Figures released at the end of World War One revealed that about 3,000 women and girls had come to Luton to join local counterparts in dangerous work at munition factories. They had arrived from as far west as Cornwall and Devon and as far north as Edinburgh and Glasgow, and some even from Ireland.

At the end of the war about 1,000 of the arrivals quickly returned to their home towns and cities, leaving the remainder to try to find work or receive unemployment allowances until they did so.

The pdf slideshow “munitionettes” (panel, above left) contains a miscellaneous selection of images from the Wardown Park Museum collection.