Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Women ' s Royal Air Force The Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Women ' s Royal Air Force was a Select Committee of the House of Lords created to investigate a complaint by Violet Douglas - Pennant that she had been fired in an attempt by several senior Women ' s Royal Air Force ( WRAF ) officers to cover up " rife immorality " within the WRAF . After her request for a judicial enquiry was turned down Lord Stanhope proposed a government enquiry in the House of Lords , saying that the government had turned down Douglas - Pennant ' s request for a judicial enquiry because " His Majesty ' s Government fear the scandals which will come to light when this inquiry is held " , and that her dismissal was contrary to the law . His proposal was accepted , and the committee first sat on 14 October 1918 . After three weeks of calling witnesses the Committee began to write its report , which was published in December 1919 . The final report concluded that Douglas - Pennant had failed to provide any evidence that there was a conspiracy to allow practices of " rife immorality " to continue , nor that this " immorality " had ever existed in the first place . Background . Violet Douglas - Pennant was a philanthropist who had previously done work for Queen Mary ' s Army Auxiliary Corps and the Women ' s Royal Naval Service ; as such she was a natural choice for Commandant of the WRAF when it was formed in 1918 . She agreed to spend a month " looking round " the WRAF , and her experiences during that month led her to decline the appointment . She found that although she was responsible for 14 , 000 WRAF members in 500 camps there were only 70 officers , and the existing training facilities were only managing to train 25 new officers every three weeks . There were also problems with shortages of various pieces of equipment , including uniforms and medical tools , and many of the WRAF members were living in poor quality accommodation . There were also various small personal problems , which irritated and frustrated her . Her office was a small , dark room on the top floor of the Hotel Cecil next to a men ' s lavatory , and there was so little furniture that she was forced to keep her papers and files on the floor . In addition she was not given an Air Ministry pass , meaning that every time she entered the building she was forced to fill in a form before being escorted to her office " presumably to call on myself " . As a result of these difficulties she officially declined the appointment in a letter to Godfrey Paine on 11 June 1918 , saying that " I am very sorry to be obliged to decline the appointment of Commandant " , Despite this she was convinced to stay on , and her appointment was confirmed on 18 June . The situation did not improve , however ; there were still problems with training and equipment , five of her secretaries resigned , and her deputies all left at once . Despite these problems she attempted to improve the WRAF , recruiting friends to help with the paperwork and using her contacts from her time in local government ( for example , her service on the London County Council Education Committee ) to " borrow " Eltham Teacher Training College during the summer holiday , where she trained 450 new officers . In protest at the irregularities and problems she tried to resign twice ; both of these resignations were blocked by Godfrey Paine , who assured her that she had his full support . The Air Ministry were getting frustrated with the WRAF , however , and Weir wrote to Paine ' s replacement , Sefton Brancker , asking him to remove Douglas - Pennant . She was dismissed without prior warning on 28 August 1918 , and never again held government office . Douglas - Pennant claimed she had been dismissed in an attempt by several senior officers , including Colonel Bersey , the commander of the WRAF supplies unit , General Livingston , the deputy head of the personnel department and Mrs Beatty , the Assistant Commandant of the WRAF , to cover up " rife immorality " in WRAF camps by getting rid of the only officer " too straight for them to work with " . She claimed that this immorality had been occurring particularly at a motor training camp called Hurst Park , where the camp commander Colonel S . Janson had been discovered sleeping with one of the WRAF officers . Following her dismissal Douglas - Pennant wrote to several important politicians including Winston Churchill asking for a judicial enquiry , and when this request was turned down Lord Stanhope proposed a government enquiry in the House of Lords , saying that the government had turned down Douglas - Pennant ' s request for a judicial enquiry because " His Majesty ' s Government fear the scandals which will come to light when this inquiry is held " , and that her dismissal was contrary to the law . Select Committee . Stanhope ' s proposal passed , and the five - member Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Women ' s Royal Air Force was formed . The Committee was led by Lord Wrenbury , with the other four members being the Earl of Kintore , the Earl of Denbigh , Lord Methuen and Lord Farrer . The Committee began its work on 14 October 1918 , and sat for three weeks . Douglas - Pennant was represented by Anthony Hawke KC and Stewart Bevan KC , while the Air Ministry was represented by the Attorney General , Lord Hewart , and Rigby Swift KC . Colonel Bersey was represented by Patrick Hastings KC and Colonel Janson by Henry Curtis - Bennett KC . Patrick Hastings , who had only recently been made a KC , took the lead in cross - examining Violet Douglas - Pennant . Douglas - Pennant accused Colonel Bersey and others of promoting this " rife immorality " and not having the best interests of the WRAF at heart . When cross examined , however , she was unable to provide any evidence of this " rife immorality " or any kind of a conspiracy , saying that she could not find any specific instance of " immorality " at the camps she visited and that it was " always rumour " . After three weeks the committee dismissed all witnesses . The final report was produced in December 1919 , and found that Douglas - Pennant had been completely unable to substantiate her claims and was deserving " of the gravest censure " . As a result Douglas - Pennant was never again employed by the government .