When thinking of women and their important roles during the Second World War, those who worked as nursery nurses in wartime day nurseries are often overlooked. But like today, when childcarers are central to the Government's aim to get parents back to work, during the war nursery nurses were invaluable in enabling mothers to be released for war work.
After much discussion between the Ministries of Labour and of Health, most wartime day nurseries were established after 1940, when the need for women to work in factories and other activities supporting the troops from the home front was recognised.
With the agreement of the Ministry of Labour, the wartime day nurseries were funded by the Ministry of Health, which supplied the capital and some of the maintenance costs. Local authorities set up the nurseries and contributed to their running costs through their Maternity and Child Welfare Committees, headed by the Medical Officer of Health.
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