Story of Wandsworth

Women being trained
to make shells at Battersea
Polytechnic, 1916

War was declared in 1914 amidst optimism that Germany would soon be defeated. Local people threw themselves into the war effort. Wandsworth and Battersea each raised a battalion of soldiers and Wandsworth schoolchildren collected money to buy their battalion an ambulance.

The optimism soon faded as the number of casualties soared. Civilians died too, some in Tooting and Streatham, as Britain suffered its first air raids. As the war progressed, there were severe shortages of food and fuel. Local parks and commons were dug up for allotments. 

Women took on the jobs of men who had gone to war. Many were employed in local factories, making arms, aeroplanes and other vital equipment. Others worked in the hospitals that were set up to treat wounded soldiers. The one at Roehampton House (now Queen Mary's) specialised in the care of men who had lost limbs.