Women's Voluntary Service
| Legal status | Charity |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Helping people in need |
| Website | Official |
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Formerly called
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Women's Voluntary Services (WVS) 1938–1966 Women's Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS) 1966–2004 |
The Royal Voluntary Service (known as the Women's Voluntary Services (WVS) from 1938 to 1966; Women's Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS) from 1966 to 2004 and WRVS from 2004 to 2013) is a voluntary organisation concerned with helping people in need throughout England, Scotland and Wales. It was founded in 1938 by Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading, as a British women's organisation to recruit women into the Air Raid Precautions (ARP) services to help in the event of War.
The official story of the origins of the WVS says that Lady Reading was approached by Sir Samuel Hoare, the Home Secretary, who had telephoned her at home asking her if she would start an organisation to recruit women into the Air Raid Precautions services. However, recent evidence has been found to suggest that it was actually Lady Reading who approached the Home Secretary. In a letter to Lady Reading sent after the end of the war, Sir Wilfred Eady said "I think you know how proud I am to have been connected with the WVS, even though I was rather alarmed when you first brought the proposal to Sammy [Sir Samuel Hoare]."
However the initial contact was made, in March 1938 Lady Reading set about drafting the objectives for a new independent women's organisation to fill the country's need should war ever come, in the drafts titled the Women's Enrolment League. On 16 May 1938 Lady Reading accepted the Chairmanship of the Women's Voluntary Services for Air Raid Precautions; and on 20 May 1938, Sir Samuel Hoare set out the new body's objectives in a letter to her:
"...its immediate aims in co-operation with local authorities ... :-
(1) the enrolment of women for the Air Raid Precautions Services of the Local Authorities;
(2) to help bring home to every household in the country what air attack may mean;
(3) to make known to every household what it can do to protect itself and help the community."
"...I firmly believe that if this country can demonstrate to the world its preparedness and its capacity as a free community to organise itself for its own protection this will be one of the most effective ways of preserving peace."
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Wikipedia