War, women and accounting: Female staff in the UK Army Pay Department offices, 1914–1920

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to highlight the pioneering role of women who were officially employed (albeit on a temporary basis) in accounting, clerical and management positions in the Army Pay Department (APD) offices in the UK from 1914 to 1920. The role of the APD offices was to manage the pay and allowances of soldiers of the British Army, using the ‘Dover’ system of military finance and accounting which had been introduced in 1905 along with the command structure of the Army Finance Branch. The flexible ‘Dover’ system coped with the unprecedented increase in bureaucracy as the strength of the army rose from 140,000 in 1914 to over 5 million by 1918. The mainstay of the survival and efficiency of the ‘Dover’ system was the employment of women in the APD establishments. Previous research involving the role of women in wartime has mainly focused on working-class women who worked within the munitions industry (Marwick, 1977; Braybon, 1981; Thom, 2000), although Zimmeck (1986: pp. 145–172) has previously researched into women who were employed by the General Post Office (GPO) and its Savings Bank Department from 1870 to 1914. No research has previously been conducted into the role of women employed in an accounting or clerical function within the army pay offices during the Great War. The wartime role of female staff employed in APD establishments, as with their women colleagues who worked in the munitions industry, relates to the concept of the Reserve Army of Labour. The ‘feminisation’ of accounting and bookkeeping (Anderson, 1986; Walker, 2003), did not occur until after the Great War.