Caring on the Home Front - Volunteer memories from World War Two
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Welfare work
Welfare work
JWO welfare workers provided many services for members of the Forces:
- They learnt of the arrival of convoys and the admission of patients into hospital
JWO Liaison Officer Mrs Puddicombe meeting a war-disabled soldier at a train station
- JWO Liaison Officers ran a Guide Scheme for disabled service people, but also met those that weren’t disabled at stations, helping them to their destination (which could be a hospital or convalescent home)
Liaison Officer’s armband
- They visited patients in hospital, informing their families of their return, finding out news of their relatives if they had lost touch
- They wrote letters for wounded servicemen and women, ran hospital library services, gave out gifts of newspapers, magazines, games, fruit and flowers, and arranged entertainments for patients
A JWO welfare worker writing a letter for a wounded soldier
The JWO hospital library service
- They carried out enquiries from wounded members of the Forces who were still abroad about their families
- They looked after relatives of the wounded and found accommodation for them while they visited.
A family visit made possible by JWO Liaison Officers
- Mrs Fleming, Reading, JWO Welfare Officer:
“ The function of a welfare officer was to help the serving soldier, to distract his thoughts by giving him occupational therapy, and to write his letters if he could not do so, and to run a hospital library; also to trace missing and wounded men. They also arranged picnics etc, for patients who were well enough to enjoy them, shopping expeditions etc. In general to make the patients as happy as possible.”