The Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) was the women's branch of the Royal Air Force. It existed in two separate incarnations: the Women's Royal Air Force from 1918 to 1920 and the Women's Royal Air Force from 1949 to 1994.
On 1 February 1949, the name of the First World War organisation was revived when the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, which had been founded in 1939, was re-established on a regular footing as the Women's Royal Air Force. The WRAF and the RAF grew closer over the following decades, with increasing numbers of trades opened to women, and the two services formally merged in 1994, marking the full assimilation of women into the British forces and the end of the Women's Royal Air Force.
The Central Band of the WRAF, one of only two all-female bands in the British Armed Forces, was disbanded in 1972. Some of its musicians transferred to the Band of the Women's Royal Army Corps.
Strength
The target strength had been a force of around 90,000, figures are unreliable until 1 August 1918, when the strength was 15,433, approximately 5,000 recruits and 10,000 transferred from the predecessor organisations. The first incarnation never exceeded 25,000.
Depots
Depots were opened in 1918 at Handsworth College, in Glasgow, at RAF Flowerdown, RAF Spitalgate, near Grantham, and at York. In the 1950s the WRAF Depot and WRAF Officer Cadet Training Unit were opened at RAF Hawkinge in Kent.
Ranks
The WRAF inherited its rank structure from its predecessor, the WAAF. As with WAAF practice (from 1940), other ranks held standard RAF ranks, but officers used a separate ranking system until 1968, when they too adopted RAF officer ranks.
These ranks were introduced in 1949. The First World War service used different ranks.
List of Commandants WRAF
Gertrude Crawford, 1918
Violet Douglas-Pennant, May–September 1918
Helen Gwynne-Vaughan, September 1918 – 1920
List of Directors WRAF
Air Commandant Dame Felicity Hanbury, 1949–1950
Air Commandant Dame Nancy Salmon, 1950–1956
Air Commandant Dame Henrietta Barnett, 1956–1960
Air Commandant Dame Anne Stephens, 1960–1963
Air Commandant Dame Jean Conan Doyle, 1963–1966
Air Commodore Dame Felicity Hill, 1966–1969
Air Commodore Philippa Marshall, 1969–1973
Air Commodore Molly Allott, 1973–1976
Air Commodore Joy Tamblin, 1976–1980
Air Commodore Helen Renton, 1980–1986
Air Commodore Shirley Jones, 1986–1989
Air Commodore Ruth Montague, 1989–1994
See also
Air Transport Auxiliary
Patricia Howard
Women Airforce Service Pilots, US equivalent
Women's Royal Army Corps
Women's Royal Naval Service
Notes
References
Further reading
BE Escott, Women in Air Force Blue: the story of women in the Royal Air Force from 1918 to the present day - 1989 - Stephens KB Beauman, Partners in Blue: The Story of Women's Service with the Royal Air Force - 1971 - Hutchinson Radius