WVS (Womens Voluntary Services) - a WW2 period uniform hat badge (early 1940s)

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For sale is a WW2 period uniform hat badge of the Women's Voluntary Services (WVS).

In May 1938 as part of the national preparations for war, the British government set out the objectives of the 'Women's Voluntary Services for Civil Defence' and in June 1938 the Women's Voluntary Services for Air Raid Precautions was created, led by Stella Isaacs Marchioness of Reading (1894-1971). During 1941, the WVS was also established in Northern Ireland and its membership peaked at around 24,000 during the war but membership of the mainland WVS had peaked at around 1 million by 1943. The WVS was not disbanded war ended in 1945 but continued to evolve into the RVS (Royal Voluntary Service), as it is known today.

The role of the WVS was initially seen as supplementary to the Air Raid Precautions (ARP) services and after war broke out in September 1939 its roles quickly expanded, as did the numbers of volunteers recruited. Volunteers were unpaid for their time and worked what tasks they could, often with long and arduous hours spent in areas adversely affected by the war. Volunteers also had to pay for their own uniforms and any extras that went with them, the badge alone (as above) cost 6d (six pence). For example, a full suit uniform, coat, hat and scarf cost £9 4s 7d in 1940, about two weeks of the average man's wages. The first WVS badges carried the text ARP WOMEN’S VOLUNTARY SERVICES (these are scarce), but within a year this was changed to read WVS CIVIL DEFENCE reflecting the expanding roles and functions of the WVS. These badges were worn as part of the uniform and affixed onto a ribbon that was secured around the hat, the badge’s design remained unchanged until after the war. There were a number of badge makers producing the WVS badges and there will be minor variations between the various manufacturers. Early badges used vitreous enamel but as the war went on economies were made in their manufacture changing from enamel to enamel paint. The WVS became and remained the largest non-military civil defence organisation during the war and to reflect their importance volunteers were eligible for the Defence Medal.

There were a number of sub-organisations within the WVS each having more specialised functions, but a major development was the creation of the WVS Housewives Section. This enabled women at home to participate as full members of the WVS but without the high costs of a full uniform and making allowances that housewives may not have as much spare time to engage in duties outside the home. The importance of the Housewives Service is that it allowed many more working-class women to become involved in the WVS and to help break down the perceived social and class barriers within the WVS structure so that volunteers of all classes would work together, the perception of the WVS was that membership was overwhelmingly middle and upper class. The Housewives Section also brought a greater number of women into WVS membership, giving women and particularly housewives the opportunity to enter into local public life through the practical work it undertook in their communities, opportunities they’d not have had before. Not only did WVS members work closely with the other Civil Defence organisations, they also worked closely with other women’s organisations such as the Women’s Institutes (WI) and the Townswomen’s Guilds (TG). All the above organisations also issued membership badges.

Although the WVS remained a uniformed Civil Defence organisation after the end of the war in 1945, its roles changed with changing society and its needs. The WVS also changed its name over time, evolving into the Royal Voluntary Service (RVS) as it is today and having around 5% male membership. All those listed below continued to issue their own membership badges.

1938-1966 WVS Women’s Voluntary Services
1966-2004 WRVS Women’s Royal Voluntary Services
2004-2013 WRVS (name changed simply to WRVS)
2013- to-date RVS (Royal Voluntary Service), the word Women’s dropped to reflect an increasing male membership.

The work of the WVS expanded as the needs for Civil Defence changed and by 1943 the WVS had expanded to over a million volunteers whose work was varied and often arduous. The WVS was split into twelve regions with some 2,000 WVS centres across Britain, providing a wide range of services to communities and all unpaid voluntary war work. Work typically carried out by the WVS could be summarised as below but this list is by no means exhaustive:

• Evacuation & coordinating evacuees

• Clothing collections & distribution of clothing, food, gasmasks, etc

• Ambulance drivers

• Garment knitting for defence forces troops

• Rest centres & air raid shelters

• Mobile canteen services to the troops and other military personnel, staffing work canteens

• Salvage schemes (from bombed areas)

• Messenger services

• Fund raising activities

• Work closely with the Civil Defence services

• Assist people bombed out of their homes & in need of re-housing

• Organised campaigns such as Salute the Soldier Week, Wings for Victory Week and Warship Week (Salute the Soldier Weeks were British national savings campaigns during the Second World War, a civil community drive to raise funds for the purchase of British Army equipment. Wings for Victory Week was the Royal Air Force equivalent and Warship Week the Royal Navy equivalent.)

• Incident Inquiry Points (IIPs), places where people came to find out about missing persons who were in an area that had been bombed. This freed-up members of the ARP to work alongside the fire brigade services.

Some informative links about the WVS during WW2 at the end of this Adverts listing.

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DESCRIPTION:
Size: about 7/8" x 1 3/16" (22mm x 30mm).
Material(s): brass metal with 1 enamel paint.
Finish: tin plated.
Fitting: pin.
Imprint: L. SIMPSON & CO LONDON
Approximate age: c.1941 to c.1943.

CONDITION:
Excellent condition. No damage. Pin in working order. Some very minor marks in tin-plating surface commensurate with age and use.
Please see photograph(s), these form part of the description.

POSTAGE:
* Postal costs are extra, additional to the Asking Price
* I always get a proof-of-posting certificate.
* I combine postal costs for multiple items when these are paid for and posted the same time.

RETURNS:
* Return accepted if the item(s) is returned in same condition it left me, then the full Agreed Asking Price will be refunded. Postal costs are not refundable.
* Buyer pays the return postal costs - unless agreed otherwise.

B.43

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Some informative links about the WVS:

https://www.royalvoluntaryservice.org.uk/media/bkrhnvts/wvs_wartime_uniform.pdf (WVS uniforms)

https://www.ww2civildefence.co.uk/womens-voluntary-services-uniforms.html (Includes the WVS badges).

https://www.iwm.org.uk/blog/partnerships/2023/02/rethinking-wartime-citizenship-through-the-womens-voluntary-services (general article about the WVS and their roles in wartime Britain).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVyllS9q9-c (A short Ministry of Information film about the work of the WVS).

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09612025.2023.2267249#d1e113 (Looks at the work done by WVS volunteers & includes a chapter on the Housewives Section).
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-36226957 (“Matthew McMurray, archivist at the RVS, says he's spent six years sorting through "tens of thousands of pieces of fragile paper" to get to a point where the documents can be digitised.)

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/home-front-1939-1945-part-two/advice-from-the-womens-voluntary-services/ (A 1943 WVS food advice leaflet).

https://www.lisburnmuseum.com/virtual-museum-lisburn/the-womens-voluntary-service-wvs/ (Northern Ireland WVS).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Voluntary_Service