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Women war workers of Birmingham

Thanks Viv - for an interesting video clip. As a little'un I could have seen that parade if my parents had taken me to 'town' that day. I remember all the posters on the town hall and other buildings. There are some interesting photos of Women War Workers on the IWM site - its not the easiest site to search !

The Prime Minister Winston Churchill observes a female riveter working on a Supermarine Spitfire at the Castle Bromwich factory in Birmingham, England, on 28 September 1941.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205196617

A Girl Joins Up: Women's Factory War Work, England, May 1941
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205198549
There are more photos at the bottom of the IWM page, one showing the outside of a factory.

There are also some interesting pics of the Wartime Childrens Nurseries needed to look after the young children of the women workers, one of them in Hunters Rd Hockley.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205202892

Today's view - the wartime balconies have gone ....
https://goo.gl/maps/E6CYb
 
Thanks Phil. Be a good result if any of the women in these photos/films could be identified. Makes you realise what a wealth of untapped info we have stored on film. Just needs a lot of time and effort to dig deeper into it. Viv.
 
Can anyone help I believe my mother worked for a company called something like Perfector working on Mosquitoes does anyone have any information please
 
During the war many companies did work very different from their peacetime products, but in the 1943 Kellysthere are two companies with that name:

Perfecta Molor Equipments Ltd. motor car wind screen mfrs.; specialising in screens, coupe's & hooding, Excelsior works, Oxford st 5 (TA " Permoquip, Birmingham ; " Midland 1673, 1674 & 1675) & 29 Highgate sq 12

Perfecta Tube Co. Ltd. tube mkrs. Plume st. Aston 6. T A " Perfecta; " Aston Cross 2211 (3 lines)

Obviously the tube company might be involved in aircraft construction, but also, as Mosquitos were constructed of spruce and balsa, a firm used to constructing car hoods might have had useful expertise
 
What a great picture! Someone's mothers, grandmothers...... It's such a shame that, despite the power of social media, so many subjects of images like this never ever get spotted and identified.

Chris
 
What a great picture! Someone's mothers, grandmothers...... It's such a shame that, despite the power of social media, so many subjects of images like this never ever get spotted and identified.

Chris
i agree chris and there are so many articles that do not put the names of people that are in the photographs...

lyn
 
Agree Chris. The only thing that I can add to this is whether the building was the later Remploy building. If so it was on the Soho Road. I remember Remploy was next to the ‘Labour Exchange’ and opposite the later multi-storey DHSS building.

So it makes me wonder were these women/girls those who’d signed up for war work at their local labour exchange ? And perhaps they were local girls. There’d have been plenty of war work relatively nearby; munitions etc.

Viv.
 
It brings to mind this iconic Dame Kaura Knight painting which I have always loved. Must have inspired many women to support the war effort.

Laura Knight was commissioned to paint Ruby Loftus, an outstanding factory worker. Loftus had mastered complex engineering skills in a very short space of time. Industrial machinery was also a new subject of Knight’s work, but she was praised, like Loftus for proving herself in a traditionally male environment. factory worker.

Viv.

5FB6F238-E7F9-440B-9548-85333681C917.jpeg
 
Agree Chris. The only thing that I can add to this is whether the building was the later Remploy building. If so it was on the Soho Road. I remember Remploy was next to the ‘Labour Exchange’ and opposite the later multi-storey DHSS building.

So it makes me wonder were these women/girls those who’d signed up for war work at their local labour exchange ? And perhaps they were local girls. There’d have been plenty of war work relatively nearby; munitions etc.

Viv.
As far as I remember some women were from Ireland, A family we knew, who lived in Hall Green, had an Irish girl - from the Republic - as a lodger. She worked in a factory - her name was Bridie.
 
I think that, if possible, they tried to use local girls so they did not have to find accommodation.
My Mom (from Shirley) wanted to join the Land Army but was sent to the Rover (Lode Lane) for her war work as she could live at home and cycle in. Or so she was led to believe. Not sure what she made but she did 2 weeks on days and 2 weeks on nights.
 
Interesting that recuperation was considered appropriate (at least by the Birmingham Saturday Fund) for female munition workers. Doubtless the work entailed long hours and shifts, all alongside maintaining the same family responsibilities. And carried out single-handed without the support of a serving husband. Viv.

5D9664FC-74D5-47F1-A7F7-802B32EF0366.jpeg
Source: British Newspaper Archive
 
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During ww1and 2 woman police kept there eye on factory workers

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Police-.jpg

11302971
 
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