I have previously shared some stories from an autograph book that I have that is filled with names of women in the WRAF in WW1. I have been delving deeper into some names and discovered some really interesting women who served at RAF Lympne. There are dozens of names and happily, many added "WRAF Lympne" after their entry. The records for women who served there haave been added to Ancestry.co.uk and so it was very easy to find important facts about the women, thus enabling me to trace their lives before and after the War as can be seen by Winifred's entry. These were really useful in tracing common names or partially illegible entries.
Winifred's WRAF record at Lympne
Winifred's record provided her full names and year of birth. Further research showed someone of that name who lived in Worcestershire- so the fact that she enlisted at Birmingham confirmed I had the correct Winifred!
Winifred was born on 10th October 1894 in Willenhall in the West Midlands to William and Elizabeth Beaufoy. William, who was a farmer, was widowed in 1899. According to the 1911 census Winifred was living at home and was a cardboard box maker.
I have found a lot of information about what life would have been like for Winifred from the wonderful Universtity of Warwick archive (links below). It was a very hard occupation and only the very poor were prepared to do it.
"Sweated industries: being a handbook of the "Daily News exhibition
compiled by Richard Mudie-Smith
What interests me is that four years later, on 18th March 1918, Winifred enrolled in the WRAF and moved away from home, to live in Kent with her fellow members. By the time she left the service - and she stayed on for a year after the end of the war - Winifred is a General clerk, but had risen to be a chief section leader; presumably in charge of office workers. What a step up! she signed her colleague's autograph book on 5th April 1918, very soon after arriving at the base. This happened quite a lot in Dolly's book - I wonder if she welcomed any newcombers and asked for them to sign to the book as a way of introducing herself.
By the 1921 census Winifred was back home living with her father and sister, Bessie. I wonder how much she missed her fulfilling job. However, on researching the 1939 register I made a very interesting discovery. Winifred is a Sister of Mercy living in St Albans. The address - 2 Romeland - is very close to the Abbey. She has become a nun!
She died in 1977 in Plymouth From a five year old girl, being raised by her father and later working in a "sweated" industry - she served her country and was promoted as a leader of other women and later became a nun. .What a remarkable life!
During my research I also discovered that her sister, Bessie Marjorie, after working as a dressmaker at home for several years, became a ward sister in the County Mental Hospital Hatton, Warwickshire.She trained at the Cheshire Mental Hospital for 4 years and qualified in 1935. I have found advertisements for equivalent positions at that time and the pay was £2-11 - 11p. She was working away from home in a fulfulling job and no doubt earning far more, in better conditions, than doing piece work at home. She died in 1991 aged 94. Details of the experience of nurses working at the hospital are in the very interesting link below.
Hatton County Lunatic Asylum
Winifred also had a brother, Archibald William, who was born in 1890. Before the War, he worked as a groundsman at a local golf club. Archibald enlisted in the Duke of Wellington Wiltshire Regiment. He died in Iraq in 1916, aged 26.
Archibald's Memorial Certificate: Commonwealth War Grave Commission
What a credit the three children were to their parents. All three served their country and their community, one of them paying the ultimate price. It has been a privilege to rescue them from obscurity and I am very grateful that one entry in an autograph book could take me on such a humbling and interesting journey.
Only 40 + more names to go!
Ancestry.co.uk
https://warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/collections/digital/tradeboard/1906
https://wdc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p21047coll2/id/353
https://www.ourwarwickshire.org.uk/content/article/history-of-the-central-psychiatric-hospital-site-at-hatton
