Brecon War Clothing Depot Revisited

From the Brecon & Radnor Express, 25th February 1915.

War Clothing Depot.

Miss de Winton has received letters re socks, one from Lord Glanusk at Aden, saying "Nearly all our socks are worn out, and the only ones we can get are rotten little merino thin things, which are no use for marching. Everything here is nearly double the price it is in India, and prices are going up." This speaks for itself of the need of socks, and Miss de Winton hopes wives and mothers will send out socks on their own by post and knit for the depot.

Letter No. 2 is from Quarter-Master-Sergeant Weaver Price, Motor Machine Service at Bisley, sending grateful thanks for 50 pairs of Welsh wool socks.  “We are loud in the praises of the socks.  It is quite impossible to buy anything approaching the serviceableness of the hand-made article.”  Miss de Winton has wool in stock, and wants 400 pairs of socks knitted every month.

[Lord Glanusk was Lord Lieutenant of Breconshire, and also commanded a battalion of the South Wales Borderers, which had arrived in Aden late in 1914.   It's interesting that merino socks were viewed as no use at all.  Of course, modern sock yarns often contain nylon and so wear well even if the wool content is merino.  

Miss de Winton has been writing regularly to the Brecon local newspapers, most recently here, asking for (or demanding) various items.  The wool offered to knitters was provided by the Breconshire War Fund, which had set up the War Clothing Depot at the start of the war. ]