ABSTRACT
On 11 June 1940 Sybil Eaton, professional violinist and Music Traveller, organised and performed in what locals described as the very first art music concert in the small village of Shotley, rural Suffolk, England. This chapter describes many of the challenges, rewards and perceptions shared by working musicians on the British homefront, and in particular, female musicians. In part, the work of wartime women musicians deserves attention for no other reason than that two of the most famous and now iconic women on the wartime homefront, Vera Lynn and Myra Hess, were female musicians. With these iconic images of musical women etched in popular memory, it is no wonder that the Music Travellers and other women musicians have not been examined as war workers. Most significantly, whether or not the product of musical performance is quantifiable, this national programme created a situation in which professional women musicians found musical work opportunities beyond those available in peacetime.
