Rededication Service for Women’s Royal Army Corps Association at Guildford Cathedral

Published on: 26 May, 2012
Updated on: 28 May, 2012

A service of rededication and renewal of links between the Women’s Royal Army Corps Association (WRACA) and Guildford Cathedral was held there on Sunday, May 20.

The WRACA incorporates the Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps (QMAAC) and Auxiliary Territorial Service Comrades’ Association (ATSCA), and members of these groups along with invited guests attended the service.

Women's Royal Army Corps Association standard bearers.

During the mattins service the QMAAC and Auxiliary Territorial Service standards were ‘laid up’ in the Cathedral Gallery alongside other regimental standards.

The service was conducted by the Dean of Guildford Cathedral, The Very Rev’d Victor Stock, and the standards were ‘presented’ by Brigadier Nicky Moffat CBE. Following the service a luncheon was held in The Refectory.

Invited guests included The Lord-Lieutenant of Surrey, Dame Sarah Goad DCVO JP, the Mayor of Guildford, Jenny Jordan: Honorary Freemen David Watts, Bill Bellerby and Doreen Bellerby, Mary Lloyd-Jones; Honorary Alderman Bernard Park and Guildford Borough Councillor Jennifer Powell.

Both the ATS and the WRAC were trained at Queen Elizabeth Camp, Stoughton, Guildford. Literally thousands of servicewomen and officers passed through its gates.

While Guildford Cathedral was being constructed, WRAC recruits were taken to the site on Stag Hill ‘to buy a brick’. In 1994 a commemorative window was unveiled in the cathedral by the Duchess of Kent on the 75th anniversary of the association. In 2003, the Queen, who was an ATS officer herself, became patron of the association.

Presenting the standards.

The WRACA celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2009 – 90 years of comradeship, commitment and service by generations of women who were proud to serve their country through different conflicts and times, whether in the QMAAC during the First World War, the ATS during the Second World War, or in the WRAC post 1949.

The association’s legacy lives on today and has allowed women to serve in almost every area of today’s British Army alongside their male colleagues.