Rutland WW1 female volunteer's name added to memorial

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-32150871

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A war memorial has been rededicated to include the name of a female air force volunteer who died on the last day of World War One.

Gladys Walter joined the war effort in 1916, aged 18, at an air base near Grantham, in Lincolnshire.

Villagers in Braunston-in-Rutland believe her name was left off the memorial because of her gender.

Parish council clerk, Carole Brown, said the village had now "put right the wrong".

Ms Brown and local historians, Connie and John Beadman, began researching Gladys Walter's life in 2014, World War One's centenary year.

Ms Walter, who must have volunteered as women were not conscripted, started work as a rigger at the base, later named Spitalgate.

Her work probably involved maintaining the wires that held the earliest fighter planes together, Mrs Beadman said.

The WRAF

Source: RAF Museum

Ms Walter joined the WRAF soon after it was formed in April 1918, in the 29th Training Squadron, only to die seven months later on Armistice Day from pneumonia, probably related to the Spanish Influenza epidemic which killed millions across Europe.

She was one of only three servicewomen from Rutland to die in World War One, Mrs Beadman said.

Although her name was not included on the memorial, she has a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone in the churchyard, just yards away.

"It's a shame but that's how things were in those days. Women weren't recognised," said Mrs Beadman.

The parish council paid about £120 to inscribe her name, alongside 14 others who died in both world wars.

Council clerk Ms Brown said: "The whole village is behind it, we are all very proud it's happening."

During the service, led by Oakham rector Rev Canon Lee Francis Deqani, children placed 15 flowers on the memorial representing the servicemen.