Originally founded in 1938 as the Women’s Voluntary Services for Air Raid Precautions, WRVS celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2013.
WRVS was initially formed to help recruit women into the ARP movement assisting civilians during and after air raids by providing emergency rest centres, feeding, first aid, and perhaps most famously assisting with the evacuation and billeting of children.
By 1943 the organisation had over one million volunteers and was involved in almost every aspect of wartime life from the collection of salvage to the knitting of socks and gloves for merchant seamen. After the war WRVS transformed to become a leading organisation in the field of social care, pioneering the practices that formed the cornerstone of modern social services.
Since then our services have evolved and we are now a major service provider giving practical help, particularly for older people, to enable choice, independence and dignity so people can enjoy an improved quality of life - all with the help of more than 40,000 volunteers.
The collection keeps and preserves all historical records of WVS/WRVS and other closely associated bodies and organisations. It collects related documents and items and is working to make its important collections available to the public.
We've produced resources for teachers of Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 classes, focusing on the Home Front, drawn from the WRVS Archive and Heritage Collection.
Find out what was happening in WVS/WRVS in years gone by, with extracts from our famous Narrative Reports that detail the activities of over 2,000 centres which once covered the country.
Take a look at some of the pictures that make up our Archive & Heritage Collection.
Want to know more about WRVS? Here you will find all you need to know in facts sheets about how and why WRVS began, the origins of Meals on Wheels, WVS uniforms and much more...