Informal group portrait of members of the 1st Field Trials Company. Back row, left to right: ...

Informal group portrait of members of the 1st Field Trials Company. Back row, left to right: unidentified, VF515630 Private Rita May Kolydenka, unidentified. Front row: Walter Crane (UK); Geoffrey Owen (protective clothing expert, UK); 104057 Flight Officer (Flt Off) Moira Lenore Shelton. Flt Off Shelton was the only female officer in Australia employed on Armament and Chemical Warfare duties. In January 1943 she was trained as one of twenty RAAF armourers, to assist unload bulk liquid mustard gas from the British cargo steamer Idomeneus, which took 11 days to unload due to leakage. She accompanied Wing Commander R J W Le Fevre (UK) and 252099 Arthur Trewin, head of the chemical warfare arm (Arm 6, RAAF Headquarters) to the first trials carried out with human volunteers in Grafton, NSW, in April 1943. She toured chemical warfare holding reserves and inspected chemical warfare defensive equipment across Australia and trained Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) members to pass on chemical defence techniques to other WAAF members. From September 1943, Flt Off Shelton was attached to Major F S (Freddie) Gorrill's Chemical Warfare Unit (CWU) at Innisfail, Qld, as RAAF Liaison Officer for the Headquarters Directorate of Armament. Her duties included charging mustard gas bombs, supervising armourers and assisting in CWU trials with RAAF munitions. In addition to her work at Brook Island, she supervised trial testing a Beaufort aircraft as to whether it was safe to fly a mustard gas contaminated plane and how much protection was required by the crew.