Women Gallery

Female Clerks at Swindon Works, 1916

This image of female clerks was taken in May 1916, just 10 years after women were first employed in clerical positions within the GWR. These clerks belonged to the Chief Mechanical Engineers Office in Swindon and were managed by Chief Clerk, Mr Lockyer. During the war the number of women becoming clerks increased as positions became vacant by men going to war

© STEAM Museum of the GWR

Women workers in the Permanent Way Dept at Reading, 1943

Three ladies from the Permanent Way Department are pictured here at Reading in April 1943 off-loading wooden blocks from a wagon. This photograph is an official Company image, with GWR Chief Engineers Office, Aldermaston. Photographic Department stamped on the reverse. The photo may have been taken to show the work of women during the war, but equally it might have been taken to show joint working between the GWR and LMS whose wagon features in the image. Inter-railway working between the railway companies was actively encouraged by the Government during the war as a means of maintaining an efficient and economic rail service, so staff and rolling stock worked across the different networks in a way that had not been seen previously

Production line for wartime shells in No.24 Shop, Swindon Works, 1942

No.24 Shop, on the Carriage and Wagon side of Swindon Works was fitted out with two production lines for 25-pounder shells. The refurbishment was quite a feat and required the excavation of new foundations for heavy machinery and furnaces. The Production line is in full operation in this photograph from February 1942. The various machines are fully manned by female operatives who finished, turned, weighed and riveted the 25-pdr shells and in total produced over 63,000 of them. A stack of machined shells can be seen on the floor to the left and centre of the image