A voluntary organisation concerned with helping people in need throughout the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1938 by Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading, as a British women's organisation to recruit women into the Air Raid Precautions (ARP) services to help in the event of war. In 1966 its name was changed to the Women's Royal Voluntary Service, and in 2004 to just the WRVS. In 2013 it became the Royal Voluntary Service, to acknowledge the fact that some of its members were men.
In 2017 the Guardian reported that the archives of the organisation's 'narrative reports' are available on-line.
Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk
