A Day in the Life of a Shell Girl

From Woman’s Weekly, 12th January 1918.

A DAY IN MY LIFE.

BY THE SHELL GIRL, WHO HELPS THE "MAN BEHIND THE GUN."

A munitions worker 

LIKE most English girls, when the call came for women to help in the Great War, my ambition was to make shells, and I joined the great army of munition workers. 

The work is hard— very hard—but the pay is good, and, what is more, the munition girl is always happy in the knowledge that she is "doing her bit" to help the boys "out there." 

My work was boring and screwing 6-inch shells, operations which require much attention and care, for the cap must fit exactly to be of any use.  When I joined I was put to watch a machine for a fortnight (during this time I 'was not paid), and after that I was allowed a machine of my own. 

The heaviest part of the work is lifting the shells by means of a chain hoist.  They weigh 186 lb. each—a tough task for a girl, but I was spared this, for the machine behind me was run by a man named Joe. and always when I attempted to get a shell he would say, "Eh, mate!  Let me do that!"  

Joe was quite a character in our room.  He was a discharged soldier, but would never talk of his experiences "out there." 

"You get on with them there shells," he would say.  "Time enough to talk when the war's over." 

Joe kept his eye on us during the night shift, and whenever he noticed a head nodding over a machine he was quickly on the scene with a can of tea, which he kept incessantly stewing over the hydraulics.  In the day time he always came well provided with apples and sweets, and in his unostentatious way he would hand them to the girls at lunch time, hurrying away before we could thank him.

The hours at our works were from seven at night until eight o'clock the next morning for two weeks; and six at night till seven o'clock in the morning for the next two weeks.  During a shift most of us were able to make from sixteen to eighteen shells, and this, at piecework rates, brought our wages from two pounds fifteen shillings to three pounds per week. 

There were nice recreation rooms in which we could rest during dinner hour, and for a quarter of an hour at tea time.  There are attendants these rooms who, for the charge of a penny, will heat up any food you may bring. 

MY "MATES." 

My "mates," as they called themselves, were a strong, free-and-easy lot, very intolerant of my finicky ways, and some of them looked with scorn at the clean serviette I brought each day, and my cup and saucer in place of a can for my tea; but they were a very kind lot of girls, as the following story will show: 

There was one little woman whom the girls, for some reason or another, did not like.  She was not interested in their stories of the fine clothes they were buying, and the surprises they had "up their sleeve" for "George" when he came home.  All through the long shift the little woman would stand silent, her eyes glued to her machine; and during the dinner hour she never entered the recreation-room.  I learnt afterwards it was because she only had a crust of dry bread to eat, and didn't want anyone to pity her poverty.  One day she completely broke down, and I saw the girl at the next machine, after a little hesitation, turn to her. 

At lunch time that day this girl called her mates and told them the story.  The little woman's husband had deserted her.  She had six children, and the eldest, a boy of eighteen, had just joined up.  She was trying to keep things going, but her strength would not allow her to make more than ten shells a day, and the order was that twelve must be the minimum per shift.  Unless she could do better she was to go. 

Without any more ado, and, of course, against regulations, a group of girls banded themselves together and pledged themselves to put at least six shells to the little woman's total. 

And they did; and, what is more, would not listen to the little woman's thanks.  "Garn,'' said one girl. 'it doesn't matter who makes 'em, long as Kaiser Bill gets it in the neck!"  

The munition girl keeps herself and her friends alive with her high spirits and her unbounded energy.  She means her man to win the war.

WOMEN MUNITION WORKERS.

Women desirous of doing War-Work are now being offered every facility for training in the Engineering branch of Munition Work.  No charge is made for the training, and a Subsistence Allowance at the rate of 25s. per week is paid to students from the date of enrolment.  Overalls and caps are also provided free.
Women are urgently wanted, and all particulars of training. wages, hours, etc., may be had on application to: The Education Officer, L.C.C. Education Offices, Victoria Embankment, London, W.C.2.