Margaret Johnson, WAAF Servicewoman, RAF Witnall.

The Women’s Royal Air Force was established, with the Royal Air Force, on 1 April 1918.  Many of its members had previously served with either the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps or the Women’s Royal Naval Service.  It was disbanded in 1920. 

The Women’s Work Collection contains the most comprehensive source of information about women in the First World War, and is available as a searchable web database (by paid subscription to Thomson Gale (Women, War and Society 1914-1918) or free at point of access within the Imperial War Museum).  The Women’s Royal Air Force section is especially useful for looking at women in this service.

In June 1939 the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force was formed, and existed until 1948, when the Women’s Royal Air Force once more came into being.  In 1994 women became fully integrated into the Royal Air Force and the Women’s Royal Air Force was disbanded.

The Royal Air Force Nursing Service was only established in the last months of the First World War, and was renamed Princess Mary’s Royal Air Force Nursing Service in 1923.