We Also Served

A social history of British women’s brave yet forgotten service during WWI from a historian of female wartime experiences—includes photos. At the outbreak of World War I, women looking to contribute to the Allied effort were told by the war office to “go home and sit still.” Thankfully, hundreds of thousands of women from all corners of society ignored that advice and lent their collective strength to the cause. In We Also Served, Vivien Newman digs beneath the myths surrounding women’s war efforts to reveal stories of determination and heroism. Becoming nurses, munitions workers, members of the Land Army, ambulance drivers, and surgeons, women stepped readily into a world normally occupied by men. Some served with the Armed Forces, others funded and managed their own hospitals within sight and sound of the guns. At least one British woman bore arms, and over a thousand women lost their lives as a direct result of their involvement with the war. This profoundly important history by an expert in female wartime experiences lets these all but forgotten voices finally be heard.