Description
Physical description
Within a voided oval laurel wreath, points separated at the top, the letters WAAC, in the form 'W' above 'A A' above 'C', all in bronzed metal. The remnants of a brooch fastening is on the reverse.
History note
In January 1917, the government announced the establishment of a new voluntary service, to be called the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC). The Corps may be considered to have been formally constituted on 7 July 1917 with the publication of Army Council Instruction 1069 of that date, although the Corps had been effectively operational before that date. This was the first women's unit in the British Army.
The Army had been suffering manpower shortages since 1915 and the problem was exacerbated by heavy losses in the fighting in 1916. Talks between Army and government led to the decision to use women to replace men doing certain administrative work (so-called "soft" jobs) in Britain and France. The plan was for these women to serve as clerks, telephonists, waitresses, cooks, and as instructors in the use of gas masks. These men could then be sent to fight at the front.
The WAAC wore an official Army uniform and cap badge but were not given full military status. The women enrolled, voluntarily, rather than enlisted and they were punished for breaches of discipline by civil rather than military courts. Attitudes prevailing at the time ran contrary to the idea that a woman could hold a commission so members of the WAAC were divided into officials (officers), forewomen (sergeant), assistant forewomen (corporals) and workers (privates). The WAAC was organised into four branches: cookery, mechanical, clerical and miscellaneous. The branches were indicated on uniform by coloured patches on shoulder straps, red for "household", purple for "Mechanical and general duties" (excluding drivers), brown for "clerical" and claret for "motor drivers".
In April 1917 a Buckingham Palace statement was issued saying that, in recognition of the services rendered by the Corps in France and the UK since its inauguration, Her Majesty Queen Mary had agreed to become the Corps' Commandant-in-Chief and that in future the Corps would be known as Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps. This name was formally adopted in April 1918.
Between January 1917 and the Armistice over 57,000 women served in the WAAC. This number included some 7,000 cooks and waitresses transferred from the Women's Legion to the Corps in February 1917.
The Corps was disbanded in September 1921.
Inscription
W
AA
C