Window Cleaning Girl Power

Women window cleaners, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, 1917. These women worked for the City and Suburban Window Cleaning Company. George Webster, whose name is over the door (right), is listed in Kelly's 1916 Directory as ladder maker and manager of the Robin Hood Window Cleaning Company (premises on Peachey Street and Currant Street).

How girl power got Cambridge through the war years: The 100th anniversary of the First World War continues to yield many stories of the life and death struggle of men in the trenches – but it was pretty tough for women too, trying to keep everything going back home. With thousands of men fighting at the front, women were left to do not only their own work, but the men's work too.

Window cleaners set off to work in Piccadilly, London during World War I.

Females already made up a large part of the general workforce, although they were employed mostly in the textile industry, and in schools and hospitals. When war came, many worked in munitions factories. Some also joined the Women's Patrols, a female police force that went on the beat in public areas such as railway stations, streets, parks and public houses.

Note the women window cleaners in the centre image - click to enlarge.

And they became part of the armed forces as well. The War Office realised many of the tasks undertaken by soldiers in France could easily be done by women, so the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps was established in December 1916. A year later, the Women's Royal Naval Service was formed, and a year after that, the Women's Royal Air Force (later the Women's Auxiliary Air Force) was set up. In total, more than 100,000 women joined Britain's armed forces during the war.

The "Scavengers"

In Cambridge, as in London and other cities, two very obvious jobs once done only by men became the preserve of women. One was street sweeping. The women cleaners were known as 'scavengers' and went into action in 1918, although as our photo here of women working in Cambridge in 1918 shows, their clothing wasn't initially very suitable. Dustcarts were generally pulled by horses, but since many of them had been sent off to war too, Cambridge's corporation spent £3,000 on what the News reported were “two large electric motor vehicles and two small petrol motor vehicles for the collection of household refuse."

Click to enlarge.

Another task was window-cleaning. The News reported in 1916: “The Cambridge Window Cleaning Company, owing to a shortage of male labour, have instituted a service of lady cleaners. And jolly smart they look too in their khaki uniform, high gaiters and caps, relieved by red wrist and cap bands. Ladder climbing causes them no qualms and they are quite expert at the work. They are causing no small amount of interest not to say admiration."

A female worker of the Mayfair Window Cleaning Company, London. Circa 1916.

Two Window Cleaners From The Great War

Benjamin Clouting's window cleaning business was so distinguished, it cleaned the window of Windsor castle.

Teenage Tommy who saw history made: Benjamin Clouting was 16 when he witnessed the first British shots of the Great War. He was the son of a groom working on a large estate near Lewes in Sussex and his love of horses and desire to join the Army brought him to 4th the Royal Irish Dragoon Guards.

Just a week after setting foot in France, Ben took part in the British Army’s first engagement near the Belgian town of Mons when his colleagues opened fire on a group of enemy lancers. Ben remained on the Western Front for almost the entire war and later in life took over a window cleaning business in Reading, where he worked until shortly before his death in August 1990, aged nearly 93.

His window cleaning business was so distinguished, it cleaned the window of Windsor castle.

Later in his life Benjamin relayed a vivid account of what he saw that day to author Richard van Emden who was interviewed here along with Ben's great grandson. We also hear from Benjamin Clouting himself (pictured above & right) in an interview filmed just before his death on the very spot those shots were fired.

Commemoration of First World War 100 years.

Of all the first-hand accounts of the First World War, few capture the horror of battle better than the diaries of Netherfield soldier Albert Williams. His accounts are thick with stories of starving, filthy and exhausted soldiers shivering in mud-filled trenches as German shells fall around their ears on the Western Front. The war was little more than a week old when Private 9122 Williams, of the Northumberland Fusiliers, was shipped off to France.

For weeks Albert and his Northumberland chums went back and forth between the trenches and the rear, at one point facing the ominously named Mound of Death. Although he did not know it, Albert Williams's war was drawing to a close. Behind the lines the Northumberlands practised charging, bombing and cutting barbed wire until, on the night of June 15, they were given their orders: take out three lines of trenches "at all costs". The following morning, after a fierce artillery bombardment came the order to attack: Northumberlands, Royals, Lincolns, Scots Fusiliers, Liverpool Scottish – thousands of men going over the top.

June 16: The trenches were all taken but what a straffing." Soon afterwards, the shell that ended Private Williams's war landed. "I was in for a good time," he wrote in his diary, "as I had three G helmets and a bottle of wine and was going to had (sic) a good drink when the dirty devils buried me.

"I was dug out and lost everything, even my speech. What a row that shell made, good job it dropped in the traverse and buried me ... a few inches further and there would have been no Pte Williams to bury." He was carried from the battlefield and eventually returned home to England. His speech returned but he was no longer considered fit for duty. Traumatised by his experiences, he had suffered trench foot, been injured in the back and finally blown up and buried, but he came through his journey into hell to return to Nottingham, where he became a window cleaner.

Window Cleaners Among WWI Bravest

Window cleaners 'among WWI bravest'

Window cleaners 'among WWI bravest'- Teachers, window cleaners and cotton workers have been identified as among the "bravest" professions during the First World War, according to a study. Online history website Ancestry.co.uk said an analysis of 2.8 million service records from 1914-20 highlighted how ordinary workers with barely any military training risked their lives on the front line. Most medal winners were miners or agricultural labourers, but professions such as teaching and window cleaning featured strongly, said the report.

Fishermen, doctors, barbers and policemen were also named among the top 10 professions for medal winners, said Ancestry. Content manager Miriam Silverman said: "While teachers, doctors or policemen may have had skills or leadership qualities that could have prepared them better for the front line, what this data really tells us is that it was the ordinary men with everyday professions that made some of the most extraordinary heroes."

Teachers and Window Cleaners Braver Than Bankers, Says Study - Teachers and window cleaners were braver than bankers, according to a study of wartime records. Studies showed school masters received the most military medals per head for their role on the war.

Window cleaners, cotton mill workers and fishermen also ranked in the top 10 for the bravest professions, according to family history website Ancestry, which studied 2.8 million services records to compile the list. Ancestry tallied the number of Military Cross, Distinguished Conduct Medal, Victoria Cross and Meritorious Service Medal winners against the number of people in work in 1911.

Ancestry's Miriam Silverman said: "While teachers, doctors and policemen may have had the skills or leadership qualities that could have prepared them better for the frontline, what this data really tells us is that it was the ordinary men with everyday professions that made some of the most extraordinary heroes." While teachers today might be used to battling students sat at the back row, they were at their most formidable and bravest on the front line during World War One.

Top 10 bravest professions:

1. Teacher 2. Window cleaner 3. Cotton mill worker 4. Fisherman 5. Doctor

6. Servant 7. Barber 8. Merchant 9. Police officer 10. Banker

Window cleaners and teachers - the 'bravest' professions of WW1 - Window cleaners and teachers were more likely than those of any other profession serving in the British armed forces in the First World War to be decorated for bravery, research finds.