The Devil's Porridge

Arthur Conan Doyle coined the term "Devil's Porridge" for the explosive mixture in the manufacture of cordite at HM Factory Gretna during the First World War. Britain was losing the war in 1915 through lack of ammunition until 30,000 women and men came from all over the world to work in the massive war factory on the Solway.

The factory covered an area 9 miles long by 2 miles wide and two new towns, Gretna and Eastriggs, grew up, designed by prominent architects on Garden City principles and built by Irish navvies. The women who mixed the cordite were mostly single and aged between 15 and 20. They were known as the "Canary Girls" because toxic jaundice made their faces and hands turn yellow. Their role in this important war work persuaded people such as Arthur Conan Doyle that women should be given the vote, but ironically, when this happened at the end of the war, it was not granted to these young, single women who had often come from poorer backgrounds. In 1918, they left the area to go back to the lives they had left in 1915, no doubt changed by their experiences. The world would never be the same again.