
The first British woman to work as a war photographer is set to be immortalised in a new online archive of her eye-opening images.

Olive Edis, who travelled to the Western Front during the First World War, photographed the role played by women during the horrific conflict.

She also captured portraits of many of the most famous figures of her time, including author Thomas Hardy, ex-prime minister David Lloyd George and the young Prince Philip.

Edis was born in 1876 and died in 1955 after becoming well-known for her pioneering work, including images of her home county of Norfolk.

The Imperial War Museum commissioned her to photograph the effects of the First World War, especially the way that British women had responded to the need for new workers to help the war effort.

Thanks to an £81,000 lottery grant, her work - owned by institutions including Cromer Museum, the Imperial War Museum and the National Portrait Gallery - will be available in a digital archive hosted by the Norfolk Museums Service.

Hard at work: Members of Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps (QMAAC) in the machine room that formed part of the RAF engine repair shops at Pont de l'Arche in northern France, pictured by Olive Edis in 1919

Destruction: Ypres Cloth Hall in Belgium, a medieval building which was devastated by fire during the First World War, was one of the landmarks captured by Edis during her travels around the Western Front

Indispensable: Female telegraphists in the signals office in Boulogne at the end of the First World War; the works of photographer Olive Edis have been collected in a new online archive

Communications: Members of the QMAAC working the telephone exchange at No. 4 Rest Camp in Henriville, north-east France; Edis was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum to chronicle women's contribution to the war effort

Pioneer: Edis, left, took a photograph of the prominent socialite Nancy Astor, right, as part of her work away from the front

Royal: A portrait of the young Prince Philip was among many images of famous figures capture by Edis during her long career

Eminent: Former prime minister David Lloyd George, left, and great author Thomas Hardy, right, are also among Edis' subjects

King: George V, the grandfather of the current Queen, accompanied by soldiers around the time of the First World War

Ruins: Workers in the grounds of a large house at Grange-le-Comte which was intended to be turned into a cattle farm as part of the post-war reconstruction work carried out by the Friends' War Victims Relief Committee

Contribution: Members of the Voluntary Aid Detachment, a unit which provided field nurses to tend wounded soldiers, at work in Sister Barbier's office in Boulogne in 1919

Medics: Lady Hermione Blackwood, left, with her staff in the dispensary of the French Red Cross Relief Unit at Chateau St Anne, Pierrefonds in another wartime photograph by Edis

Collaboration: Members of QMAAC working alongside male soldiers to sort out heaps of uniform in the Army Ordnance Depot at Vendraux

Tender moment: Miss Edith Pye working at the Friends' War Victims Relief Committee Maternity Hospital at Chalons-sur-Marne, overseeing a woman who appears to have given birth to twins

Supervision: The deputy controller of the Le Havre telephone exchange oversees operators who were responsible for vital infrastructure