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Wolverhampton and the Great War The Home Front Factory Work The First World War brought with it changes on the Home Front. Husbands, lovers, brothers all answered the call to arms. Factories went into war production. Many businesses were forced to employ women workers in jobs previously done by men.
Butler's Brewery Maltings Workers, 1914 (L5/BUT/E/3) The outbreak of the First World War brought radical changes to the working lives of many women. With their menfolk in the armed forces, industry at full capacity needed them to meet government war contracts and women were consequently engaged in industry. Female employment in the Black Country during the war was probably not the extraordinary experience it was for women in other parts of the country: industries such as engineering, metal, chemical and vehicle manufacture already had a significant number of women workers. Similarly, the intrusion of war work upon their conventional roles as housewife and mother was nothing new to many Wolverhampton women. In order to cope with the requirements of war production existing factories were rapidly converted to produce the basic currency of war: weapons and ammunition. During World War I the Villiers Engineering Company produced ammunition, in particular the fuses for the Vickers 75mm shell. Guy Motors Ltd became the largest manufacturer of firing mechanisms for depth charges in Britain. HM Hobson Ltd. manufactured the carburettors for all the Sunbeam-Coatalen aero engines, and the Liberty aero engines imported from the USA.
HM Hobson Ltd Accuracy Works, Wolverhampton, 1914-1918 (L6/HOB/I/1) During the
First World War the Sunbeam Motor Car Company produced staff cars
and commercial vehicles for the military, ambulances for the Red
Cross and engines for aircraft and high-speed naval craft. In 1914
Sunbeam were the only manufacturer of aero engines in Britain. (The
company is understood to have built over 3,000 such engines during
the war period alone). Sunbeam supplied engines for fighters, bombers,
seaplanes
and airships,
and supplied engines to Japan, Norway and Russia.
Sunbeam Ambulance, 1917 (S9/SUN/1) The motor car manufacturer Star Engineering Ltd, like Sunbeam, stopped production of its motor cars and concentrated on producing commercial vehicles and ammunition. Star's customers included the War Office in Britain as well as those in Siam (later Thailand), Greece, Spain and Romania. The company also made a small number of ABC Dragonfly radial aero engines.
Dragonfly Radial Aero Engine, Clyno Engineering Co, 1919 (L6292)
Extract from Wolverhampton Chronicle, 3rd March 1915 Clyno Engineering Ltd During the First World War Clyno Engineering Ltd supplied motor cycles and sidecars to the British Army to be used by motor cycle machine gun troops.
5/6hp Clyno Machine Gun Carriers, Clyno Engineering Co, 1919 (L6292) By 1915 four complete batteries of the Motor Machine Gun Service had been equipped with Clynos. Every weekend for several months a convoy of 20-25 Clyno outfits were driven from the works to Kempton Park. The Royal Marines also used Clyno outfits. The company also supplied motor cycles to Russia.
Clyno Machine Gun Outfits, Clyno Engineering Co, 1919 (L6292)
Extract from Register of Motor Cars 1914-1916, page 43 (CMB-WOL-D-VL/1/3)
Clyno Dragonfly Aero Engine Assembly, Clyno Engineering Co, 1919 (L6292)
Dragonfly Crankcases in Clyno Machine Shop, Clyno Engineering Co, 1919 (L6292) The Ministry of Munitions issued an order on 3 November 1916 prohibiting the manufacture of motorcycles except those required for war duty. However, due to a decision made earlier involving the Russian Army, the local motorcycle manufacturers AJS, Clyno and Sunbeam were not short of business. Motor
Cycles Despatched to Russia 1917
Extract
from table, AJS of Wolverhampton, page 50
© Copyright. Wolverhampton City Council, 2002
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