Woolwich Arsenal in UK

[Guest Montara66]

My nan worked at the Woolwich Arsenal in the UK around 1917-1919. I have been unable to find any information at all in regards to this apart from having a very hard to read Certificate of Service. Any information at all regarding this topic would begreatly appreciated!

[Guest]

Here are a collection of web links:

http://www.londonancestor.com/bells/1813-arsenal.htm

http://www.cowboyup.com/Woolwich_Arsenal.html

http://www.royal-arsenal.com/

http://members.lycos.co.uk/RoyalArsenal/rawool.htm

http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server...-explosion.html

As one of the links states, munitions work became one of the "respectable" employment options during the war for women and thousands worked at Woolwich Arsenal.

Your grandmother might have worked with explosives, or on the engineering side, manufacturing either the ordnance itself or empty ammunition prior to filling.

As the war progressed, the overall proportion of ammunition produced at Woolwich declined as new plants opened up elsewhere, but the total production there was, none the less huge.

One of the largest of the new munitions plants was nominally at Gretna in Scotland, although much of it was actually on the English side of the border. It closed after the war, although the land was in use by the military again by WWII and some of the original buildings survived at least onto the 1970s.

I have added a link to the Silvertown explosion of January1917, in a TNT plant just across the river from the Arsenal, for general interest.

Although the explosives side of ammunition production was run down prior to WWII, Woolwich Arsenal remained an important engineering producer and their "RL" (Royal Laboratory) monogram appears on a lot of WWII cartridge cases and shell bodies.

By the 1970s, however, when I spent a few days there on a course while working for the MOD, much of the site had been demolished and cleared for redevelopment. As you will see, though, many of the more historic buildings, particularly round the main entrance, remained in place.

Not to be confused with the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich was also the home of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers, together with a Royal Military Academy.

[Nick Cooper]

By the 1970s, however, when I spent a few days there on a course while working for the MOD, much of the site had been demolished and cleared for redevelopment. As you will see, though, many of the more historic buildings, particularly round the main entrance, remained in place.

There was a bit of an outcry a few years ago when it was realised that the MoD had been demolishing a lot of the older buildings, since they were exempt from being listed (or something like that). It was covered in BBC2's One Foot in the Past.

Not to be confused with the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich was also the home of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers, together with a Royal Military Academy.

And the Army Service Corps!

[Guest Pete Wood]

There is a slim (and I mean slim!!) chance that your Grandmother's records survive - albeit thinned down over the years, for the purposes of pensions etc.

This is the official advice, with regards to records, from the Woolwich Arsenal Historic Society - a small band of former employees.

This subject is a difficult one to answer, so before emailing us; we must inform you as a website; we do not hold any personnel records ourselves at all. It has been Government policy for years now that when a military establishment closes or members of staff leave for what ever reason, retirement, redundancy etc; all records relating to persons employed during the 20th century are passed to the relevant centre for storage (currently, for civilian employees, to Wales as indicated below), where they are retained for a period of 100 years from the employee's date of birth, before being destroyed. There are however exceptions - for example if the person had an especial record, or was involved in something notable.

Unfortunately, if you are lucky, and they do find something associated with your request, they will only release that information to someone they deem relevant, normally a relation.

Remember, the Royal Arsenal was not the only Ordnance factory, and overall there were many thousands employed, which puts pressure on the number of records that can be stored.

We do have access though, to a limited number of documents that friends of this website have in their own personal collections, and which mention names and departments, and may provide clues; most of such records refer to the 18th and 19th century, so do e-mail us if you want a request added to the list below and we will do our best to search any documents to which we have access, though remember it is extremely unlikely that we will be able to help with anyone employed during the First World War.

You can contact the Historical Society by going to their website at http://members.lycos.co.uk/RoyalArsenal/rawool.htm

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You can also try the following:

Mr I. C. Todd

Civilian Records Management for Director (D S D C )

Ministry of Defence

Defence Storage and Distribution Centre

Llangennech

Llanelli

Carmarthenshire

SA14 8YP

Tele 01554 822 352

Fax 01554 822 350

Holder of all ex MOD civilian employees personal files only.

Please note that it is MOD policy to review and then destroy all personal files after 100 years from the date of birth.

I have just started scanning in the Society's glass plates and archives. All of this material was thrown into a skip and then rescued. It is in a sorry state, with nothing catalogued or listed. Every day I come across some gems which will shortly appear on the website listed above.

So please check in often.