Women's Royal Air Force (World War I)

The Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) was the women's branch of the Royal Air Force from 1918 to 1920. Its original intent was to provide female mechanics in order to free up men for service in World War I. However, the organization saw huge enrollment, with women volunteering for positions as drivers and mechanics and filling other wartime needs.

Its last veteran was for a while thought to be Gladys Powers, who died in 2008, but Florence Green, who died in February 2012, was subsequently found to be the last-known surviving WRAF veteran.

The name was revived in 1949 for the regular women's branch of the RAF. The auxiliary organisation in the Second World War had been called the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.

Strength
The target strength had been a force of around 90,000, figures are unreliable until 1 August 1918, when the strength was 15,433, approximately 5,000 recruits and 10,000 transferred from the predecessor organisations. The organisation never exceeded 25,000.

Depots
Depots were opened in 1918 at Handsworth College, in Glasgow, at RAF Flowerdown and at York.

List of Commandants

 * Gertrude Crawford, 1918
 * Violet Douglas-Pennant, May–September 1918
 * Helen Gwynne-Vaughan, September 1918–1920