Newly released photographs reveal pioneering role of women in wartime photography

A group of women from the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, in military uniform, posed with their cameras outside the RAF's No. 2 School of Photography.

(Image credit: Historic England Archive)

By Annunciata Elwes

published 13 May 2025

in Features

The pioneering role of women in wartime photography is spotlighted in an intriguing collection of photographs newly revealed by Historic England to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day.

Sepia image of men mending a plane during the Second World War — Still from a film produced by the RAF Film Production Unit during the Second World War, showing airmen around the propeller of an aircraft.

Although perhaps more famous for the ‘James Bond’ and ‘Carry On’ franchises, during the Second World War, Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire was known as RAF Iver Heath — a base for the RAF Film Production Unit (RAFFPU) and the Army Film and Photographic Unit (AFPU). They produced vital newsreels and coverage of key events, which helped keep the public informed and supportive of the war effort. Notable British talents were there, such as a young Richard Attenborough, as was the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), the contributions of which to photography and reconnaissance during the Second World War have perhaps been undersold.

Portrait of the first intake of WAAF (Women's Auxiliary Air Force) recruits to undertake training at the RAF's No. 2 School of Photography in Blackpool.

This extraordinary collection of some 150 photographs was put together by Dorothy ‘Knicky’ Chapman, who was part of the first intake of the WAAF at the No.2 School of Photography in Blackpool, Lancashire, before being posted to Pinewood. Photographers skilled in aerial reconnaissance were urgently needed, so WAAF training proved vital, keeping up with rapid advancements in intelligence-bringing military air photography. In Chapman’s collection, women are shown at work, for example, processing film in mobile darkrooms, but also at play, participating in sports or dramatic productions. It’s a glimpse into their unique wartime world, about which not much is known; Historic England hopes the collection’s release will kickstart better communication with the public, who are invited to share personal stories of women who served in the RAFFPU or WAAF —email communications@historicengland.org.ukbefore May 25.

A British Bulldog in RAF uniform, at RAF Iver Heath, Pinewood Studios.

Chapman, who had previously attended art school to study photography, married her course instructor and continued in her chosen career, later taking a job at the Science Museum creating microfiche. It’s likely many of her WAAF peers left photography behind altogether after the war, yet these are women ‘who broke barriers in military photography,’ comments Heritage Minister Baroness Twycross, and ‘this collection honours their contribution to our national story. Their legacy will continue to inspire future generations’.

Three WAAF (Women's Auxiliary Air Force) officers having tea aboard an RAF aeroplane — Three WAAF officers having tea aboard an RAF aeroplane. The woman in the centre is Knicky Knapman (later Chapman), with two of her fellow WAAF officers, presumably also instructors at the RAF's No.2 School of Photography in Blackpool.

‘We continue to host an annual Service of Remembrance at Pinewood, giving special recognition to the wartime film and photographic units who trained and worked here,’ adds David Conway, chief executive officer of the Pinewood Group.

Visit the Historic England website to view the collection

Annunciata grew up in the wilds of Lancashire and now lives in Hampshire with a husband, two daughters and an awful pug called Parsley. She’s been floating round the Country Life office for more than a decade, her work winning the Property Magazine of the Year Award in 2022 (Property Press Awards). Before that, she had a two-year stint writing ‘all kinds of fiction’ for The Sunday Times Travel Magazine, worked in internal comms for Country Life’s publisher (which has had many names in recent years but was then called IPC Media), and spent another year researching for a historical biographer, whose then primary focus was Graham Greene and John Henry Newman and whose filing system was a collection of wardrobes and chests of drawers filled with torn scraps of paper. During this time, she regularly gave tours of 17th-century Milton Manor, Oxfordshire, which may or may not have been designed by Inigo Jones, and co-founded a literary, art and music festival, at which Johnny Flynn headlined. When not writing and editing for Country Life, Annunciata is also a director of TIN MAN ART, a contemporary art gallery founded in 2021 by her husband, James Elwes.