Following the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 a large military response was urgently required. 

This was not only for men and women, to join the Services, but also everything to support them in the field, and to assist the treatment and recovery of casualties.

Whilst the logistics to provide the vast amounts of munitions required was slowly starting to filter through, the speed with which shells were needed on the front for our guns showed the system was badly lacking. 

Matters came to a head in early 1915. Politicians and the media not only highlighted the lack of ammunition but the perceived lack of forward thinking.

There was a grave lack of support to our brave boys on the front line.

The government responded with the Munitions of War Act 1915, which was approved on July 2. 

The Ministry of Munitions was established with David Lloyd George as the first Minister of Munitions. This Ministry became one of the largest known in British Governmental history. 

It employed 65,000 staff. Over 3,000,000 people worked in factories contracted to the Ministry, manufacturing over 100 main categories of materials.

In the High Wycombe area given the high number of factories making furniture it is perhaps surprising to find only Joynson, Holland & Company, Slater Street having a contract to make folding chairs and other furniture for hospitals. 

That company employed 45 staff, of which 15 were female, and also made aircraft fuselages. Other companies making parts for aircraft in Wycombe were Gomme’s in Leigh Street and Tyzacks from Slater Street.

The Croydon Aircraft and Engineering Company also had two factories in the town making aircraft components. One factory used buildings leased from Cecil Smith in Desborough Road and employed 260. 

The other factory building was in Queens Road and leased from Birch & Cox. In Kitchener Road, High Wycombe, Reid Bros (Engineers) produced liquid compasses for aeroplanes and ships, revolution indicators for engines and electrical testing apparatus. 

This factory was one of a number specifically opened during the Great War, employing 57 women and nine men. In Grafton Street in High Wycombe, the firm of William Bartlett & Sons were producing non-ferrous castings and aeroplane wings with a workforce of 300, equally divided between male and female employees.

In Marlow, the brewery operated by Thomas Wethered & Sons went over to munitions production, especially in the engineering department. 

The Ministry of Munitions records show that the brewery had eight contracts in 1918, and was employing 40 women and 12 men making 3” Stokes mortars, 18 pounder shells, and machining air compressor cylinders.

The Beaconsfield Motor Company Ltd situated in London End, in what is now the Old Town Garage, stopped nearly all their pre-war production and repair of motor vehicles and switched to making 6 and 18 pounder shells, 3 inch incendiary shells and C1 shrapnel sockets. Of the recorded 102 employees, 76 were female.

I am grateful to Nigel Crompton for much of this information. It is certainly not a comprehensive list of the firms engaged in the manufacturing element of the Home Front in Wycombe district during the Great War. 

The names of many of the factories in Wycombe operating as sub-contractors are not known. Nigel is engaged in a nation-wide project to research the extent of the munitions industry at that time.

We would welcome further information, in the first instance contact Mike Dewey on 01494 755070 or email deweymiked@aol.com.