Conscripted munitions girls were real heroines

THERE has been a lot of space in the media lately devoted to the 70th anniversary of the 1939-45 war.

Not much space has been given to praising those women and girls who were conscripted to work in factories producing munitions.

On September 4, 1939, I had my first day of paid work starting as a laboratory boy in Sheffield University engineering
There were three of us, the first wave of Sheffield University's promotion to produce engineering apprentice scholarships.

We worked in the laboratories and in the workshops and during 1940-41 the workshops were turned over to producing much-needed war parts eg sten gun parts, acro engine parts.

The machines in the workshops were staffed by girls and young married women, plus a few older ladies. All these ladies had been conscripted from offices and shops to work in munitions. Our job was to keep the machines running and supervise the work. We all worked a three-shift system for the whole of this time, six days per week.

These girls worked very hard. They had little time for themselves. The young married ones, whose husbands were in the forces, were always desperate for news of their loved ones. They were unsung heroines. Are there any left who remember working at the university? I know of one and one other apprentice who worked with me.epartment.