Tuesday 25 October 2016

Entertaining the Troops in France


From the Huddersfield  Daily Examiner, 25th October 1916.


MISS LENA ASHWELL ON HER CONCERT EXPERIENCES IN FRANCE.

WHAT THE SOLDIERS WANT.


A meeting of the Huddersfield and District Women's Committee for Soldiers and Sailors, held at the Town Hall, yesterday afternoon, was addressed by Miss Lena Ashwell on her experiences with her concert parties in France.

The Mayoress (Mrs. Blamires), who presided, announced particulars of a forthcoming bazaar, a “Harrods Store and Covent Garden combined,” in aid of the funds of the committee.

Miss N. Lowe (treasurer) said that since the formation of the society they had received monetary gifts totalling £8,216, of which £3,526 had been raised by the Mayoress's Comforts Fund.  The expenditure amounted to £8,297, leaving a deficit of £81.

Mrs. Marshall (secretary) presented a report reviewing the work of the committee since its foundation.  Over 44,000 socks and 2,180 dressing gowns and a grand total of 199,647 articles had been sent out. (Applause.) They had received gifts of articles to the value of £8,098. The bandage room had supplied 43,894 bandages and pneumonia jackets, and the slipper department, which was started at Lindley had sent out 1,450 slippers. 10,703 shirts, 9,456 mufflers, and over 8,000 mittens had also been sent out.  Those figures, colossal as they were, did not represent the whole of the work that had been done, as so many districts were sending out their work themselves. (Applause.)
Brief reports were also given by Mrs. L. Demetriadi.

Miss L. Ashwell said that she at first had desired that the work of entertaining our troops in France should be done nationally.  But there was a tremendous prejudice against artists—the road that they must travel was felt to be very dangerous, and some people feared that when the artist came there was going to be trouble.  So the doors of the War Office were closed against her, and she despaired of ever sending out parties until she received an invitation to do so through the women's auxiliary of the Y.M.C.A.  The first party arrived in France early in February, 1915, and they were now sending out three parties per month.  The parties usually consisted of seven artists—a soprano, a contralto, a tenor, a bass, a violinist or a ‘celloist, an entertainer, and an accompanist.  Three concerts a day were given–one in the hospital at three in the afternoon and two in a camp, beginning at 5-30 and ending about 9-30.

GARDENS AND GOOD MUSIC. 

People at home had no conception of the horror, of the intense despair of it all; it made them laugh with pride, and then to curse at the horror of the thing, to see fine men going up to the line, and battered wrecks coming down.  Yet—the splendour of it!—the men marched up to the line with a laugh.  When did the Englishman go anywhere but with a smile?  Their laugh was not a silly laugh: it was a keenly intelligent laugh.  The English-man over there didn't want rot.  Anybody who said that the masses wanted the lowest class of amusement and did not want education was a liar. (Applause.) The men wanted only the very best.  She had taken to the soldiers “'Macbeth,” in spite of those who had prophesied disaster, and there could not have been a more keenly interested audience.  One could have heard a pin drop.  She had also played “The Twelve-Pound Look,” by Sir James Barrie.  A little serious, perhaps a little above the average intelligence, they might say, but her audience, composed of transport workers, saw every point, saw every subtlety, as well as any West End audience in London.  And everywhere they went they found gardens.  She had seen sweet peas growing beautifully where there seemed nothing but cinders and dust.  The soldier was extraordinarily successful in creating beautiful gardens where one would have thought nothing could grow—and where nothing could grow he would make beautiful patterns on the ground by means of coloured glass or painted stones.  Everywhere there was a real love of flowers, and a real inherent sense of beauty which was not generally supposed to be characteristic of the workers of this great nation.  She had been told by more than one commanding officer that there were more volunteers to return to the line after a visit to a base hospital by a concert party.  No medicine, no drug, did so much good as a concert party in giving back the men their bravery.  The soldier loved the violin, he adored the 'cello; he liked duets from opera, he was fond of the old ballads, and he loved Bach and Handel.  Could they realise what a concert, a few hours of normal life, meant to these men, after months and months of the sight of nothing but desolation and horror?  A few moments of beauty did so much, because beauty could always wipe out evil, and misery could always be kept away by healthy laughter.

BACK TO THE OLD STYLE SCENERY. 

Their theatres were sometimes rather crude.  She had played on a stage composed of tables; she had played “Macbeth” with a soap box as the grand throne in the hall of the Castle of Dunsinane, and Red Cross screens as scenery.  (Laughter.) But the thing was that it did all right; there was the soap box, they pretended it was a throne, and from that time it was a throne; there were screens, and they could easily pretend that there was a corridor.  It worked excellently, because her audience were intelligent, vital human beings, who needed entertainment, who had been starved of beauty. The most wonderful thing in the world was to hear the men cheer their thanks, and to see them marching to the line.  It was because they had thrown their whole lives into their task.  There was something more terrible than death, and that was to fail to live up to their ideals.

Concluding, she appealed for continued support.  They could not, she said, take any entertainment with a clear conscience, unless they had sent something for the entertainment of the men over there.  They had all hoped that there would not be another winter campaign, and the next winter would be the hardest of all.  It was the morale, the heart behind, that won the battle, and she wanted more concert parties to keep up their hearts.  She instanced how two men, one a doctor and the other a padre, had thanked her—by crying.  Their gratitude was so great and they had felt so deeply the necessity of music, of art, and of beauty. (Loud applause.)


Monday 24 October 2016

The Winter Campaign – Appeal for Comforts.


From The Times, Tuesday October 24, 1916.

THE WINTER CAMPAIGN.

AN APPEAL BY THE QUEEN FOR "COMFORTS."

We have received the following letter which the Queen has written, appealing for continued support for her Needlework Guild, which has done so much for the comfort of soldiers and sailors:—
Buckingham Palace, Oct. 24.
On the threshold of the third winter since the beginning of the war, I appeal to all those who have generously responded to my requests for work during the past two years not to relax their efforts in providing comforts for our soldiers and sailors.
Though applications from regiments and hospitals at home and abroad increase instead of diminish, and an almost unlimited number of things are needed if the Queen Mary's Needlework Guild is to meet all the demands made upon it.
As Sir Edward Ward has recently pointed out, the chief needs at the present moment are mittens, mufflers, helmets, socks, gloves, and cardigans; and my Guild is also being specially asked for pyjamas, day-shirts, bed-jackets, blankets, and sheets.
I wish to take this opportunity of thanking again the many workers in many lands who have so kindly contributed to the splendid total of 3,990,784 garments, which have been sent out in 26 months from Friary Court.
MARY R.

We are informed that of the 3,990,784 articles sent out by the Guild, about 650,000 have been supplied to regiments in France, 600,000 to hospitals at home, 1,750,000 to hospitals abroad, and the rest to the forces in Africa, the Allied Forces, prisoners in Germany, and various organizations for helping women and children at home. Of these articles, over 2,600,000 were bandages, splints, and other surgical requisites. The following are the numbers of “comforts” which have been supplied by the Guild up to October 21, and which bring the total to the figure mentioned in the Queen's letter:—


Bed-jackets
20,561
Jerseys
17,355
Pillows
13,417
Nightshirts
30,124
Belts
137,270
Nightingales
6,281
Blankets ..
8,650
Operation gowns
22,221
Cloth clothes and caps ..
9,048
Pillow-cases
31,884
Pyjamas
30,034
Comforters     ..
94,238
Socks
371,802
Day-shirts
116,044
Sheets
9,990
Pants
30,031
Slippers
11,517
Dressing-gowns
4,384
Towels
26,635
Handkerchiefs
93,530
Vests
35,438
Helmets       
44,240
Various
156,420

Friday 7 October 2016

Bad Language To A Lady Conductor.


From the Halifax Courier 7 October 1916.

BAD LANGUAGE TO A LADY CONDUCTOR.

John Dewhirst, 36, St. Paul's-road, Halifax, was summoned for using offensive language to a lady tram conductor on. Sept. 13.  Mr. W. H. Pollitt said that on Sept. 13 defendant got on a car at Mytholmroyd; and put a basket of fowls on the tram front.  He paid 2d. for his fare to Luddenden Foot.  A lady conductor told him she wanted 1d. for luggage.  He replied with offensive language, and would not pay.  She went for the driver, and defendant used offensive language to the driver, also to another driver who was called.

Mr. H. Boocock for the defence, pleading guilty, said the dispute arose about the penny.  She evidently thought it should be paid, and he didn't.  There was no disrespect intended to her.  Defendant was "a farmer sort of chap," and didn't know exactly what he was saying.  He was a respectable man, and had been in the employ of the Corporation a good number of years.
The Chairman said the Bench considered it a very serious case.  Lady conductors would have to be protected by the authorities.  It was very disgraceful on the part of a man to terrorise a girl who was simply discharging her duties in a proper manner.  They wished it to be thoroughly understood that the Bench would deal severely with cases of that kind.  In this instance, defendant would be fined £1, and 6s. costs.