- Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Tuesday, 13th May 2014
With the outbreak of the First World War, many British men enlisted as soldiers and many British women took occupations that had, until then, been considered strictly “men’s work”. Suffragettes were among the first to volunteer and the group of policewomen shown above were among the first of their kind. Initially, their duties were restricted to tasks such as caring for lost children and escorting prostitutes into cells – hence the jiujitsu armlock demonstrated above.