• Munitions girls working at George Kent's, 1916

A talk to other employees on what her work meant to her, given by a munitions girls with the initials 'J. M. B.,' was reproduced in The Luton News on August 9th, 1917. It read:

"I am one of you for I, too, am working on munitions. I am trying to do my bit for my country, the country that you and I love with all our might, though to hear us at times, foreigners would doubt the strength of our love.

"On munitions. What a big meaning there is in those two insignificant words. Shall I tell you something that may or may nor interest you? Well, when I first started to help the war to a finish I had not got very patriotic motives, much to my shame. The money, the good wages, called to me as money calls to a great many others in this world, where selfishness or money-grabbing has a good seat. I thought of nothing but money - money all day long.

"I wanted the wages, but I didn't want the work, and I wondered if there are more of us munitioneers thinking the same. I did as much work as others, I daresay, but I had no thought of 'our boys' out there waiting patiently for the shells which we were to send them.

"No, I didn't think of them until one day the phrase 'am I helping the war, or is the war helping me?' strayed into my memory and would not be eclipsed. It was so insistent that I just sat down and thrashed it out. When I got up, I was the same girl outwardly, but awakening within me was a desire to 'turn over a new leaf,' as the saying goes.

"There and then I made up my mind to do my bit as best I could, and today I am a happier girl for that resolution - not much of one after considering what our boys have sacrificed for us, their women. There are thousands and thousands of women in England today helping their men in this awful blood-thirsty war, but are they working like the men, fighting their fight with all their might?

"What has averted some great catastrophes out there when the odds were five to one, when our boys were weary, footsore and hungry, and the enemy as fresh as could be? It was our brave men's determination to keep our unsullied honour above the tide-mark of disgrace and their love for King, country and us.

"Are we being honourable to ourselves and our boys when we say,'Oh, dash the work, I'm fed up,' and then at the weekend to take a good substantial pay? No, of course we aren't. At least I wasn't and I must be one of many. Surely I did not stand alone in my selfishness. I sincerely hope that the selfish ones were and are of the minority, not the majority.

"Let us work with determination and cheerfulness, and some love thrown in, too. Then the shells will be quicker and the war ended sooner.

"Let us be worthy of the praise which our dear ones are ready to bestow, and in the future, when the children say 'What did you do in the Great War, Mammie?' we will be joyful that we can honestly answer them with truth and pride: 'I did my little bit'."