The women's works committee helped to smooth out many new problems, and the management representative. Miss A. G. Shaw, did a great deal to ease the transition from peace production to war work. She was also responsible for the initial organization of the first-aid work, begun by volunteers before the war. Miss Shaw was seconded to the Production Efficiency Board of the Ministry of Aircraft Production in January 1943, and shortly before leaving the Company in March 1945 she was appointed a member of the Cotton Working Party. During her absence much of the work devolved on Miss M. A. Havelock, who succeeded her as chief supervisor of women.

Training, both for men and women, had to be expanded and adapted to meet wartime conditions. The motion study section, besides helping to develop manufacturing methods for many of the new products, reorganized its operator training work to cope with the intake of unskilled labour; many thousands were passed through the girls' training school. For a time, at the request of the Ministry of Aircraft Production, a series of training courses were run for aircraft engineers from other firms with the object of disseminating the M-V system throughout the aircraft industry. The replacement of men called up for the forces required specialized training for which intensive courses were provided by the education department; other special wartime courses were run, for instance for Indian artisans under a Bevin scheme and for midshipmen for the Admiralty. Recruitment of typing staff was so difficult that untrained girls were engaged and trained in the stenographic department, a successful innovation that is still in operation.

The King and Queen came twice to the works during the war. On their first visit on May 2, 1940, they made an extensive tour, seeing the production of both industrial and service equipment under war conditions and inspecting detachments of the civil defence services. On leaving they drove slowly down the main avenue, which was lined with cheering crowds. A brief return visit was paid on February 13, 1941, in the course of inspecting air raid damage to homes and factories in the district. A few weeks before, on January 15, the Duke of Kent had visited the aircraft factory, the West works gun-carriage and radar shops, and other parts of the works.

WELFARE AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES
Welfare and social facilities kept pace with the expansion of the works. In 1940 the ambulance room and all first-aid work were taken over by Dr. J. Robinson, who, in accordance with the Ministry of Labour requirements for munition factories, had been appointed whole-time works medical officer and with whose advice a high standard of first-aid treatment had already been attained.