Among the trenches and bloodied battlefields of war there was one woman who was determined that men on the frontline should not go without fun and entertainment.

British actress Lena Ashwell was born in 1872 and grew up in Canada before studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London where she became an ardent member of the pre-war suffrage campaign. She was one of the first people to suggest that artists could be employed to boost the morale of soldiers, eventually setting up her own company of actors, singers and entertainers who travelled the world to perform for troops.

When war was declared on 4 August 1914, 42-year-old Lena collaborated with peers to form the Women’s Emergency Corp. The group created a register of all women willing to contribute to the war effort and their relative skills. By 4 September, 10,000 women had signed up.

All too aware of the plight of actors, who were struggling to find work in war-torn Britain, Lena proposed that their services be used on the front; in YMCA camps, hospitals, ships and in firing-line zones. Her plans were initially met with resistance but eventually she pulled together over 600 performers willing to travel to war zones to entertain. Between 1915 and 1919, the actors, musicians and entertainers gave three performances a day across France, Belgium, Malta, Egypt and Palestine.

This was not a glamorous life. Performers often had to wade through mud, lugging heavy equipment, performing on a pile of suitcases or a bloodspattered room in a horse hospital. Nonetheless their audience would eagerly await their performance.

In the Harfleur valley in Normandy, she watched Ivor Novello perform Keep The Home Fires Burning to a roomful of soldiers. “When he sang it, the men seemed to drink it in,” she said. “And as we drove away one could hear the refrain.” After the war, Lena continued to manage theatres until her last performance in 1929.

A letter sent to Lena from the soldier son of her school friend, December 1916:

"It was bitterly cold, and the performers were blue in spite of an oil stove. This in no way interfered with the party’s spirit. I wish you could have heard the way the coughs and sniffles died away when the tenor sang Somewhere A Voice Is Calling in his clear voice, and the violinist held them in the same way. There is no doubt music means more than can be realised, even to men who have never troubled about it before, when it comes under these circumstances as a beautiful thought from home."

From Lena Ashwell: Actress, Patriot, Pioneer by Margaret Leask (£25, University of Hertfordshire Press)

Florence Cordell (1895-1992), bus conductor

Meet the unsung heroines of World War I