06 March 2025
Women in the Second World War: A new Educational Resource Launched for International Women’s Day
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has created a new resource for schools and young people: Women in the Second World War.
This new educational resource will inspire young people to learn about women’s role in the Second World War by honouring those who served and fell and sharing their stories.
As we approach the 80th anniversary of V-E and V-J Day, educating school-age children and younger audiences on the role women played in helping secure victory is important.
These stories are set within the wider context of women’s war work, and some of the different auxiliary and military nursing services open to women during this period.
They are also cross-referenced to key events to illustrate how, for example, women from the Women’s Royal Naval Service were involved in the behind-the-scenes planning for D-Day.
Whilst primarily aimed at KS2/KS3 students, the information could be used with any age group interested in exploring the stories behind women’s roles in the Second World War.
Download Women in the Second World War
Women At War – Keeping Their Stories Alive
Whilst the resource tells some of the well-known stories of women such as Amy Johnson and the women of the Special Operations Executive, it also aims to explore those less well-known stories to really highlight the range of women’s war experiences through a series of stories.
Flight Captain Eleanor Isabella (Susan) Slade
Susan Slade was one of the first women to join the Air Transport Auxiliary in 1940.
She was a pioneer of female aviation, flying in and winning many air races before the war. Susan owned several of her own aircraft and had already flown for around 550 hours before joining the ATA.
In the ATA, Susan ferried aircraft and service people around the country to where they were needed. She often did this on her own, unarmed, and without a map or radio.
On the 13th July 1944, Susan was transporting a Wellington bomber from a repair depot near RAF Little Rissington, Oxfordshire, when her plane crashed, and she was killed.
An eyewitness to the crash said, ‘One aeroplane seemed to be much lower than the others and was heading towards the village of Great Rissington, and in my opinion the pilot would have crashed into the village had she not swerved into the field to avoid crashing on to the houses.’
Susan Slade was 40 years old when she died.
She is buried at Stokenchurch Church Cemetery, Buckinghamshire.
Her parents asked for her headstone to be engraved with the words: "DEATH HAVE I ORDAINED EVEN AS GLAD TIDINGS FOR THEE; WHEREFORE DOST THOU SORROW?"
Private Nora Caveney
Nora Caveney was the first female member of the Auxiliary Territorial Service to be killed during the Second World War.
Nora was from Todmorden in West Yorkshire and before the war she worked in a silk factory as a bobbin winder.
Joining the ATS in 1941, Nora volunteered for Anti-Aircraft duties and was posted to one of the first mixed batteries working on front-line gun sites in the south of England. These women were known as ‘Ack-Ack Girls’.
On the evening of 17th April 1942, Nora was using a predictor to follow the course of an enemy plane when she was hit by a splinter of shrapnel from an exploding bomb and killed.
The other ATS girls continued with their important jobs throughout the rest of the raid which lasted nearly an hour.
They were praised for how they dealt with the incident and Nora’s death. Their commanding officer said, ‘The girls’ discipline under fire is most praiseworthy. Seasoned soldiers could not have behaved better’.
Nora Caveney was just 18 years old when she died.
She is buried at Netley Military Cemetery, Hampshire.
The personal inscription on her headstone reads: “RESTING WHERE NO SHADOWS FALL.”
Third Officer Florence Macpherson
Florence was born in 1906 in Canada. She had lived in Vancouver, where she had been a schoolteacher before the war.
When the Second World War came, Florence joined the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) and became a Cipher Officer in the highly secretive Y Service. Their job was to try and intercept secret messages and codes and work out where they were coming from and what they said. Florence’s work focused on messages from the German Navy.
In August 1941 she was among a group from the Scarborough station who departed from Liverpool aboard the SS Aguila. They had all volunteered to go closer to the dangers of war and were on their way to serve in Gibraltar.
The risk of attack from German U-boats meant that ships travelled in convoys. During their journey, the convoy was warned of long-range enemy aircraft and U-boats on their tail. They were told to expect an attack.
At 3 am on 19 August, two torpedoes struck Aguila. More than 400 people lost their lives. Florence and 20 other Wrens were among the dead.
Over the next four days, nine more ships from the convoy were sunk. The Wrens and seamen lost at sea are all commemorated on our large naval memorials at Plymouth, Portsmouth and Chatham, and our merchant naval memorial at Tower Hill in London.
Florence, who was 35 when she died, is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.