‘Women on the Front Line’ A Hidden History project at Bawdsey Radar

Thanks to a successful bid to SHARE Museums East, more women’s voices and stories will be discovered. These will be shared through research, a permanent addition to the exhibition displays at the Transmitter Block, outreach materials and a pilot STEM event, a first for Bawdsey Radar, for younger audiences in partnership with the Suffolk STEM Ambassador programme.

On 24th September 1937, when RAF Bawdsey became the first fully operational Radar station in the world, many of the first generation of Royal Air Force (RAF) and Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) radar personnel were trained at Bawdsey.

The voices of the WAAFs are under-represented in the displays and interpretation. Many of the stories of the women who trained and served at Bawdsey during WW2 remain frustratingly hidden in the trust’s collections of watch and service records, written/oral histories and photographs.