The Women's Defence Relief Corps was founded by Mrs Dawson Scott in September 1914, shortly after the outbreak of the First World War.

It was initially intended to increase the employment of women, which would release men to join the British armed forces (which did not introduce conscription until 1916).

[1] The corps advertised the available posts as suitable vacation work for women and stipulated a minimum wage of 18 shillings per week.

[6] By the war's end the land army would have sent out 9,022 female labourers and was instrumental in saving the 1918 British flax harvest.

The Board of Agriculture decided that a widespread reorganisation of female volunteer labour was needed and from March 1917 directed its efforts solely on the Women's Land Army.