Salute Her

Salute Her UK is a strong voice advocating for a holistic, compassionate continuum of services, treatment and care for our women veterans, families, care givers and care providers. 

The charity was founded by Forward Assist CEO Tony Wright. Many years ago he realised that women veterans were less likely to access service charities. In response, he created projects within Forward Assist that were exclusively designed for women. 

Salute Her UK works to improve the lives of UK women veterans by addressing the distinct and intersectional needs of women veterans. We highlight the unique and often unrecognised challenges facing women veterans both during and after service. For example, issues regarding gender, age, social class, race, disability and sexual orientation. We do this by providing trauma informed therapy to support women veterans with lived experience of sexual assault and associated trauma. We regularly consult with women veterans so that our services are needs led and person centred. We conduct research, share best practice, inform and educate, raise awareness, deliver training and reach out to those in need. 

In 2021, there were 16,740 women serving in the UK armed forces. This equates to approximately 11% of the serving population. Yet, UK women veterans remain a hidden, invisible and marginalised population. Salute Her UK research has shown that many do not identify with the term ‘veteran’ and are often overlooked by the public and media when it comes to celebrating or recognising their service, contribution, or sacrifice. In partnership with Baseline Research, the Salute Her UK team trained a core group of women veterans in the principles of ethnographic research. Over the course of 12 months, 100 women were interviewed by their peers and all shared their lived experience before, during and after military service. The reports can be downloaded here.