The Telegraph Book of Readers' Letters from the Great War (14 page)
Read The Telegraph Book of Readers' Letters from the Great War Online
Authors: Gavin Fuller
It was opened yesterday, and the matron will be glad to show anyone over it who is interested in this work, especially if they feel like subscribing, even an armchair.
Yours faithfully,
Knutsford
Special Hospital for Officers, 10 Palace Green, Kensington, W.
13 January 1915
Appeal for Gifts by Queen Alexandra
SIR â The Field Force Fund, which has since its inception rendered such valuable assistance to numerous units of the Expeditionary Force at the front by sending out parcels of comforts (each parcel consisting of a shirt, jersey or cardigan, socks, muffler, mittens, pipe, cigarettes, chocolate, &c.) to the men, is a revival of the fund which carried out similar work with great success throughout the South African campaign, when upwards of 240,000 parcels in one year alone were despatched through its agency to the troops then in the field.
The aim of the fund is to provide these comforts especially to those regiments and units who have no special association of their own to look after their wants. Consignments of parcels are only sent in response to definite requests from commanding officers, so that any danger of overlapping and waste is avoided.
Whilst numerous units in the force already at the front are being regularly and efficiently supplied by their own associations, there are, as experience has shown, many where the assistance of the Field Force Fund is in great demand and is much appreciated. Already over 10,000 parcels have been despatched and received, and the number of requisitions (over 37,000) in the hands of the Field Force Fund largely exceeds at the present time the material at the fund's disposal to meet them.
Experience has shown beyond doubt that the regular provision of parcels of carefully selected articles helps largely to mitigate the hardships and maintain the health of the troops at the front. Apart, therefore, from its humane aspect, it cannot be too widely realised of what immense importance this form of assistance is in advancing the effective prosecution of the war.
The Field Force Fund will continue to respond punctually to all requests in so far as it is able to do so with the money and material placed at its disposal by the public. In this connection it should specially be borne in mind at this juncture that the need of assistance will in the near future be multiplied and expanded when the new Army arrives at the front.
These new battalions, only recently raised in the present great emergency, will not have the same advantages that their comrades already in the field possess, in the shape of local associations and historic tradition. The Field Force Fund are desirous of helping them in so far as they are enabled to do so, but the measure of the fund's assistance must entirely depend upon the amount of sustained public support on which they may be able to rely.
Gifts to the Field Force Fund may be made in money or in kind. For the former, which should be sent to the treasurer, Mr R. Upton, at 24a Hill Street, Knightsbridge, S.W., the fund appeals to the whole public. For the latter, which should be sent to the hon. secretary, Mrs Sclater, also at 24a Hill Street, Knightsbridge, S.W., it appeals to all associations and individuals at present engaged in making any articles of comfort for the troops at the front.
The directors of Harrods Stores have generously placed at the disposal of the fund their warehouses and such of their staff as may be necessary to deal with all the articles sent.
The need is great, and so also is the opportunity. All, rich and poor alike, are asked to give what they can for those who are giving their lives for the Empire.
Alexandra
Marlborough House
15 January 1915
SIR â I was much interested in reading your report of the meeting in connection with the proposal to provide bands for the troops, and I should be glad if you could mention in your columns that in Bournemouth a committee was formed, under the presidency of Miss Scott Murray, with the result that £400 has been subscribed, to supply all the regiments stationed in the district with drums, fifes and bugles. Also to another fund ladies and gentlemen have subscribed, to provide the engagement of one of the local bands to accompany the troops on marches out. For the latter purpose another £60 is still desired, as naturally the utility of the drums, fifes and bugles cannot be apparent until the men are able to practise on the instruments sufficiently.
I am sure I wish the proposals of the meeting every success.
Yours faithfully,
Dan Godfrey
Pavilion and Winter Gardens, Bournemouth
SIR â Would you allow me to suggest a suitable gift for our soldiers now in the trenches in Flanders, and standing for forty-eight hours at a time in mud and water up to their waists? Officers at the front have written to say that long fishing waders, similar to those worn by fishermen, would be most gratefully received, and would relieve the sufferings of our troops. Anyone having these waders to spare, or giving money to provide them, can either send the same to me here or forward the waders direct to the Expeditionary Force.
Yours faithfully,
W.S. Savile, Captain
Ven, Milborne Port, Somerset
18 January 1915
Proposed Battalion Funds
SIR â There are probably many of your readers of suitable position in a town or county who want to help the new Army in its efforts to get ready for the heavy task it will be faced with in a few months. Such persons of application can obtain full particulars of how battalion funds of considerable extent
for the battalions of the two Surrey regiments have enabled their officers to supplement the appliances for training supplied by Government, with great advantage to themselves, during the month or so which has elapsed since they had the fund, and how a similar fund can be raised in other counties and towns.
These battalions are without any of the county or territorial associations, or local resources, possessed by the units of the Regular and Territorial Army, and are fulfilling their duty of training themselves in camps far removed from the possibility of any such associations, unless set on foot by residents in the districts concerned.
The space of a letter would be too limited to enable me to explain exactly how such funds have been raised, and what is being done with them, but if anybody wants to help the gallant officers and men who have shown such marked patriotism at this time of national crisis, I shall be very pleased to send them full particulars.
Since we started the idea in Surrey and raised battalion funds for six of its service battalions, with the help of parents of officers and others of influence in such widely separated parts of the county, as Sir Charles Walpole, at Chobham, Dr Longstaffe, at Putney Heath, and Lady Scott, at Guildford, marked advantage has, according to their officers' reports, followed in various items, e.g., bayonet fighting, shooting on the short range, inter-trench communications, and other military and athletic exercises, though money has not been spent on anything the Government is likely to find within a
reasonable time. The idea has now spread into five other regimental districts, covering some thirty battalions.
Relations between the battalions and their districts where they were recruited have also commenced to be knitted and made closer, which will have results in ways it is not yet possible to foresee.
I remain, yours faithfully,
Philip B. Pilditch, J.P.
Bartropps, Weybridge, Surrey
19 January 1915
Huts and Motor Kitchens A Princess's Appeal
SIR â The generosity of the British public has enabled the YMCA to make a substantial beginning in France with its beneficent work of establishing recreation centres for the British troops. As rapidly as circumstances permit, the huts are being erected in convenient spots at the base camps for the comfort and advantage of the men, whether from the United Kingdom, the Colonies or the Indian Empire, who have already shown the greatest appreciation of what has been accomplished in this direction.
The Auxiliary Committee, of which I am President, has been formed to co-operate in the general scheme of the YMCA at the front and to organise helpful work in the various departments. Already several representatives our committee are at the British camps in France, as voluntary helpers without cost to the association. They have undertaken useful work, one of the features being the dispensing of refreshments at points of disembarkation and entrainment. They are cooperating in the management of huts, institutes, &c., of which some twenty are now in operation in France.
A valuable extension of these activities is now being organised by means of motor kitchens and tea and coffee trolleys, which will supply hot refreshments to the men, and will, we believe, prove a great boon at various points where soldiers congregate. The first of these motor kitchens has most kindly been placed at my disposal by the members of the Carlton Club, for the purpose of assisting our soldiers in France.