science

Women's Defence Relief Corps

Women's Defence Relief Corps is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Women's Defence Relief Corps rather than just read about it. In short: The Women's Defence Relief Corps was a First World War voluntary organisation in the United Kingdom. It was set up to increase the number of women in employment which would release men to join the armed forces.

Key takeaways

Women's Defence Relief Corps belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Women's Defence Relief Corps to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Women's Defence Relief Corps from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Women's Defence Relief Corps was a First World War voluntary organisation in the United Kingdom. It was set up to increase the number of women in employment which would release men to join the armed forces. It also had a "semi-military" section that trained women in marksmanship and military drill for home defence purposes. The corps was supported by the Board of Agriculture for a period, though it would be eclipsed by the more successful Women's Land Army.

Foundation The Women's Defence Relief Corps was founded by Mrs Dawson Scott in September 1914, shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. It was initially intended to increase the employment of women, which would release men to join the British armed forces (which did not introduce conscription until 1916). The organisation was supported by Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener (Secretary of State for War) and Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts (president of the Women's Rifle Associations). It expanded to two divisions: the civil section which focused on the original aim of women's employment and a "Semi-Military or good-citizen section". The latter division was a paramilitary of women who wanted to "defend not only herself, but also those dear to her". The semi-military section was set up after women were refused training by the official home defence units. The section drilled along military lines and trained women in marching, scouting and marksmanship. An official handbook for the corps was produced under the editorship of Mrs Scott; its 3rd edition was published in 1915. Women of the corps were issued a brown cloth brassard marked with a red letter H.

War work The corps mobilised to carry our agricultural work in spring 1915. It would go on to play a key role in putting farmers in touch with casual female labour. The corps advertised the available posts as suitable vacation work for women and stipulated a minimum wage of 18 shillings per week. The Women's Land Army developed from the corps in 1915, as a means of alleviating food shortages. By the war's end the land army would have sent out 9,022 female labourers and was instrumental in saving the 1918 British flax harvest. The Women's Defence Relief Corps was a more modest organisation which by 1916 was sending out work teams totalling just 465 women. These focused on light agricultural work such as fruit picking, hop harvesting and hay making. Whilst the corps was viewed as unsuccessful in making a significant impact the Board of Agriculture took an interest, as it was keen to use it to increase the use of middle-class women in supervisory agricultural positions. By the end of 1916 the number of women in the corps had been increased to 2,000. The Board of Agriculture decided that a widespread reorganisation of female volunteer labour was needed and from March 1917 directed its efforts solely on the Women's Land Army.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Women's Defence Relief Corps

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Women's Defence Relief Corps claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Women's Defence Relief Corps before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Women's Defence Relief Corps ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Women's Defence Relief Corps

In research: Women's Defence Relief Corps appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Women's Defence Relief Corps in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Women's Defence Relief Corps is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics British women in World War I, History of agriculture in the United Kingdom, Organizations established in 1914, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Women's Defence Relief Corps outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Women's Defence Relief Corps in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Women's Defence Relief Corps means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Women's Defence Relief Corps out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Women's Defence Relief Corps in simple terms?

Why does Women's Defence Relief Corps matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Women's Defence Relief Corps?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Women's Defence Relief Corps.