Truth is generally the best vindication

"Truth is generally the best vindication against slander."

Abraham Lincoln

In early 1918, the Minister for Labour, George Henry Roberts, and Lord Derby, appointed a commission to investigate rumours regarding the moral conduct of members of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps [WAAC] in France. The Minister stated in the February that he believed “the rumours to have their origin in pro-German quarters” (Daily Mirror, 12 February 1918), and that those guilty of the slander should be imprisoned. 

The commission was made up of Miss Violet Markham [a writer and social reformer], Mrs Lucy Deane Streatfeild [civil servant, on the executive committee of the Women's Land Army], Miss Mary Carlin of the Dock and General Workers’ Union, Miss Julia Varley of the Workers’ Union, and Miss Muriel Ritson of the Women's Friendly Society of Scotland. They were accompanied to France by Mrs Florence Burleigh Leach, Chief Controller of the WAAC.

Fitters of the WAAC at work on a car at Etaples, 7 July 1918, IWM Non Commercial Licence © IWM (Q 9047)

The commission produced a report which found that there was no evidence supporting the allegations. Released in April 1918, and quoted in detail in the Falkirk Herald of 24 April, the report stated that “these charges are disproved in the first place by the official figures quoted in the report, and the personal observations of the Commission of the conditions under which the girls were living and working in no sense indicated a troublesome or undesirable state of affairs”.

The figures referred to are:

“The strength of the corps in France on 12 March 1918 was stated to us as 6023 women. We have examined the medical records both in England and France, and find that of this number, 21 pregnancy cases (or about 3 percent) have been reported since the arrival of the corps in France, and 12 cases of venereal disease (or about 2 percent). As regards the first category, two were married women, and it appears that the bulk of the cases were pregnant before coming to France. As regards the second category, it appears that several cases were of old standing. In addition to the above, 19 women have been returned to England on disciplinary grounds, and 10 for inefficiency. Fifty-nine women have been discharged on medical grounds, including the 12 cases above, and 21 on compassionate grounds, ie family reasons”.

Members of the WAAC in their dormitory at Rouen, 24 July 1917, IWM Non Commercial Licence © IWM (Q 5757)

The report goes on to say:

“Dismissal, apart from medical grounds, is reserved for inefficiency or grave cases of misconduct… We feel that conditions in France are so difficult and the moral background of many localities often so disquieting that women whose conduct, though far short of being immoral, has a tendency to be loose or unsatisfactory should be removed to a more suitable scene of work. The authorities have dealt very leniently up to the present with unsatisfactory cases of this type, and have been anxious to give the girls every chance to improve. We feel, however, that under the circumstances, the welfare of the corps as a whole should be considered before the needs of the individual, and the hands of the administrators should be strengthened in every possible way as regards dealing with unsuitable personalities in their units”.

It concludes:

“We brought away the impression of a body of hard working women, conscious of their position as links in the great chain of the nation’s purpose, and zealous in its service. We consider that the women have played their part admirably in helping to fulfil the objects for which the corps was started, and we also consider that as regards the British Army today, the nation has as much right to be proud of its women in the Auxiliary Force as of its men”. 

WAACs and convalescent soldiers playing grass hockey at Etaples, 1 May 1918, IWM Non Commercial Licence © IWM (Q 8760)

On 16 April 1918, the Leeds Mercury, among other newspapers, reported on the case of the Reverend RH Quick, a Primitive Methodist minister of Congleton, Cheshire. He wrote a letter to Mrs Attlee, of Birmingham, the secretary of the Purity League asking if they were aware of “a Government Order in relation to the WAAC, one of whose clauses is as follows:- if any of these girls give birth to a child, and the girl is single, the Government will pay £15 and take custody of the child, and keep the same? This, to my mind, is putting a premium of horrible vice…” The counsel said the allegations were entirely unfounded. The defendant claimed that he was merely enquiring as to whether it was true, but the court found him guilty of slander against the WAAC and fined him £40.

You can read a local story about false allegations made against women workers on Durham at War:

Sunderland Echo 22 August 1916 “Munitions tribunal hearing regarding women's claimant of unfair dismissal” 

http://www.durhamatwar.org.uk/material/737/

The commission:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet_Markham
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Deane_Streatfeild
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Carlin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Varley
http://www.inverclydesheritage.co.uk/muriel-ritson-1885-1980-2/
http://ww1.nam.ac.uk/stories/florence-simpson/#.Ws-AbojwYdU