Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS). (1941-1947)

Function
Armed services organisation
NLA Persistent Identifier
http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-620601

Biographies

The Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS) was established on 13 August 1941, to release men from certain military duties for service with fighting units. The Service recruited women between the ages of 18 and 45 and they served in a variety of roles including clerks, typists, cooks and drivers. In 1945 a contingent was sent to Lae and a small group went to Holland. In June 1947, owing to the end of World War II, the AWAS was disbanded.

On 13 August 1941 the War Cabinet of the Australian Government gave approval for the Formation and Control of an Australian Army Women's Service to release men from military duties for employment with fighting units. The name was later changed to Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS).

From the time of the appointment of the Controller AWAS on 29 September 1941, until cessation of hostilities in August 1945, 24,026 women enlisted as volunteers in the Service.

Hitherto there had been no women accepted by the Army except those in the Medical Services and the potentialities of women in other trades and professions had not been utilised. In addition, as the Service expanded women with no particular qualifications, apart from general intelligence were used in various occupations where willingness to serve and general adaptability were the main requirements.

The first 29 officers were a representative selection of Australian women appointed after many women had been interviewed in each State. It was considered essential that those selected for the first officers appointments should have proved themselves as leaders in their own trade or profession or in some form of community service. They were expected to have qualities of enthusiasm and confidence in the contribution which women could take to the Army, balance and dependability in carrying through a task, consideration for the requirements and needs of other women, and most importantly, tact and patience necessary for pioneering a new organisation.

The first Officer's Training School was held in Victoria in November-December 1941. During this time Japan entered the war and the need for womanpower in the Army was accentuated, recruiting and training commenced as soon as AWAS Officers returned to their areas. The types of recruits were quite splendid, alert, responsible and invariably inspired to volunteer by strong personal motives.

Initially the Army only envisaged that women would be employed as clerks, typists, cooks and motor transport drivers, and in small numbers, however, the demand grew very quickly and by the end of 1942 12,000 recruits had been enlisted and trained.

While at first AWAS were posted only to Headquarters, and Base Installations, they later took up duty, after specialist training in almost all Army Services. It is of interest to note that 3,618 served with the Royal Australian Artillery and they manned the Fixed Defences of Australia from Hobart in the South and Cairns in the North, and Perth in the West. And again 3,600 served in the Australian Corps of Signals, where they proved themselves well adapted for the type of work required of them.

Officers and other ranks of the Australian Intelligence Corps were commended for highly secret work. Motor transport drivers had truly varied lives driving cars, ambulances, trucks (up to 3 tons), jeeps, floating jeeps, Bren Gun Carriers, amphibious vehicles and driving convoys in all weathers. Australian Army Ordnance Corps employed 2,600 on a variety of tasks, some requiring a high degree of skill and all a marked degree of patience and perseverance. While quite unusual and somewhat trying work was carried out at the Proof and Experimental Range. Cooks, caterers and canteen workers were just as important as skilled Cipher clerks. There were several butchers in the AWAS.

In 1945 War Cabinet gave special approval for 500 AWAS to serve outside Australia. These members were posted to HQ 1st Aust. Army in New Guinea, 350 were selected and sailed on the MV Duntroon in May 1945.

In 1946, 1 Officer, 3 NCO's, and 1 Private AWAS were included in the Army quota of 160 personnel in the Victory March contingent for London June 1946.

During 5 ½ years AWAS served throughout Australia from Darwin to Hobart, in populous parts and in some very lonely places. Each one according to her character and talents served Australia faithfully and well. The Service was disbanded in June 1947.

Statistics

October 1941 - Initial establishment for 1,600 women January 1942 - Establishment increased to 6,000 women August 1942 - Establishment increased to 20,000 (at the time strength was 9,000)

Total Enlistments - 24026 Maximum Strength - 20,051 in January 1944 Officers numbered - 679 (Colonel 1, Lt Cols 4, Majors 22, Capt. 93, Lieut. 559)

AWAS Units

Recruiting Depots in all areas. 71 AWAS Barracks. Administrative Cadre for Welfare Officers. Training Schools - LHQ Officers Schools - 25 Courses. NCOs Schools, AWAS Recruit Training Battalions & Coys. P & RT Schools, Supervisory Personnel School. These training units later became Army Women's Services school and trained AWAS and Australian Army Medical Women's Service (AAMWS). Recreation Centres 4 (1 Northern Territory, 3 Queensland)

AWAS first served on HQs and Base Installations and in the second half of 1942, employment was extended generally and covered Units as follows:- HQ 1st & 2nd Aust. Army, HQ 2nd & 3rd Aust Corps. HQ 8th Aust. Div., HQ Lae Base Sub-Area, Camp Staffs. Artillery, Engineers, Survey, Signals, Infantry, Intelligence, Supply & Transport, Ordnance, AEME, Pay, Veterinary, Postal, Provost, Printing & Stationary, Canteens, Amenities, Education, Schools including RMC, Aust. Staff College & Training Units; Salvage.

AWAS worked as Drivers in Car Coys, and regimental establishments. Drove cars, 3 ton trucks, Jeeps, Brenguin Carriers, amphibious vehicles, ambulances and attended to the maintenance of vehicles.

They worked in watercraft workshops and in AEME repair shops: all duties connected with Signals, in the Broadcasting Unit, in Entertainment Unit, photographic unit, in Field Trail Coys. They manned A/A guns and Searchlights and they worked as hairdressers (women only), as mess and kitchen staff including several butchers and as interpreters. Officers were appointed to staff duties as follows:

Special duties were performed by an Anthropologist, a linguist, a Veterinary Surgeon, a sculptress; also as guards for Italian female internees in hospital and assisted in courts and in one mental home during an emergency.

Several ADCs were appointed from time to time for duty with the Colonel-in-Chief of AWAS. This office was accepted by the wife of the Governor-General and was held in turn by: Her Excellency The Lady Gowrie Her Excellency Lady Dugan Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Gloucester.

AWAS in RAA numbered 3,618 in Fixed Defence AWAS in Signals numbered 3,600.

View the full record at Australian Women's Register

Related people and organisations

Australian Women's Register

Resources for Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS).

Selected resources (36)

Australian Women's Register

  1. Women in khaki
    Oliff, Lorna
    [1981]
    Published: Ollif Publishing Company
  2. AWAS : women making history
    [1988]
    Published: Boolarong Publications for AWAS Lae Contingent
  3. Backing up the boys : the Australian Women's Army Service and Albury army area
    Martin, Desmond (Ed.)
    [1988]
    Published: The Club
  4. Remember
    Penrose, Patricia (Ed. and convenor)
    [c1992]
    Published: [Australian Women's Army Service, Signals Victoria]
  5. Australian Servicewomen's MemorialWar Memorials in Australia Michael Southwell-Keely : Australian Servicewomen's Memorial
    Southwell-Keely, Michael
    [1999]
    Series: http://www.skp.com.au/memorials/pages/00018.htm
  6. Memoirs of an AWAS driver
    Staube, Lorna Staub
    [1989]
    Published: Naracoorte Herald
  7. We answered the call : AWAS of Western Australia and their mates
    Tucker, Eileen
    [1991]
    Published: E. Tucker
  8. History of the Women's Australian National Services, 1940-1946
    [1947]
    Published: Luxton & Hooper
  9. Australian women at war
    Adam-Smith, Patsy
    [1984]
    Published: Nelson
  10. Khaki-clad and glad : 30 years after
    A.W.A.S. Association (N.S.W.)
    [[1971]]
    Published: A.W.A.S. Association (N.S.W.)
  11. Women in wartime - May Douglas, who played a prominent part in the Australian Women's Army Service raised in August, 1941, contributes some of her memoriesGreater than their knowledge : a glimpse of South Australian woman 1836-1986 Taylor, Adelheid Elizabeth 91-92 : Women in wartime - May Douglas, who played a prominent part in the Australian Women's Army Service raised in August, 1941, contributes some of her memories
    Douglas, May
    Published: Wakefield Press
  12. Candles in the sky
    Alldritt, Nancy
    [[1998]]
    Published: Openbook Publishers
  13. A special job : the Wheatstone girls, 1943-45
    Kirby, June (compiled and edited by)
    [1999]
    Published: Seaview Press
  14. You'll be sorry!
    Howard, Ann
    [1990]
    Published: Tarka
  15. Australian Women and World War ll: Kit
    Series: http://infocus.sl.nsw.gov.au/res/resdesc.cfm?res_code=1269
  16. The mobilisation of women into active services / the 'Yankee' invasion / How the war affected women
    Series: http://infocus.sl.nsw.gov.au/res/resdesc.cfm?res_code=1272
  17. We also served, far north coast N.S.W. ex-servicewomen 1939-1945
    Buckley, Martin J.
    [c1995]
    Published: Martin J. Buckley
  18. Colonel Best and her soldiers: The Story of the 33 years of the Women's Royal Australian Army Corps
    Ollif, Lorna
    [1985]
    Published: Ollif Publishing Company
  19. 2nd Australian Ambulance Car Company, 1942-1946.
    [[198-]]
    Published: [2nd Australian Ambulance Car Company Association]
  20. State Library of New South Wales: Australian Women's Army Service Association (N.S.W.) : pictorial material (1941 - 1991)
    Collection comprises: Newscuttings, Photographs and Realia. This collection comprises 3 record series. You may navigate to a more detailed description of each series from this collection record.
  21. Australian War Memorial Research Centre: AWAS wants 100's... (1941 - 1945)
    ARTV00335
  22. Australian War Memorial Research Centre: Group of Australian Women's Army Service officers from the Victorian Land Headquarters on the steps of the Shrine of Remembrance (24 November 1943)
    Melbourne, Aus. 1943-11-24. Group of Australian Women's Army Service officers from the Victorian Land Headquarters on the steps of the Shrine of Remembrance. They are, left to right: front row: VF346533 Lieutenant N. M. Callinan; VF388389 Lieutenant M. J. Watts; VF143893 Colonel S. H. Irving, MBE; VF388264 Lieutenant E. M. Vince; VF346838 Lieutenant B. A. Deering; VF346737 Lieutenant I. L. Johannesen. Centre row: VF346921 Lieutenant R. C. Rainford; VF346530 Lieutenant E. I. Pascoe; Lieutenant D. E. Dodd; VF346720 Lieutenant L. E. Coghland; VF387942 Lieutenant F. M. Creeley; VF388758 Lieutenant V. L. Earle. Back row: VF388283 Captain L. D. Crane; VF345014 Lieutenant D. L. Madden; VF396342 Lieutenant G. J. E. H. Davis; NF435329 Major J. Wood.
    060336
  23. Australian War Memorial Research Centre: Two senior members of the Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS) taking a wreath into the Shrine of Remembrance during the Armistice Day ceremony (11 November 1942)
    Melbourne, Vic. 1942-11-11. Two senior members of the Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS) taking a wreath into the Shrine of Remembrance during the Armistice Day ceremony. VF143893 Lieutenant Colonel S. H. Irving MBE, Commandant, AWAS.
    137038
  24. Australian War Memorial Research Centre: Darwin, NT. 1945. (1945)
    Darwin, NT. 1945. An informal group of members of the Australian Women's Army Services (AWAS) model their improvised costumes for a musical comedy and revue. The revue "Blue Horizon" was organised by the Australian Army Amenities Service and produced by Alan Cairnes and Dudley Simpson. NF482322 Lieutenant (Lt) Elva Baikie, as Amenities Officer for the Australian Women's Service was involved with organising the dancers. Left to right: Joy Graham; Barbara Hutchison, Marjorie Graham; Anne Steeles; Peggy Pentland; Jean Outteridge and Trixie Mayall. Anne Steeles was the singer and the remaining girls were the "ladies of the ballet". Note the barely disguised army shoes that the dancers had to wear. (Donor E. Batt) dancers.
    P02698.001
  25. Australian War Memorial Research Centre: General Sir Thomas Blamey inspects Units of the Australian Women's Army Service (16 June 1942)
    General Sir Thomas Blamey inspects units of the Australian Women's Army Service at their headquarters. With him is Major Kathleen Deasey, commandant of the Victorian area. Major Deasey is a well-known educationist, a graduate of both Melbourne and Cambridge universities. She has three brothers serving in the Australian army. (negative by Cranstone).
    012603
  26. Australian War Memorial Research Centre: Major M. K. Deasey, Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS) (20 December 1943)
    Melbourne, Vic. 1943-12-20. VF345001 Major M. K. Deasey, Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS), the new liaison officer between the chaplain general's department and the women's services chatting with other servicewomen at headquarters.
    140147
  27. Australian War Memorial Research Centre: Major Lorna Byrne, Assistant Controller (27 May 1943)
    Major Lorna Byrne, Assistant Controller, Australian Women's Army Service, Land Headquarters, taking the salute at a march past held as a farewell to her on leaving to take up a similar position at Western Australia Line of Command Area.
    052077
  28. Australian War Memorial Research Centre: Release a man. Join the AWAS (1941 - 1945)
    ARTV01049
  29. Australian War Memorial Research Centre: Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS, Northern Territory) (1942 - 1946)
    Nominal roll of AWAS personnel serving in the Northern Territory from 1942 to 1946. Ranks and numbers given.
    PR85/123
  30. Australian War Memorial Research Centre: Tucker, Eileen (Corporal, b.1920) (1990 - 1991)
    Manuscript "We Answered the Call"
    PR01702
  31. Australian War Memorial Research Centre: Major Lorna Byrne, taking the salute at a march past (27 May 1943)
    Some of the 900 members of the Australian Women's Army Service taking part in a march past as a farewell to Major Lorna Byrne, assistant controller Australian Women's Army Service, land headquarters, who is leaving to take up a similar position at Western Australia L. of C. Area.
    052076
  32. John Oxley Library, Manuscripts and Business Records Collection, State Library of Queensland: Papers of Australian Women’s Army Service Association (Queensland ) Inc (1981 - June 2003)
    The collection includes: Conference programs (various) , newsletters (June 1982 -June 2003), correspondence, a typescript history of the association, various historical notes about the Australian Women’s Armed Services, photographs, newscuttings, minute and account books, annual reports The John Oxley Library is in temporary accommodation until 2006. Most material is kept off-site. Researchers wishing to use the manuscript collection should contact the research librarian prior to visiting the library to confirm the availability of the material.
    3336, Box No. 4121-4122
  33. Australian War Memorial Research Centre: Portrait of Major Kathleen Deasey
    Melbourne, Victoria. c. 1941. Portrait of Major Kathleen Deasey who in 1941-11 was appointed Assistant Controller in Victoria of the Australian Womens' Army Service.
    012527
  34. Australian War Memorial Research Centre: Woods , Mrs H A (1945 - 1946)
    "Which way would the wind blow ?". Mrs Wood was a member of the Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS) during the 1939-1945 war and then accompanied her husband, who was a member of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF), to Japan in 1945. This very descriptive memoir deals with the period in BCOF and gives insights into a woman's life in post war Japan, much is written from the domestic point of view.
    MSS1118
  35. Australian War Memorial Research Centre: Interview with Jean Scott (When the war came to Australia) (15 February 1991)
    Mrs Jean Scott was a member of the Australian Women's Land Army, (AWLA) which was formed to do the manual labour on farms, in place of the men who had gone to war. There were 6000 AWLA girls in the Commonwealth; 3,500 permanent and the rest seasonal workers. She enlisted at the age of nineteen and left the city to take up various postings including Griffith and Ballarat. She mostly worked on fruit and vegetables and handled horses. Eight five per cent of the girls in the AWLA were city girls, who adapted well to work in the country. The country girls avoided the AWLA and preferred the Women's Army Auxilary Corps (WAAC) and Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS). There were no perks or rehabilitation offered to the girls of the AWLA. The girls had limited contact with American soldiers; Mrs Scott wrote to three for sometime. They were lonely young men, she thinks. The experience broadened her outlook on life, and she has only happy memories of the time. She has published a book on the Land Army; released in 1986. A poem: "Land Girl's Lament" is included in her interview.
    F04036
  36. Australian War Memorial Research Centre: Australian servicewomen's memorial (1999)
    Whereas more conventional war memorials may incorporate a cenotaph or a representative figure, Anne Ferguson has created a bare platform of coloured stones, divided in two by a curved trench that resembles an aerial view of a river, carving its way through a sparse, flat landscape. While most memorials encourage audiences to keep a reverential distance, to stand outside the experience of war and reflect upon it, Ferguson wants the viewer to walk right into the middle of the work, to experience a sense of empathy with the women it celebrates. The insignia of the women's services are displayed discreetly around the mosaic, because for Ferguson, ceremony is far less important than the human dimension. For many women, the work they undertook during the Second World War provided a first taste of freedom and responsibility. When the war ended and those jobs were given back to the men, it must have come as a bitter blow, because their lives and way of thinking had already been changed. It is this sense of metamorphosis that Ferguson has tried to capture in her stone mosaic, in which the variegated colours represent the different lives, the different backgrounds and experiences of servicewomen. Set in a peaceful grove between the deciduous trees, the sculpture changes the appearance in relation to the changes in daylight, the play of shadows, and the sprinkling of leaves that fall haphazardly onto the stone. Ferguson draws a parallel between the gradual process of awakening to the environment in which we live, and a growing recognition of the debt we owe to those men and women who gave their time, and their lives, in defence of this land. Her stone platform may be undemonstrative, but it has a feeling of underlying strength. It is a foundation upon which new recognitions can be built. Granite mosaic 40.3 x 540 x 720 cm
    ART90968

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