that had itself been used as one of the ten defensive aerodrome bases encircling London in early 1916. Hendon itself had been used for years before the war and we heard about its early history, the history of the Grahame White factory and the general role of aviation in the war from the RAF Museum’s fantastic volunteer Sandra.

In the Foyer of the RAF Museum

Before we set off, one of the museum staff shared with us pictures of his dad’s cousin who fought in the Battle of Britain in 1940 and had been stationed at Croydon. I wrote down the name as Henry Michael Ferris so hope that is right!

It was a very drizzly November day so this photograph does not do the exterior of the original Grahame White offices and factory justice. Sandra explained about the almost forgotten figure of Claude Grahame White, who pioneered civil aviation before the war, holding flying weekends known as the ‘Hendon Habit’ that attracted enormous crowds and were on a par with Henley Regatta or the Grand National. Grahame also warned about the dangers of the ‘war in the air’ in an article Wake Up Britain! But the government did very little.

Grahame White Factory and Offices

When war broke out, the factory and airfield at Hendon were taken into the control of the government. The factory continued to make Grahame White’ signature aircraft, the Avro 504K, which was a good training plane, from 1913 to 1918, but made many more parts of other planes or put aircraft together. The factory expanded to have a workforce of 6,000 and had a welfare scheme, days out etc and was in many ways comparable to the later (and short lived) National Aircraft Factory at Croydon. Sandra explained how the Factory was moved brick by brick from its original location, just behind to the land of the RAF Museum. The link above also takes you to a virtual tour of the recreated offices.

In the hangar itself, real and replica aircraft tell the story of the ‘War in the Air’ alongside exhibits of training equipment, uniforms, aviation gear, a hut for leisure and various maps. This was all incredibly useful to help us understand how the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) used Croydon / Beddington Aerodrome as air defences in 1916-17 and training from 1917 to the end of the war. The Gosport system and tools of training, such as a speaking tube so an instructor could speak to a pilot, developed by Major Robert Smith Barry enabled me to understand the significance of the photographs our project has just had digitised. These photographs show training at Gosport and are part of our Lansdowne Albums (more on that in future posts, but a sneak preview of a page below).

It was a fascinating trip and I urge people to visit. Various parts are closed, though the main hangar and the WW1 galleries are open. The new hangar for Battle of Britain and other areas is finished in 2018 to mark the centenary of the Royal Air Force’s existence. Staff thought the opening would be July / August.

Aerodrome not Airport!

Strictly speaking this blog will not be about Croydon Airport for the next 10 months or so. We'll be sharing research from our Heritage Lottery Funded project Fighting for Air about the origins of the airport in the aerodromes - Waddon and Wallington or Beddington - in Sutton and Croydon and the impact of the war locally.

In order to start this blog off on that theme, I thought we'd share some photographs of

Wellington or Beddington Aerodrome 1918

Wallington, also known as Beddington, aerodrome that Historic Croydon Airport Trust have copies. These belonged to a Royal Flying Corp (then Royal Air Force) officer Herbert Montgomery Martin. These photographs were scanned in by Cross and Cockade from a descendant of Martin some years ago.

This is just a short post to wet your appetite for the research and information to come from our project. . .

Waddon Camp

Bristol M1C crash landed in field at Beddington gasworks

Captain Franklyn L. Barnard & Cataloguing

Graham and Malcolm checking the material

One of the tasks the Hidden Heritage of Croydon Airport project is doing is getting our archives in better order. Some of the files that have a great deal of historical material, i.e. original material such as letters, log books and photographs, have been repacked into archive boxes. Now intrepid volunteers Graham and Malcolm have started cataloging the material in the boxes for cross references and so each box can have an inventory.

The first file they are doing is the file of Captain Franklyn Leslie Barnard. Barnard's file contains his logbooks from World War One through to his last flights in 1927 as well as letters, many photographs and even some cuff links.

Barnard was born in 1896 and joined the Royal Flying Corps in June 1916 but was struck down

after only a few months in the air, attempting to save a fellow airman. He returned to active service in 1918. After the war Barnard became chief pilot for Instone Air Line and then for Imperial Airways from 1924, for whom he piloted many pioneering passenger routes, such as to Cairo (1924) and further afield to Delhi (1927). His file is full of photographs, such as the one to the right, showing people he had flown or was about to fly to exotic places, often signed. This one is unusual in depicting a famous sight rather than an airport or aerodrome. 

Barnard is perhaps most well known for winning the first Kings Cup Race on 8 September 1922. The Kings Cup Race was a race from Croydon airport to Glasgow, a night's stop and then back again the next day. It was began by King George V to encourage aircraft design and engineering. Barnard won it again in 1924 but there'll be more on the Kings Cup Race in another blog.

In cataloguing Barnard's file we have found menus, lots of postcards and invitations which ave given an insight into the life of a distinguished pilot in the 1920s. One permit gives Barnard permission from the Swiss government to carry a firearm while flying gold bullion through the country's airspace. Clearly a pilot had to act as security as well in such missions.

Barnard died in a flying accident in July 1927, while testing an aircraft for another go at the Kings Cup Race. It was a tragic loss to civil aviation and the number of condolences to his widow in the file illustrate how deeply he was mourned by pilots and people connected to aviation across the world.

How Safe was Flying in the 1930s?

U3A member Peter Day examines the safety of flight in the 1930s:

Air Ship Hindenberg burning

In the 1930s flight in heavier-than-air aeroplanes was still in its infancy. The Wright brothers had made the first such flight only in 1903. Aeroplanes were flimsy with some parts of the fuselage still covered with cloth, to save weight. Engines were underpowered and unreliable. Planes flew slowly and could not climb to a great height because of lack of oxygen, they weren't pressurised like modern planes, so flights were subject to turbulence. So were those early passengers risking their lives? Read more.....

National Aircraft Factory No 1: Part One

A post from U3A group member Bill O'Neill on the rise of the industrial estate around Croydon Airport and the need for production of aircraft in World War One.

NAF From the Air around 1958

The Need for Aircraft

In 1917, the war on the Western Front had reached a stalemate, with both armies dug in and little sign of progress despite the heavy cost in men and materials. The Russians were leaving the war and Germany would be able to consolidate its troops in the west. Submarines were now sinking large numbers of allied merchant ships and our cities were under bombardment from both Zeppelins and German bombers.