The Women in World War II memorial in Whitehall, London, unveiled by HM the Queen on 9 July 2005 [Phot: Allan House]
HM the Queen and Baroness Betty Boothroyd walk past a Guard of Honour on Whitehall, London, 9 July 2005 [Phot: Allan House]
The plaque on the Women in World War II memorial in Whitehall, London, unveiled by HM the Queen on 9 July 2005 [Phot: Allan House]
Baroness Betty Boothroyd, addressing female veterans at the unveiling of the Women in World War II memorial 9 July 2005 [Phot: Allan House]

Ex-Commons speaker Betty Boothroyd was the star guest at the arrival of the Memorial to the Women of World War II in Whitehall.

Baroness Betty Boothroyd had little doubt of the importance behind the latest memorial to hit Whitehall yards from the gates of No 10.  "Hugely important," she said, making herself clear over the din of an industrial crane lowering the mammoth bronze statue into place.  But then Ms Boothroyd has had years of practise of making herself heard.

"It's taken us 60 years to pay tribute to our mothers, our grandmothers and aunts.  More than 7 million of them involved in the Second World War.
 
"Every other nation has a monument," she continues ticking them off on a manicured finger sporting a diamond the size of a small grape.

"Australia, Canada, New Zealand, America all show what their women did during the Second World War and we have never paid them a tribute.  Now at long last, we've arrived there while some of those grannies are still alive."

When Betty was invited to become patron of the memorial fund, our country's most famous Commons speaker didn't hesitate though she had little idea of how much hard work lay ahead in the seven-year battle to raise the millions that were needed.

Betty who was a schoolgirl during the war, has vivid recollections of the conflict.

"We had to be victorious, there was no doubt about it," she says in her rich, no-nonsense northern accent revealing a hint of steely Bitz spirit.  "We would never give up, we didn't want a dictatorship and people like me would not be allowed today without what men and women did during that time."

During the Blitz, her parents both did their bit for the war, working a six-day week to weave thick army blankets and utility materials for military uniforms. And what did young Betty do?

"I learned how to knit, how to turn a heel making khaki and royal blue socks for the Army and Air Force," she says proudly.  "Our teachers would instruct us how to turn the needles smoothly, always saying: 'Now we don't want any knots or bumps for our forces.  We want to have them nice'."

When eerie sirens wailed overhead, indicating the presence of enemy aircraft,  Betty would put on a "siren suit" made by her mother, a world away from the glamorous outfits in which she would later dazzle as a Tiller Girl.

"It was thick blanket purple like a trouser suit with a pixie bonnet lined with red silk.  They went on over my pyjamas," she remembers.

"Then we’d go to the local school where there were arches stuffed with sandbags.  We'd play ludo and try to go to sleep.  I was 10-years-old.  It was very exciting, not least because if we didn't get the all-clear in time, we wouldn't go to school.  So I'd cross my fingers and hope that wouldn't come so that I'd get some time off."

VE Day evokes some equally powerful memories.

"I lived in little mean streets like Lowrie country.  On the clothesline, which stretched across both sides of the streets, hung union jacks.  Women had saved up tins of sardines, spam and salmon and powdered egg and we had a feast in the street."

Betty cannot pretend that she was inspired to join the Services but she is adamant that she was inspired by wartime politicians, notably Clem Atlee ("A modest little man who put this country right" according to Boothroyd).  Later, she would study Churchill's speeches and she has toured the Cabinet War Rooms several times.

Back to the war memorial. "I wasn’t going to have this statue in any back street or even on the Embankment," she says firmly.  "Here it has to be in the great processional route of the nation’s capital.  I fought tooth and nail to get it here."

"It doesn't only represent the service women and their uniforms but those who worked in the shipyards and munitions.  The sculpture says to me: We did what we were asked to do.  We weren't found wanting at all and now the war's over, let us go home to hearth and home and make our country fit for our men folk to come back to."

Baroness Betty Boothroyd even appeared on Chris Tarrant's Who Wants to be a Millionaire to raise £8,000 to boost the charity.  "I didn't dare go any further with the questions.  I told Chris Tarrant, 'I can't go any further as it's not my money so I'll just take £8,000 and go, thankyou very much'."

A Monumental Sculpture

No photo does the Women's War Memorial full justice.  Cast in solid bronze and 22 ft high, it depicts no less than 17 representations of women's uniforms and the working clothes women wore during the war.

You look and marvel at the sculptor's eye for detail as you take in the darts of the "cloth", hats and gas masks created by John W Mills at his Hertfordshire studio.
 
Service uniforms include the Army's Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), RAF Waafs and the Royal Navy Wrens can be seen alongside the overalls worn by the Women's Land Army and canteen ladies, a police woman's overcoat and a wartime scarf, hat and bag.  Meanwhile the headwear includes a driver's service cap, a munitions worker's "snood" that held hair in place and a nursing cape in the shape of an angel.

Sculpture John Mills' winning idea is the result of three years work.  He was inspired when he unearthed a vintage photograph of women's uniforms, overcoats, hats, coats and bags hanging in dance hall during his painstaking research.

Mills says his simple brief was to celebrate what women did during the war, but not to create a memorial to those who died.

As he stared up at his creation, Mr Mills was typically English in his understatement, nevertheless, exuding quiet satisfaction.

"Pleased," he said, though his broad smile spoke volumes of his pride and relief.

Related Articles

• Commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the end of World War Two

Related links:

• WW2 60th Anniversary Commemorations
• Veterans Agency
• Veterans Agency - Calendar of Events
• Imperial War Museum
• Their past-your future
• The Royal British Legion
• WW2 Peoples War