Leatherhead War Memorials: Ada Elizabeth Weller

Taken Not Given, Liam Sumption, L&DLHS
Ada Elizabeth Weller was not included in Liam Sumption's research as she was not recorded on the Town War Memorial.
However, she has been added to his WWI pages by the editor.

Name: WELLER, ADA ELIZABETH : Age not known
Rank: Worker (on her headstone she is described as Waitress)
Regiment: Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps
Date of Death: 17/07/1918
Service No: 39645
Cemetery: LEATHERHEAD (SS. MARY AND NICHOLAS) CHURCHYARD, In East part.

Ada Weller is named on a plaque in Leatherhead's Methodist Church.

Information is sought on her and her family. There are 14 other Wellers buried in the same churchyard.¹

It is possible that she is one of the victims of the influenza epidemic which claimed so many lives in the aftermath of the First World War.

The earliest of the women's voluntary bodies was the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) formed in 1909 with memories of the South African war still fresh. It was recruited from ladies who could ride well, with the aim of locating and retrieving the wounded on horseback. Sensibly the FANY converted to a corps of drivers and mechanics for ambulances. Though ignored by the British Army, the FANY were appreciated by the French and Belgians. They maintained a tradition of devotion and efficiency through both world wars, retaining their separate identity even after joining with the Auxiliary Territorial Service in WWII and from whose ranks were drawn a number of those working underground in Nazi occupied Europe.

The first year of the First World War produced a number of other women's voluntary organisations - the Women's Emergency Corps, the Women's Auxiliary Force, the Women's Volunteer Motor Drivers, the Home Service Corps and the Women's Volunteer Reserve. The WVR was the most military in terms of uniform and drill.

A major requirement was to cater for the new armies - food was plentiful but was often wasted in preparation or poorly cooked and thrown away by the men. The Quartermaster-General Sir John Cowans realised that women could usefully employed in their most traditional role, at leastin non-combatant units or establishments. He asked Lady Londonderry of the WVR if she could use one of her organisations for this task.

As she was in disagreement with the organisers of the WVR she opted to form a new corps, the Women's Legion, a civilian organisation managed by volunteers with workers recruited through the Labour Exchanges and paid through the Army Vote. Her aim was to establish three sections - canteen, ambulance and military cookery - but the immediate need was for cooks.

It was a great success and by the end of 1916 detachments totalling 2000 cooks and kitchen staff were working at 200 camps in England. They were recruited from domestic cooks, housewives with practical cooking experience and ladies with diplomas in domestic science and untrained volunteers who were at first trained in the kitchens. Improvements were seen in palatability and good cooking - and the women proved to be more efficient than the men. There was some resentment - few men wanted to exchange a safe billet for the trenches. The Women's Legion was run by amateurs with great efficiency. It continued to the end of the war but was overtaken by the realities of modern warfare.

Manpower was draining from industry into the trenches and women were taking their places in the factories. It was realised that women might also replace men in some of the tasks which supported the fighting men. Sir Nevil Macready, the Adjutant-General, asked Haig in December 1916 if he would be prepared to accept women in the 'static chain'. Haig agreed, requiring only that they be properly organised and operate in groups of not less than 20 each under their own officers. A report recommended that just in in France 12,000 women could be used as ambulance drivers, storemen, clerks, checkers, telegraphists, telephonists, postal employees, orderlies, cooks, and domestic servants.

Macready's assistant was Brigadier AC Geddes whose sister, Mrs Mary Watson. had been the first woman to graduate in Medicine from the University of Edinburgh and who had some experience in public affairs. In February 1917 she was invited to raise and command what was to be called the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. Helen Gwynne-Vaughan was the Controller (Overseas).

Eventually 57,000 WAAC were employed. The response was swift and the planned establishment soon achieved. The first WAACs moved to France on 31st March 1917. By early 1918, some 6,000 WAACs were in France.

Inevitably there was eventually a furore back in England and seized upon by German propaganda about women and soldiers serving together. An enquiry was set up which effectively ended the fuss. More critically, the German offensive in Spring 1918 caused concern in some quarters about the exposure of women to enemy fire and the possibility of withdrawal of the WAACs from France altogether. When it was proposed that all the WAACs at the Signal Centre at St Omer should be sent back, this order was cancelled, much to the satisfaction of the WAAC, by the Director of Signals who said that if his 142 women who had behaved with exemplary calm under air raids were removed, he could not be responsible for communications between GHQ and Second Army. So ended the only attempt to withdraw members of the Corps from duty for the sake of their own safety.

Though non-combatant, members of the WAAC had to put up with shelling by heavy artillery and German bombing raids. During a bombing attack in April 1918, nine WAAC were killed at the Etaples Army Camp. British newspapers claimed that it was another German atrocity but Helen Gwynne-Vaughan, the redoubtable Controller (Overseas) remarked to the press that the WAAC were in France as replacements for soldiers and the enemy was entitled to view them as a target.

In the midst of all this on 9 April 1918 came a statement issued by Buckingham Palace:

As a mark of Her Majesty's appreciation of the good services rendered by the WAAC both at home and abroad since its inauguration, and especially of the distinction which it earned in France during the recent fighting on the Western Front, Her Majesty has been graciously pleased to assume the position and title of Commandant-in-Chief of the Corps, which in future will bear the name of Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps.

This title was not generally adopted and the WAACs stayed WAACs.

click for source page (Hoover Institute, Stanford University)

The organisation of the WAAC partly reflected the military model: their officers were called Controllers and Administrators, rather than Commissioned Officers, and messed apart from the other ranks. The WAAC uniform included a small, tight-fitting khaki cap, khaki jackets and skirts. The skirt had to be no more than twelve inches above the ground. To maintain a high level of fitness, all WAAC had to do physical exercises daily, including morris dancing and hockey.

The WAAC version of an NCO was a Forewoman, and the private was a Worker, as was Ada Weller.

A detachment of 1000 WAACs was requested by the American Expeditionary Force and were an independent body under their own Chief Controller. WAAC/QMAAC formally operated under the control of the War Office and was a part of the British Army. Women enrolled rather than enlisted. Breaches of discipline were punished by civil rather than military courts.

A cadre of 6,000 WAAC transferred to the Royal Air Force on the formation of the Women's Royal Air Force. The QMAAC formally disbanded on 27 September 1921.

Sources
1. SSMN graves database
2. The Women's Royal Army Corps, Shelford Bidwell
3. Women in Khaki, Roy Terry

The editor thanks Mrs Joan Ralph, an ex-ATS Gunner, for the loan of sources 2&3.

the website editor would like to add further information on this casualty
e.g. a photo of her, and of any recollections within her family