Women have played an important role in wartime, working in diverse roles including nursing, teaching and farming and as clerks, fitters, cooks, pilots, drivers, anti-aircraft gun operators, decoders, RADAR operators and spies.

In this ‘Focus on…’ feature we profile individual women and some of the organisations in which they served. Using diverse documents sourced from the FamilyRecords.gov.uk partners, including pension records, diaries, census entries and service records, we cover a 100-year time period from the Crimean War to World War II.

The wealth of information available to family historians is vast and it is often difficult for the beginner to know where to begin. Although we have not been able to cover all of the services in detail, our sources pages in each section give you information on how we researched this project, along with pointers to help you to find out more for yourself.

"Women in Uniform" will give you an insight into the variety of records you can use to research your female ancestors who were members of any of the featured services.

Wherever you see the symbol, there is a link to a glossary. The symbol indicates a link to the National Archives' Catalogue.

If you would like explore this subject further, from 15 October 2003 until 18 April 2004 the Imperial War Museum in London are staging a major exhibition on the role of women in wartime. "Women and War" is the most ambitious exhibition of its kind ever mounted on this theme, telling the story of servicewomen, nurses, land girls, factory workers, secret agents, pilots and peacekeepers from the First World War to the present day. For more information about the "Women and War" exhibtion see our Imperial War Museum partners page.