Many women replaced conscripted men in the workforce, taking up jobs in transport, wartime administration and the war industries. In Scarborough male conductors on the buses were replaced by women. One little girl was taken aback on getting on a bus, exclaiming, “Look Mummy, a man conductress.” Young Scarborough women found employment in local industries engaged in war contracts. Such wartime work could be gruelling. Pat Barker, for example, recalls work at the Premier Engineering:
We made steel brackets for Bailey bridges and drilled various parts. These were then dipped in black paint then bagged up and sent to Plaxton’s in Seamer Road which was also a munitions factory and employed many female workers. It was very hard, dirty work and a very cold factory with just a stove of some sort in the middle of the building. We used to nip over to warm our hands, but if the foreman caught us we were in trouble. Our treat was a cup of hot chocolate at breaktime. I enjoyed the work but we suffered with our hands and chilblains.
Away from Scarborough
Other young women found factory work away from home, commonly in the West Riding, the Midlands and Lancashire. They often lived in barracks, hostels or lodgings. Marjorie Leppington, for example, left Scarborough at the age of 18 to work at the Royal Ordnance Factory at Chorley, Lancashire. There she worked alongside three other young Scarborough women. Living in barracks and bussed daily into work, she remained there for three years. Her work was dangerous, attaching detonators to bombs.
Female Mayor: Louisa Whitfield
One notable advance for women in Scarborough was the unanimous election by councillors of the town’s first female mayor in November 1942. She had sat as an Independent Councillor for 16 years, only the third woman councillor in the history of the Council.
Before her anticipated re-election in November 1943 she fell seriously ill and was unable to continue her official duties. She died on Christmas Day 1943, aged 80. Many said it was from overwork.
