In the very rare dustwrapper

Foxwell, A. K. ~ Munitions Lasses. Six Months as a Principal Overlooker in Danger Buildings

First UK Printing : Hodder and Stoughton, London: 1917

8vo., pale blue publisher’s cloth, ruled and lettered in black to upper cover and spine; together in the genuinely rare printed wrapper, showing a black and white photograph of munitions workers, lettering and illustrations in green and brown; black and white frontis portrait of Lady Superintendent Miss Lilian Barker, C.B.E.; an additional four pages of black and white photographs; The BOOK is a Very Good copy, slightly sunned at backstrip with some patches of discolouration to head of spine; spine a touch rolled; pages evenly toned with mild staining and offsetting due tot the cheap quality of papers tock used ; near-contemporary ownership inscription to the front blank end-paper; the Good WRAPPER, seldom found at all, creased with small abrasions and scratches all over; nicked and chipped, particularly to edges, with heavier loss to head and foot of spine, causing some loss of title lettering; another hole to spine (1.5cm approx), and a chip to lower edge of front panel (1cm); rare, still, to find in the wrapper. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First edition, first UK printing. An unusual memoir concerning the women munitions workers at the Woolwich Arsenal from July 1916-January 1917. After the shell crisis of 1915 (in which a shortage of artillery shells on the front lines led to a political crisis in the United Kingdom), thousands of workers, predominantly women, were recruited into the factories in order to defeat the German army. By the time the war ended in 1918, up to one million women had become 'munitionettes', also known as ‘canaries’, who worked long hours in often hazardous conditions in service to their country. This title describes the dangerous and important work these women carried out on a daily basis, though the author notes that “stars in several places denote the use of the Censor’s pencil”. The present memoir is written by Agnes Kate Foxwell (1872-1957), who worked in one of the more dangerous departments as a welfare supervisor at the Arsenal, which was located on the south side of the Thames. Foxwell enrolled in University at the age of thirty two, and received an M.A. in literature from the University of London in 1910. Foxwell was also a suffrage organiser in her home district of Harrow, working with the London Graduates’ Union for women’s suffrage. She applied for the Woolwich job through the University Women’s War Service, which helped to place college graduates in these supervisory positions. Assigned to the high-ranking management position of Principal Overlooker (above her was the Lady Superintendent for the entire arsenal, Lilian Barker) in sections of the factory that worked with dangerous chemicals, mercury in particular, she received a salary of four pounds a week, (ordinary workers received an average of about thirty shillings). “In years to come”, she writes, “when you have your grandchildren at your knees, you may tell them how you supplied your fathers and husbands, your brothers and sweethearts, with munitions by land and by sea… to keep the torch of Britain alight, and the flag of her Empire flying free”.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good
JACKET: Good