R

Railway worker

 

Initially, female railway staff worked as either telegraphists, from the 1850s, or clerks. The first clerks seem to have been employed at King’s Cross station in London in 1900. However, there were soon instances of women doing more responsible work – for instance as stationmistresses at Langford in Essex and Rosemount in Scotland, in 1906, or running the entire station, from selling tickets to changing the signals, as Elizabeth Davidson was doing at Dovenby. By 1911 there were over 3,000 women working for railway companies – office and booking clerks, ticket examiners and collectors – and this number had trebled by 1914. In the ensuing war years the staff shortages caused by men going into the services could only be filled by employing women in all station posts, including as porters, engine cleaners and labourers. Over 68,000 women were working in the railway industry by 1918. After the war many left, but there were still 9,000 by 1927. With the coming of the Second World War, women again appeared on stations and in signalboxes.

The records of the many railway companies of the 19th and 20th centuries are covered in the useful booklet Was Your Grandfather a Railwayman?: A Directory of Railway Archive Sources for Family Historians, Tom Richards (Federation of Family History Societies, 2002) – despite the title, female staff are included – and Railway Records: A Guide to Sources, Cliff Edwards (Public Record Office, 2001). The website of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (www.tssa.org.uk) has a background article on ‘RCA women and the railway industry’; see also Railwaywomen: Exploitation, Betrayal and Triumph in the Workplace, Helena Wojtczak (Hastings Press, 2005).

Company staff registers from four major railway companies, 1869 to early 1900s, are searchable online at the website of the Cheshire and Chester Archives (www.cheshire.gov.uk/recordoffice/railways/home.htm). The National Railway Museum, Leeman Road, York YO26 4XJ (www.nrm.org.uk) has a huge range of records and memorabilia. In both wars women were employed by railway companies to serve with the British Transport Police and there are photographs and background information on their website (www.btp.police.uk).

Refractionist

 

see optician.

Registrar of Births and Deaths

 

By 1910 there were some 130 women employed as registrars of births and deaths – the most famous must be Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst, who became registrar in Rusholme, Manchester, in 1898 after the death of her husband, and remained in the post until 1907.

The main part of the work was the registration of births and deaths, copies of which were forwarded to the Registrar General each quarter: an accurate knowledge of the boundaries of the sub-district was essential, and a willingness to ‘adopt some measures by which knowledge can be gained of births and deaths in the sub-district – this is usually done by study of the local newspapers, and by inquiries of doctors, midwives, and people who come to give information of the births and deaths of their relatives’. In census years, enumerators would have to be appointed and their work supervised.

Registrars were appointed by the local board of guardians and were not paid a salary until 1929, but instead received fees for each of their duties, e.g. 2s 6d for each of the first 20 entries of birth or death registered in each quarter, 1s for every other entry, 2s 6d for registering a birth after three months and before twelve months, and 5s for registering a birth after twelve months. There would also be income from the sale of certificates under, for instance, the Factory and Workshops Act, and a fee for making out the quarterly returns. An average town might provide a registrar with an income of about £38 a quarter.

Royal Air Force (Medical Branch)

 

Shortly after the start of the Second World War, in 1940, a small number of female doctors were appointed with responsibility for the WAAF, with recruitment expanded subsequently to include service in RAF hospitals, where only male service patients were nursed. At first holding relative rank with the men they had replaced, from 1942 they were granted commissions: Flying Officer, then Flight Lieutenant after one year’s satisfactory service. They wore the WAAF officers’ uniform, with collar badges of the RAF Medical Branch.

Royal Air Force Nursing Service

 

see Princess Mary’s Royal Air Force Nursing Service.

Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC)

 

During the First World War, when it was realised that there was a growing shortage of male doctors, about 80 women doctors were attached on short term contracts to the RAMC for service in Malta, Egypt and Salonika in 1916. They did not wear military uniform and were treated as volunteers rather than members of the Corps.

In the Second World War, about double that number served with the Corps and wore its badges and colours, receiving the same pay and allowances as the men and holding the same rank. Every entrant was commissioned as an officer, entering the Corps as a lieutenant and being promoted to captain after a year’s service. A major had to be a specialist doctor – including physicians, anaesthetists, psychiatrists, oculists, and gynaecologists – and treated both men and women in the service. Most of the female doctors were medical officers for the Auxiliary Transport Service (ATS), while some acted as transfusion officers for the Army Blood Supply Depot. The RAMC is included in the Army Medical Services Museum, Keogh Barracks, Ash Vale, Aldershot, GU12 5RQ (www.ams-museum.org.uk).

Royal Navy (Medical Branch)

 

About 20 female doctors at any one time served with the Royal Navy during the Second World War, not exclusively for the WRNS. They were commissioned into the Navy, as surgeon-lieutenants, RNVR, with the most senior being a member of the staff of the Medical Director-General of the Navy. They wore the same uniform as a WRNS officer, with a badge of scarlet cloth between two ‘wavy’ gold stripes.