As part of a project looking at honours and awards to some of the women’s services, I came across an article about the award of the Croix de Guerre to British women volunteers of the Mechanised Transport Corps who had served with the French Army during the Battle of France in 1940. Intrigued I did a bit of digging but with little result—most of the available sources online are scanty in their detail and many conflate the various components of the M.T.C. As is often the case, a search of the British Newspaper Archive provided many good leads and those led to a visit to the Library of Congress to read some long-out-of-print memoires. This is the first of four articles about this most interesting volunteer organisation. For details of the honours and awards to the M.T.C. see here.
Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry D.B.E.
Founder of the Women’s Legion.
The Mechanised Transport Corps had its origins in the motor transport section of the Women’s Legion that remained independent after the formation of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in 1917; it served with great distinction in the United Kingdom and then in France after the Armistice. The section continued on a much smaller scale after the war and in 1927 the Women’s Legion Motor Drivers was recognised by the Army Council as a voluntary reserve transport unit and took its place on the Army List, albeit unfunded by the War Office.[1] Throughout the inter-war years, the President of the Women’s Legion Motor Drivers was Lady Londonderry[2] (the founder of the Women’s Legion) and its secretary was Miss B. G. Ward O.B.E.,[3] both of whom had been recognised for their service during the First World War. In 1937 it was renamed Women’s Legion Mechanical Transport Section.
Women’s Legion Motor Drivers, 1918
Prior to the Second World War, in July 1937 Lady Londonderry proposed a ‘new’ Women’s Legion.[4] Beginning as an extension of the Women’s Legion Mechanical Transport Section, it began training in anti-gas drills, first aid, map reading and signalling at Regent’s Park Barracks in November that year. Aged between 18 and 40, its members were required to have a clean driving licence, paid a subscription upon enrolment and purchased their own uniforms. The unit established at Regents Park became No. 1 Company and was led by Mrs. G. M. Cook O.B.E., a driving force behind the transport section in the earlier war.[5] Early success led to a plan in January 1938 to expand the organisation to provide many more women capable of driving commercial transport in the event of a national emergency and recruitment soon began in earnest. Miss Ward commented, ‘There is no difficulty in finding women who can drive lorries… they are quite capable of driving large ambulances and lighter lorries. During the war they did it and they would be able to do it again.’[6]
Mrs. G. M. Cook O.B.E
Corps Commandant, Mechanised Transport Corps
