THE young woman who helped transform thousands of Lancashire mill girls into efficient Barrow producers of shells for the First World War needs has missed out on becoming an official hero – but may still win national recognition.

We called on readers to back the cause of Dorothee Pullinger to be added to the 16 sculptures in Scotland’s Hall of Heroes at The National Wallace Monument.

Miss Pullinger was the 20-year-old superintendent in charge of 7,000 women munitions workers at Vickers in Barrow and was later a Scottish car maker

After the votes were counted for the shortlisted 14 women, it was decided to honour the missionary Mary Slessor and Maggie Keswick Jencks, the co-founder of the Maggie’s Centres for cancer support.

Space in The Hall of Heroes limits the number and nature of commemorative displays but Stirling District Tourism is looking at ways to rearrange the exhibition space to allow further heroines and heroes to be introduced.

Information about Miss Pullinger and the other shortlisted women are being featured in the Hall or Heroes.

It already honours major figures like Robert Burns and John Knox - people who are recognised for helping to shape the history of their country.

Sculptures of the two winners will be the first women - and the first news faces in 100 years - to be added to the collection.

Miss Pullinger was among more than 200 remarkable women which were considered for the shortlist drawn up by a female-only selection panel.

She lived from 1894 to 1986 and received the MBE – aged just 26 - for her war work at Barrow.

A plaque recording her work in wartime Barrow can be seen on the Engine Gate at Vickers.

She was born in France and her father was the car designer Thomas Pullinger.

The family moved to Britain and Dorothée was educated in Loughborough.

By 1910 she started work as a draughtswoman at the Paisley works of Arrol-Johnston, a car manufacturer where her father was manager.

By the 1920s, she was back to Scotland and became manager of the Galloway Motors, a subsidiary of Arrol-Johnston, at its factory in Tongland, near Kirkcudbright.

She was also the driving force behind the Galloway Car – a vehicle made by women in south-west Scotland.

The Galloway is thought to be one of the first car manufactured with women specifically in mind.

The car company had two tennis courts on its roof for employees and an engineering college.

By the end of the 1920s tough trading conditions brought an end to the car factory.

Around 4,000 of the vehicles were made and one is on show in Glasgow's Riverside Museum.

In the Second World War, she managed 13 factories and was the only woman appointed to the Industrial Panel of the Ministry of Production.

A visit to the Barrow munitions works was granted to a representative of the Christian Science Monitor and his thoughts were reported in the Ulverston News on August 18 in 1917.

It noted that Barrow had sent 2.5 million shells in all sizes to the army and navy – up to 15inch diameter.

A “conservative estimate” put shipyard employment at 35,000.

He saw: “Unending masses of metal, endless rows of machines, uncountable piles of shells and a never-ending din.”

Mountings for howitzers were made in a new building at the yard.

The reporter noted: “It is an entirely new construction of steel and glass, flimsy in appearance but strong enough.

“It took only four months roughly to construct.”