On 16 May 1938, the British government set out the objectives of the Women's Voluntary Service for Civil Defence: It was seen "as the enrolment of women for Air Raid Precaution Services of Local Authorities, to help to bring home to every household what air attack may mean, and to make known to every household [in the country] what it can do to protect itself and the community."

Women were recruited for specific tasks, whether that was to drive ambulances, join in a knitting work party, or to collect National Savings.

The WVS was split into 12 Regions (using the same boundaries as the Civil Defence Corps) which started with 1 in the NE of England and moved clockwise down the country and back up.

Each Centre Organiser had a team of members who were responsible for different aspect of WVS work e.g. evacuation, Training, Food or Clothing.

While Centre Organisers had ultimate control over the work they did in their areas, they were tightly scrutinised by the County and Regional offices and Headquarters.

[4][5] In addition headquarters issued substantial numbers of circular notices each year informing Organisers of new projects and re-enforcing the rules and regulations.

Getting them to a known area of safety proved a lot more difficult as trains did not always arrive at an expected destination or would turn up at a reception point unexpectedly.

The WVS is credited with helping to move 1.5 million people (the majority were children) out of cities in the early days of September 1939.

When troops returned to ports after the evacuation at Dunkirk, members of the WVS were there to greet them and hand out food, drink and warm clothing.

The WVS base at the railway station in Headcorn, Kent was an especially busy place for feeding returning soldiers before they dispersed—a spit was installed so that meat could be roasted on the spot.

While ARP wardens and firemen fought the fires, women in the WVS set up mobile canteens to keep them refreshed, thus placing themselves in serious physical danger with collapsing buildings a constant threat.

The WVS began running IIPs (Incident Inquiry Points), places where people came to find out about their loved ones who were in an area that had been bombed in order to free the ARP to work with the fire brigade.

The Battle of the Atlantic and the devastating toll of merchant ships sunk by U-boats led to shortages in Great Britain.

Roll of Honour, listing 241 members of the WVS who were killed in the line of duty during WWII, was created by Claire Evans, B.E.M., Irene Base and Roger Powell.

Made of vellum and bound in Moroccan leather, it was taken on a three-month tour around British cathedrals, guild halls and museums.

Royal Voluntary Service emergency teams provide back-up to the professional services and members of the public in times for major incidents such as the Lockerbie disaster, Hillsborough disaster, Buncefield fuel depot blast and flooding crises in July 2007 by running rest centres and providing emergency feeding to members of the public, fire crews and police.

In 2004, the organisation's name was changed from the Women's Royal Voluntary Service to simply WRVS in an attempt to modernise its image and in recognition of the fact that 11% of its 60,000 volunteers were men.

[13] On 24 March 2020, in response to COVID-19, the National Health Service called for 250,000 new volunteers from the general public in England and Wales to be directed by a call-centre run by the RVS to help self-isolating vulnerable and elderly people requiring assistance.

They and the suit uniform which followed shortly after were designed by Digby Morton, the famous London couturier, and the thick green/grey Harris tweed from which they were produced was supplied by Harrods.

The uniform was not compulsory, except for those carrying out certain roles (such as manning a mobile canteen) and many members wore WVS overalls or just their membership badge.

[26] Mass-Observation diarist Nella Last joined the Women's Voluntary Service in her hometown of Barrow-in-Furness at the outbreak of World War Two.