Women's Royal Air Force

Women's Royal Air Force
25 July 1919: King's Open Court, Buckingham Palace tribute to WW I Workers. – shown: members of the Women's Royal Air Force.
Active	1918–1920 1949–1994
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Branch	Royal Air Force
Role	Support services
Size	Peak of ~25,000 (1918–1920)
Garrison/HQ	RAF Hawkinge
Commanders
Last Director WRAF	Air Commodore Ruth Montague
Air Chief Commandant	Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester

The Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) was the women's branch of the Royal Air Force. It existed in two separate incarnations: the Women's Royal Air Force from 1918 to 1920 and the Women's Royal Air Force from 1949 to 1994.

On 1 February 1949, the name of the First World War organisation was revived when the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, which had been founded in 1939, was re-established on a regular footing as the Women's Royal Air Force. The WRAF and the RAF grew closer over the following decades, with increasing numbers of trades opened to women, and the two services formally merged in 1994, marking the full assimilation of women into the British forces and the end of the Women's Royal Air Force.

The Central Band of the WRAF, one of only two all-female bands in the British Armed Forces, was disbanded in 1972. Some of its musicians transferred to the Band of the Women's Royal Army Corps.