Did my grandma really take on the whole British government?
November 11, 2011 4:01 PM Subscribe
Please help me try to find information about my grandmother and her suit against the UK in post WWII.
So I love my grandmother (passed away several years ago) and one of the traits of my maternal family has always been that we are crazy driven and outspoken. Recently at the death of my great aunt it has been revealed that my granny and one other of her sisters were involved in a suit against the British government.
Here's how the story goes: during world war II everyone was drafted in the UK (my grandma is Scottish) and my grandma became a nurse along with several of her sisters. The youngest who just died became a driver for a munitions factory. At the end of the war the men were released from service but the women were told that they must serve one year as a nurse for every year they were trained during the war. This upset my grandma along with her sisters and they sued the UK govt. After they won and nurses were released from their draftedness (wtf is that called?) my grandma and her sisters were basically so fed up with the UK system and the harassment that they left and all came to the USA.
My question is can anyone find any information on this suit. My second cousin swears she has an article about it but can not for the life of her find it. The name of my grandma is Ida Porter though I don't know if that will appear in the suit (there was some weird marriage and naming things going on in my family). Please hope me. I love my grandma and my relatives would love gaining knowledge on her role in the suit.
So I love my grandmother (passed away several years ago) and one of the traits of my maternal family has always been that we are crazy driven and outspoken. Recently at the death of my great aunt it has been revealed that my granny and one other of her sisters were involved in a suit against the British government.
Here's how the story goes: during world war II everyone was drafted in the UK (my grandma is Scottish) and my grandma became a nurse along with several of her sisters. The youngest who just died became a driver for a munitions factory. At the end of the war the men were released from service but the women were told that they must serve one year as a nurse for every year they were trained during the war. This upset my grandma along with her sisters and they sued the UK govt. After they won and nurses were released from their draftedness (wtf is that called?) my grandma and her sisters were basically so fed up with the UK system and the harassment that they left and all came to the USA.
My question is can anyone find any information on this suit. My second cousin swears she has an article about it but can not for the life of her find it. The name of my grandma is Ida Porter though I don't know if that will appear in the suit (there was some weird marriage and naming things going on in my family). Please hope me. I love my grandma and my relatives would love gaining knowledge on her role in the suit.
I found the same link as liketitanic. You didn't mention which military branch she served in. I also came across this site, that has a phone number listed.
posted by shoesietart at 4:44 PM on November 11, 2011
posted by shoesietart at 4:44 PM on November 11, 2011
Response by poster: I dont know what military branch she served in unfortunately.
posted by boobjob at 5:24 PM on November 11, 2011
posted by boobjob at 5:24 PM on November 11, 2011
I think calling the Imperial War Museum might be a good place to start. If this was a genuine edict, I'd think they'd have a record of such a requirement.
Or maybe QARANC.
posted by Ideefixe at 5:55 PM on November 11, 2011
Or maybe QARANC.
posted by Ideefixe at 5:55 PM on November 11, 2011
Best answer: This page (it's in there somewhere, honest) says that by the end of the war there were 12,000 nurses in the Army (Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service -or "QAIMNS"), 1215 in the Air Force (Princess Mary’s Royal Air Force Nursing Service or "PMRAFNS") and 1341 in the Navy (Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nursing Service or "QARNN"). So 10:1 it was the Army.
Note there were also the Queen Alexandra’s Reserve, and the Territorial Army Nursing Service, which were auxiliary support groups for QAIMNS, but at a guess their records will be in the same place.
This page on Wikipedia might give you some useful background and terminology (lots of acronyms..) for womens' service in the UK during WW2.
scarletfinders.co.uk looks very useful too.
This book gets good reviews and might say something about the end of the war. Also maybe this one which is out of print and might be best through a library.
posted by cromagnon at 5:56 PM on November 11, 2011
Note there were also the Queen Alexandra’s Reserve, and the Territorial Army Nursing Service, which were auxiliary support groups for QAIMNS, but at a guess their records will be in the same place.
This page on Wikipedia might give you some useful background and terminology (lots of acronyms..) for womens' service in the UK during WW2.
scarletfinders.co.uk looks very useful too.
This book gets good reviews and might say something about the end of the war. Also maybe this one which is out of print and might be best through a library.
posted by cromagnon at 5:56 PM on November 11, 2011
The British and Irish Legal Information Institute has transcripts of judgements that made it to case law - looking through it on basic search terms (like 'nurse' in cases between 1945 and 1950) isn't coming up with a case like this, but you might have better luck. Not being in that database doesn't mean that the case didn't happen, just that it isn't considered part of UK case law.
posted by Coobeastie at 1:05 AM on November 12, 2011
posted by Coobeastie at 1:05 AM on November 12, 2011
Another book you might want to look at is Demobbed, a recent study of the demobilization of servicemen after the war. In general it took place slower than people wanted. It seems to have been prioritized by length of service and age, somewhat corroborating your grandmother's claim.
posted by dhartung at 2:56 AM on November 12, 2011
posted by dhartung at 2:56 AM on November 12, 2011
BAILII has judgments (that is, the formal written decision of the court) rather than transcripts (the record of the oral proceedings), and the coverage tends to be spotty before about 1990. The ideal source if the action was before the English courts (remembering that Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate court systems) is either the Law Reports (published by the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting, a sort of semi-official body) or the All England Law Reports (published by LexisNexis). All England covers everything that the Law Reports cover and a bit more besides. I have access to LexisNexis' online service at work and I'll have a look tomorrow (Muslim country, work on Sundays) if I can. Our office subscription doesn't cover the Scottish courts, so if it was in Scotland I can't help.
It might help to know your grandma's name--memail me if you like. Bear in mind too that not every case that's decided makes it into the reports. Basically, it's a judgment for the reporter to make whether a case is likely to be interesting enough (legally, as a precedent, not interesting factually) to report. If the case turns up, you'll get, as I said, the actual written decision of the court, but there probably won't be much human drama in it.
posted by Logophiliac at 10:45 AM on November 12, 2011
It might help to know your grandma's name--memail me if you like. Bear in mind too that not every case that's decided makes it into the reports. Basically, it's a judgment for the reporter to make whether a case is likely to be interesting enough (legally, as a precedent, not interesting factually) to report. If the case turns up, you'll get, as I said, the actual written decision of the court, but there probably won't be much human drama in it.
posted by Logophiliac at 10:45 AM on November 12, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
I think the word you're looking for is "conscription."
posted by milk white peacock at 4:14 PM on November 11, 2011