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1914-18 War • Women's Volunteer Reserve

from 1914 until 1916 • WVR
WVR The Honourable Evelina Haverfield founder of the Womens Emergency Corps in 1914 formed the WVR as a uniformed offshoot that same year.It was one of the earliest wartime women's organisations to be founded. The Women's Volunteer Reserve was sponsored by the Marchioness of Londonderry, the Marchioness of Titchfield and the Countess of Pembroke and Montgomery.
These first voluntary unpaid unofficial Women's Services were all founded and controlled by influential Ladies. The WVR was open to critiscism in that it recruited mainly from the affluent classes.
The women paid for their own uniform which was khaki.The style adopted by these women was to influence the design of future Womens Service uniforms.		WVRWVR

The Marchioness of Londonderry went on to form the Women's Legion which was less exclusive in that it recruited women from most classes.
By 1917 most of these early unpaid volunteer womens organisations were redundant.
They had paved the way and provided valuable experience for the members of the true Women's Services formed that year such as the
WRNS
the WAAC
and the WRAF

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