Women at War

A group of WRINS in 1945.
Courtesy: Imperial War Museum

The manpower and industrial needs of modern warfare resulted in women throughout Britain and the Commonwealth becoming involved as never before. Women demonstrated their commitment by volunteering for the Armed Forces and through involvement as civilians in areas such as nursing, fundraising and administrative support.

The Women’s Royal Indian Naval Service (WRINS), formed in 1944, contributed greatly to the administration of RIN shore establishments. The Service was led by the Director Women’s Auxiliary Corps (India), the Countess of Carlisle, with her Deputy Chief Commander, Ranga Rao.

The Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) gave women the chance to serve alongside the Army both in the UK and overseas. Outside the UK it was particularly active in the Caribbean and Palestine. The Women’s Auxiliary Corps India (WAC(I)) was the Indian equivalent of the ATS and was formed in 1942.

The RAF formed the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), and enlisted women both in the UK and overseas. Local recruitment for the WAAF was instituted in the Middle East in 1942. Recruits were drawn from the Egyptian, Palestinian, Jewish, Assyrian, Greek and Cypriot communities; a peak strength of nearly 900 locally recruited WAAF personnel was reached in December 1944. Although Malta was not included in this scheme, the RAF also employed members of the Maltese population in significant numbers.

Away from the Armed Forces, a small number of Commonwealth women also participated in the secret war fought by Allied intelligence organisations in occupied Europe. One such was Noor Inayat Khan. An Indian princess (and a direct descendent of Tipu Sultan), Noor Inayat Khan was the daughter of a Sufi mystic. Resident in France prior to the outbreak of the Second World War and fluent in both French and English, she served in the WAAF as a wireless operator prior to transferring to the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in February 1943.

Noor Inayat Khan was despatched to France to join the “Prosper” SOE network as a radio operator (with the codename Madeleine) in June 1943, only to be betrayed to the Gestapo and arrested in October of that year. Throughout her captivity she showed considerable courage, refusing to divulge any information to her interrogators and making at least two attempts to escape; she was eventually transferred to the concentration camp at Dachau, where she was executed on 12 September 1944. In recognition of her gallantry, Noor Inayat Khan was posthumously awarded the George Cross on 5 April 1949.