WW2 "Idle Women"

[Kingfisher4]

Just wondering if there is a list anywhere of the names of all the WW2 "Idle Women"?

[Heartland]

May be Buckby Locks could help.

[Ray T]

There are quite a few “trainees” as they were officially known who were never named or had their photographs taken.

Some stayed the course until the end of the war, others only lasted a week or so.

One trainee, Sonia South, married a boater and carried on the work for a few years after the wars end. She married George Smith. Later she married Tom Rolt.

 

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by Ray T

[BuckbyLocks]

If there is a list I haven't managed to find it and some of the names that are mentioned in the 4 books are not the real names of the women concerned. Susan Woolfitt gives names to many of the women that she mentions and because they all used Christian names and there were so many duplicates  it was common to use nicknames. I am aware of just over 100 names for women who started training, but trying to find out who completed more than their Training runs has so far proved impossible. Even several who appear in publicity photographs are unknown or unidentified. Those women who managed to start on the Leeds and Liverpool, and thus not part of the Grand Union Training Scheme wrongly identified as Idle Women are better known.

[Ian Mac]

What is often forgotten is that there were more than one group of Idle Women. The ones who wrote up their experiences were all based with the southern GU fleet and worked out of London.

I have since discovered that a lady I knew, was also an Idle Woman, but only found out after her death, she never ever mentioned it, in all the years I knew her, but it would explain her love of canals, and why she also married into them, not a boater but an office worker.
She it would appear, was based out of Chester.
There was also at least one group of IW based on the L&L

[Derek R.]

It has been estimated that 2 or 3 hundred women went through the training scheme, though only a comparatively small number stuck it out. Many suggest the figure was around 46. Bearing in mind the scheme lasted for little more than two years, 2 or 3 hundred does sound generous.

[jake_crew]

The Alarum Theatre company did a play a few years back about the Idle Women, as did the Mikron before that.

 

They did considerable research and may be able to help you.

[Ray T]

A couple of lesser known trainees at Longford Coal Shutes. Betty Snelling & Mary Whitley.

 

Still photo's taken from a video.

[Derek R.]

Great images. All the more powerful in black & white.

[tree monkey]

I know this is a canal forum and because of this the main interest will be canal based themes, and very interesting it is too but another aspect of the Women's land army that isn't often talked about is the lumber Jill's

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_Timber_Corps

 

I apologise for being off topic

 

[alan_fincher]

I very much doubt that anybody has done more research on this topic than "Buckby Locks" who has replied above.

As he, I think, indicates you are never going to get a definitive reply.

 

With no intended disrespect to those who have also quoted numbers, I would chose to take "Buckby Lock"s" as likely being the most accurate assessment available.

[Pluto]

The training of boat crews was continually under discussion during the 2WW, with a scheme to encourage unemployed men, and another to bring over Irish labour, being created before the women's scheme was adopted. The attached are transcriptions for the L&LC correspondence files relating to the various schemes. I have written about the Irish scheme in Waterways Journal vol 5 in 2003.I did find more material in the MoT papers in the  archive at Kew.

1943 training boatmen L&LC file 2870.pdf 1941 training boatmen L&LC file 2870.pdf

[BuckbyLocks]

2 hours ago, Ray T said:

A couple of lesser known trainees at Longford Coal Shutes. Betty Snelling & Mary Whitley.

 

Still photo's taken from a video.

 

I think this is the Blonde Bombshell, Betty  Snelling and Monica Martin. The second photo shows Mary.  Monica is also known as Frankie Campbell Martin.

[Kingfisher4]

21 hours ago, BuckbyLocks said:

If there is a list I haven't managed to find it and some of the names that are mentioned in the 4 books are not the real names of the women concerned. Susan Woolfitt gives names to many of the women that she mentions and because they all used Christian names and there were so many duplicates  it was common to use nicknames. I am aware of just over 100 names for women who started training, but trying to find out who completed more than their Training runs has so far proved impossible. Even several who appear in publicity photographs are unknown or unidentified. Those women who managed to start on the Leeds and Liverpool, and thus not part of the Grand Union Training Scheme wrongly identified as Idle Women are better known.

Buckby Locks, do you have a list of those hundred that you could easily send me?

[Ian Mac]

8 hours ago, jake_crew said:

The Alarum Theatre company did a play a few years back about the Idle Women, as did the Mikron before that.

 

They did considerable research and may be able to help you.

The Mikron Research is available, upon request, by the time they did Idle Women they recorded the interviews they undertook. I believe these recordings to be in the Mikron Archive. However they only talked as far as I am aware to the southern fleet based ladies, as these were the easiest too Contact.
I have to say that having met several of these ladies they were a remarkable group, definitely from the "naire be stuck" group of people.
 I believe that after they had see the Mikron show they all went back to Tyseley and all of them got across the top gates without problem, quite remarkable given they were all in there late 80's. I hope I'm still that fit at that age.