The Women's Forage Corps (WFC) or Forage Corps (FC) was a British military organisation of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Based at army camps and depots in the United Kingdom and working in gangs of six, its women assisted with matters relating to horse transport such as hay-making,

forage Forage is a plant material (mainly plant leaves and stems) eaten by grazing livestock. Historically, the term ''forage'' has meant only plants eaten by the animals directly as pasture, crop residue, or immature cereal crops, but it is also used m ...

, checking bales on arrival at railway stations and supervising their loading, stable work, driving horse carts,

chaffing Chaffing and winnowing is a cryptographic technique to achieve confidentiality without using encryption when sending data over an insecure channel. The name is derived from agriculture: after grain has been harvested and threshed, it remains mix ...

, wire-stretching, making and mending sacks and tarpaulin sheets and. It also included Section Clerks for the related clerical work. The foundations for the Corps were laid in 1915, though it only formally came into being on 1 March 1917 before being further formalised by an Army Order in early November 1918. Led by Mrs Atholl Stewart as Superintendent of Women, who reported to Brigadier-General Hill Godfrey Morgan, it consisted of civilian women (known as Industrial Members) but was under the control of the Army Service Corps. Below Stewart were (in descending order of seniority) Area Inspectors of Women, Assistant Superintendents, Deputy Superintendents, Forwarding Supervisors, Supervisors of Women Labour, Deputy Assistant Supervisors and Gang Supervisors. Largely drawn from among women servants but also including some women of independent means with their own horses, normal members earned an average of 26 to 30 shillings a week by 1919, drawing army rations and sometimes with a caravan (for

mess The mess (also called a mess deck aboard ships) is a designated area where military personnel socialize, eat and (in some cases) live. The term is also used to indicate the groups of military personnel who belong to separate messes, such as the o ...

ing rather than accommodation) and cook assigned to their gang as a mess. Their uniform consisted of gaiters, haversack, dark green breeches, hats and jerseys, khaki overcoat, overalls and black boots, with brass shoulder insignia of the initials "FC". Higher ranks wore a khaki tunic and shirt, shoulder rank badges, shoulder "FC" insignia and a brass badge showing "FC" within the eight-pointed star of the Royal Army Service Corps. The WFC numbered 8,000 by 1917, though this had dropped to about 6,000 by 1919. It also contributed to the formation of the

Women's Land Army The Women's Land Army (WLA) was a British civilian organisation created in 1917 by the Board of Agriculture during the First World War to bring women into work in agriculture, replacing men called up to the military. Women who worked for the ...

, also in 1917, though the WFC itself survived until 1920.{{cite web, url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1500018215, title=Extract from the Family History Book "Deborah's and Hazel's Ancestors" by Jean and Bob Manning, 2002, publisher=

Imperial War Museum The Imperial War Museum (IWM), currently branded "Imperial War Museums", is a British national museum. It is headquartered in London, with five branches in England. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, it was intended to record the civ ...

References

1917 establishments in the United Kingdom 1920 disestablishments in the United Kingdom United Kingdom home front during World War I