Badge photograph: Craig Smith — reproduced by kind permission of WW2 Civil Defence Uniforms, Insignia, Helmets & Equipment.

The Ladies in Green — A New Interactive Map

In May 1947, the W.V.S. Bulletin published a remarkable and very informative account of the WVS women who had worked alongside NAAFI and EFI with the Central Mediterranean Force (CMF).

Beginning with the arrival of eight WVS workers in Algiers in March 1944, their story spread across North Africa, Italy, Greece and Austria. Importantly for the historian, the account preserved the names of NAAFI clubs and welfare establishments, the places in which they operated and many of the WVS women who worked within them.

I have been using that contemporary account, together with further archival research, to put those places and people back on the map.

The Ladies in Green: WVS and NAAFI across the Central Mediterranean, 1944–1947 is now available to explore on The Sutlers Supreme.

Select any numbered marker to discover the club or welfare establishment at that location, together with known WVS personnel, dates, Registered Numbers and other details where these have been identified. The map will continue to develop as further evidence, photographs and personal stories come to light.

Explore The Ladies in Green Interactive Map →

Can you help? Do you recognise a club, location or name on the map? If you have photographs, postcards, documents or family memories connected with NAAFI, EFI or the WVS in the Central Mediterranean, I would be very pleased to hear from you.