Foxwell, A. K. | Munition Lasses

First edition, first impression of this account of women munition workers at the Woolwich Arsenal between July 1916 and January 1917. Uncommon, particularly in the dust jacket.

Author Agnes Kate Foxwell (1872-1957) was a graduate of University College London, a teacher at Cheltenham Ladies College, and active in the suffrage movement. In 1914 she joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment and worked as a Red Cross nurse in a number of military hospitals, primarily in London but also Rouen (https://vad.redcross.org.uk/record?rowKey=78412).

Shortly after women were first hired as employees of the Woolwich Arsenal in early 1916 she was recruited as Principal Overlooker in Danger Buildings, supervising employees in the most dangerous sections of the factory. The present volume describes her role and the perilous, exhausting, and low-paid work undertaken by women munition workers. It covers a wide variety of factory roles and also describes social life among the workers, but some technological details were omitted for national security reasons. The book is illustrated with four pages of photographs depicting the Woolwich employees, primarily in formal group shots, including several in costumes for a Joan of Arc pageant.