Coat frock : Miss Eva Fayle Gawne, Women's Army Auxiliary Corps Accession Number: REL/18567

Description

Khaki grey gabardine coat frock with brown plain weave cotton detachable stand and fall collar. The khaki shoulder straps are rounded at the top and fastened with a pressed leather button. Stitched down the centre of the strap is a strip of ochre-coloured twill fabric, and a WAAC embroidered cloth badge. The dress is fastened along the placketed opening with six evenly spaced pressed leather buttons. On the left breast are the medal ribbons of British War Medal 1914-20 and the Victory Medal. Self-fabric belt is held in place by two fabric belt loops and adjusted by buttoning onto two leather buttons attached to the dress. Sleeves are long with 70mm turnback rounded cuffs, fastened with small leather buttons. There is a woven three chevron patch on the right sleeve, and stitch marks indicating where a diamond shaped colour patch was once on the left shoulder. Red dye on the tunic suggests the patch had red in the colours. Two large patch pockets with straight buttoned flaps are on each side below the belt. Box pleats are gathered into the belt at the rear.

Contextual Description

Born on the Isle of Man on 9 April 1893 Eva Fayle Gawne was employed as a ledger clerk when she enlisted in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in 1917. She had previously worked as a maid while studying at night school. Assigned the service number 2074 and ranked as Worker, Gawne was in the first group of recruits and the only one to come from the Isle of Man. She recalled that she was collected by an officer from London to travel to Aldershot for training. After one month of training, and just before they embarked for France, King George V and Queen Mary visited them and reviewed them on the parade ground.

In France Gawne was housed in a camp near Rouen working in the military base offices for transport until 1919. She met soldier George Thomas Reynolds, a motor mechanic, in that year and married him shortly after she was discharged. The couple settled in Kent and immmigrated to Victoria in 1925. Eva Reynolds died in Melbourne in 1993.

Initially called the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), Queen Mary's Auxiliary Army Corps was formed in the UK in 1917 from the earlier Women's Legion, allowing women who were not qualified for the nursing services to play a service role in the war. Its members were primarily employed as clerks, telephonists, waitresses, cooks, and instructors, many of them seeing service in France. A statement released by Buckingham Palace late in 1917 read 'As a mark of Her Majesty's appreciation of the good services rendered by the WAAC both at home and abroad since its inauguration, and especially of the distinction which it earned in France during the recent fighting on the Western Front, Her Majesty has been graciously pleased to assume the position and title of Commandant-in-Chief of the Corps, which in future will bear the name of Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps.' QMAAC was disbanded in 1921.