Women in War – exhibition launch

Ten steel silhouettes of wartime heroines will be unveiled at Lincoln’s International Bomber Command Centre later this week.

The eight-foot figures represent real female war-time figures whose roles ranged from pilots to parachute packers and will be sited at the Memorial Spire. It was created by the team from Standing with Giants, which was also responsible for the D-Day display at the British Normandy Memorial in 2024.

The exhibition opens on Friday and will be attended by renowned modern female figures including Baroness Sarah Hogg, who has been instrumental in driving forward the Women in War exhibition to shine a light on many unrecognised heroines as well as the centre’s CEO Nicky van der Drift OBE who has been key to its organisation and delivery.

To mark the installation the centre is holding a two-day Women at War Book Festival on March 14-15 with interactive sessions including an audience with Candy Adkins, daughter of Jackie Moggeridge, ATA member and the UK’s first female commercial airline pilot as well Liz McElwee, daughter of Flt Lt George Milson DFC, a prisoner of War. 

By 1943, 90% of single women of working age, and even 80% of married women, were working outside the home in the armed forces, industry and other wartime organisations.

Their lives – and the nature of British society – were changed forever.  At the end of World War II, as after World War I, many women were pushed out of their jobs to make way for men returning from war. 

But long-held notions of the limited capabilities of women had become untenable in the light of their vast and varied contribution to the war effort.

For more see www.internationalbcc.co.uk