Women's Forage Corps

Based at army camps and depots in the United Kingdom and working in gangs of six, its women assisted with matters relating to horse transport such as hay-making, forage, checking bales on arrival at railway stations and supervising their loading, stable work, driving horse carts, chaffing, wire-stretching, making and mending sacks and tarpaulin sheets and.

The foundations for the Corps were laid in 1915, though it only formally came into being on 1 March 1917 before being further formalised by an Army Order in early November 1918.

Largely drawn from among women servants but also including some women of independent means with their own horses, normal members earned an average of 26 to 30 shillings a week by 1919, drawing army rations and sometimes with a caravan (for messing rather than accommodation) and cook assigned to their gang as a mess.

Their uniform consisted of gaiters, haversack, dark green breeches, hats and jerseys, khaki overcoat, overalls and black boots, with brass shoulder insignia of the initials "FC".

Higher ranks wore a khaki tunic and shirt, shoulder rank badges, shoulder "FC" insignia and a brass badge showing "FC" within the eight-pointed star of the Royal Army Service Corps.