I have been researching the involvement of women in the First World War for some time now for a series of commemorative exhibitions, so quite a lot of the material in "Female Tommies" was already familiar to me. As Shipton explains in the Foreword to her book, these days we are used to women war correspondents and women in the armed forces. Television reporters like Kate Adie have brought front line news to our television screens for years but the women who wanted to help in the danger zones of WW1 had first to overcome centuries of prejudice, so their determination and sacrifices are all the more to be admired.
Shipton draws on an immense volume of written and audio information relating to the role of women in The First World War and has produced an outstanding, very readable book. With a detailed Bibliography and Index, extensive notes to each chapter and some wonderful photographs, the book has ten chapters covering women nurses, doctors, orderlies, spies, pilots and soldiers, ambulance drivers, telephonists, clerks, coders, de-coders, telegraphists, waitresses and cooks, plus civilian volunteers and entertainers. She goes into detail about the founding of the various organisations set up by women and directly involved in the conflict and gives us the history of the formation of the women's branches of the British and American Armed Forces.
"Female Tommies" also explains in detail the historical background to events, making the book comprehensive and an invaluable source for anyone genuinely interested in the role of women in WW1. I thoroughly enjoyed it, found it extremely well written and full of interesting and entertaining information. It was definitely one of those "couldn't put it down" books, that you finish with a feeling of regret at leaving old friends.
"Female Tommies The Frontline Women of the First World War" by Elisabeth Shipton, dedicated bo her grandmother who served in the WAAF during The Second World War and published by The History Press, Stroud, Gloucestershire, 2014
