Photos Of Women In The Fire Service 1920's-1960's

Old photographs from Britain and the U.S.A from between the 20's and 60's

Buzzfeed

Here again I show that photos and articles I like will quite often get onto the site , yes I know this isn’t Blackburn and no-one on  these occasions as far as I am aware was detached or working at these stations , but I hope you will find them as interesting as I do. Someone on a website called Buzzfeed found these old black and white photos and published them, taken from a mixture of british and American brigades it certainly gives you an incite into the fire brigades of these days, we should all be proud that people like this were willing to step up and be counted during the war years in particular. You probably know what I’m going to say but here goes , if you or a relative served please drop us a line , photos would be great but so would stories hope you enjoy

 
1916, Conducting a drill with hoses and extinguishers.
 
1916, Members of the Woman’s Fire Brigade with their chief officer.
 
1916, Preparing for a fire drill.
 
1916, Putting a fire escape into position.
 
1916, The UK Women’s Fire Brigade takes a salute.
 
1922, Training with hosepipes.
 
 
1926, A member of the Achille Serre Ladies Fire Brigade in London.
 
1928, A rescue drill in progress
 
1928, Demonstrating the use of a portable fire extinguisher.
 
1928, Two firefighters during a drill
 
1930, Staff of the Girls Fire Brigade in Berkshire.
 
1938, a female firefighter models a new uniform.
 
1939, An AFS member during morning inspection at a Manchester fire station.
 
1939, Group of Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) women “keeping fit” with a game of leap-frog
 
1940, AFS women work at the London fire regional control room.
 
1941, chorus girls respond to the call for volunteer “fire watchers” are trained by the Newcastle Fire Brigade.
 
1941, New recruits in the control room at London’s Auxiliary Fire Service.
 
1941, Training at the UK’s Royal Northern Hospital in Holloway practice for blitz fires.
 
1941, Women train at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard during WWII.
 
1942, Female firefighters during a skills demonstration.
 
1942, Training at the Imperial War Museum Fire Fighting School.
 
1942, Volunteer fire guards stow away a hose into a portable trailer.
 
1950, A competitor at the Minneapolis Auxiliary Fire Crews Competition in Minnesota.
 
1961, Margaret Scaife and Marjorie Barrrow compete in the British Railways Inter-Regional Fire Fighting
This page was added by stephen brown on 09/10/2014.

Comments about this page

  • Reply

    I joined the London Fire Brigade in 1968.
    Yes, we were fully aware of women working in the control rooms but I have no recollection at all of knowing that they servered on front line stations as operational fire crew.
    Your photos are amazing as well as enlightening.
    Good on those girls. They deserve to be remembered

    By David Robson (17/11/2020)
  • Reply

    My mum Nellie Hogg ( nee Sutton) was in the fire service during the war and was stationed at Blackburn before going, I think. to Portsmouth for VE day. They were billeted in No 28 Sumner St. Little did she know then, that she would live nearly all her married life in No42 married , of course, to a fireman.

    By Linda Parker,( nee Hogg) (10/02/2018)

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