MEMBERS of the WVS, the Women’s Voluntary Service, attended a service of remembrance for colleagues killed during the Second World War.

The service, conducted by the City Rector, Canon RR Martin took place in 1951 at the City Church of St Martin and All Saints, at the corner of High Street and Turl Street, Oxford.

During the service, the National Roll of Honour, bearing the names of 242 WVS members who died, was dedicated.

Canon Martin said: “Most people would never think that the WVS was concerned with death and destruction.”

He recalled how one woman had been killed in an air raid while teaching Sunday School children, one had died while driving a van, and one died on her way to help a friend, whose home was bombed.

“Many an essential worker, loving wife and mother was taken away, leaving her partner widowed, her children orphaned,“ he said.