Soap and the War

From the Brecon County Times, 18th May 1916.

Soap and the War.

We were looking at the charming picture reproduced elsewhere in our columns by the makers of Puritan Soap.

“Curious, isn't it,” said my friend, the munitions expert, “how far reaching are the ramifications of this great world-war. Every pound of Puritan Soap sold means that the end of the war is so much nearer.”

“How do you make that to be,” said I, for it seemed a somewhat far-fetched statement.
“It's true enough,” said my scientific friend.  “Every ton of olive oil used for making Puritan Soap gives a couple of cwts. of glycerine, the base of cordite. Cordite, as everybody knows, is the chief propellant explosive used by Army and Navy alike.  A ton of olive oil gives glycerine for a ton of cordite or thereabout.  Practically the whole of the glycerine produced in the manufacture of Puritan Olive Oil Soap is refined and distilled by Christr. Thomas & Bros. Ltd., the makers, and used for explosives manufacture.”

“So that the housewife who buys Puritan Soap is not only getting the best soap that money can buy, but is helping to give the Government more glycerine and to pile up the munitions that are going to give us a glorious victory.”

“Exactly so,” said my friend, the expert.

[cwt. is the abbreviation for hundredweight, or 112 pounds.]

Soap, Chewing Gum and the War on Dirt

From the Halifax Courier, 6th May 1916.

Pear's Soap

Wrigley's Chewing Gum

'Vim' scouring powder

[Most ads in newspapers made no reference to the war, but manufacturers of any product that could be sent to men at the front were keen to promote that idea in their ads.  And other ads, like the one for Vim,  imaginatively translated the war into a war on dirt. 

The Wrigley company was founded in the U.S. in  1891.  I don't know when Wrigley's chewing gum began to be sold in Britain,]   

Don't Forget Pears' Soap

From the Halifax Courier, 11th March 1916.

Text: Tommy's Postscript

The Censor always allows the postscript which so many letters from the Front now contain:--

 P.S. Don't forget more Pears' Soap in your next parcel.

Pears' Soap thoroughly cleanses and refreshes the skin and gives a feeling of exhilaration.

Send More Soap

From the Halifax Courier, 8th January 1916.

From the Halifax Courier, 15th January 1916.

[Steel helmets were not issued to the British Army until later in 1916, so the scene of the soldier in a trench using his cap as a writing desk is not entirely fanciful.]  

A Bar of Soap

From The Graphic, 6th November 1915.

Text: 

An Incident of the Trenches

Tommy -- Look here, boys; someone's dropped a cake of Pear's soap.  What a quick answer to my letter home of last night asking for some to be sent in the next parcel. Line up.  We must have it.  It'll do for the lot of us; and, by George! we need it.

They got it, and had the wash of their lives!

Pears' Soap is doing capital work at the front.  The boys give a cheer when they see it.  There is nothing like it for freshening up the skin and keeping it in healthy condition.  It is the most economical of toilet soaps, therefore always make a point of including Pears in your parcels.

[The British Army did not have steel helmets until 1916, so the depiction is to that extent realistic,  though it's hard to imagine that someone might have carelessly dropped a bar of soap in front of the trench. One of the men is wearing apparently a knitted wool cap (or possibly a cap-comforter) which seeems more practical trench wear than the peaked cap.]   
  

Soap in the Soldier's Home

From the Brecon & Radnor Express, 16th September 1915.

Text: In the Soldier's Home kept spick and span for the day when "he" returns triumphant, Puritan Soap is an ever-welcome guest.
Alike here and in thousands of other happy homes Puritan Soap is welcomed and loved because it is so gentle in use —so tender to the clothes, so pleasant to the hands that use it.
Puritan Soap is gentle because it contains olive oil — sweet olive oil of nature's own giving.
It is the olive oil in Puritan Soap which saves the clothes from wash-day wear and tear, and makes them, like itself, sweet, pure and fragrant.
That is why so many housewives say quite truly that Puritan Soap saves its cost every week in the clothes it saves.
Will you order Puritan Soap from your grocer, oilman or stores? It is sold in several sizes: a size for every need.
PURITAN SOAP is used in Britain's happiest homes
Made by Christr. Thomas & Bros., Ltd., Bristol, Soapmakers since 1745.

Send More Soap

From the Illustrated London News, 21st August 1915.

Text: Dear Susie, Received your letter & parcel quite safely. You are a brick!  Of course all the good things you sent - except your love! -  were shared with my chums and you can guess that we had a good time.  Best of all was next morning when we got a good wash with that Wright's Coal Tar Soap you sent. It's grand stuff that! makes you feel absolutely fit.  Tell all the other girls to send some, we shall soon use this.  Heaps of love.  Yours, Bob.

Sister Susie and Soap

From The Illustrated London News, 21st August 1915.

[Sister Susie, originally the main character in a comic song, had become a shorthand way of referring to the women left at home when their menfolk went to the Front.]   

Support your Friends at the Front

From the Illustrated London News, 17th July 1915.

Lifebuoy Soap

From the Halifax Courier, 5th June 1915.

Text: SAFEGUARDS. Just as the Navy is the Nation's safeguard, so  is Lifebuoy Soap the safeguard of health.  By reason of its wonderful antiseptic properties combined with its free cleansing  lather, Lifebuoy Soap safeguards health every time it is used.

MORE THAN SOAP - YET COSTS NO MORE.

[I remember Lifebuoy soap from the 1950s. It was a pinky-red colour and smelt of carbolic acid, which gave the antiseptic properties.  It is still made by Unilever, according to the Wikipedia article.

Many ads of the time promoted goods that would be useful to troops in the field, and by extension to the people at home - this is a different approach, in which the armed forces protecting the country are a metaphor for antiseptic protecting the body.] 

Hudson's Soap

From the Cleckheaton Advertiser and Spen Valley Times, 29th April 1915.

Text: Billeted with HUDSON'S

TOMMY is the first to appreciate a clean Billet, and the first to lend a hand to keep the Billet clean.  He is, you may be sure, QUITE AT HOME with Hudson's Soap.  The good old soap is always of Uniform quality, so Tommy is perfectly equipped with it.

A clean sweet-smelling wholesome soap. Hudson's ensures cleanliness with typical British Thoroughness.  Tommy and Hudson's will be busy this spring.

SPLENDID FOR WASHING UP AFTER MEALS.

IN PACKETS EVERYWHERE.

[I don't know whether Hudson's soap was specifically for washing up, or whether it was also intended for washing people (a 'toilet' soap).  Hudson's also made Rinso for washing clothes (see below), so presumably the soap advertised here was not intended for clothes washing - but the range of specialised cleaning products that we have now did not exist in 1915.] 

From the Halifax Courier, 13th March 1915. 

Text: Every housewife should seriously consider the saving in coal effected by the use of RINSO.

RINSO washes in cold water equally as well as less scientific preparations do in hot.   Thus the cost of maintaining the copper fire is avoided -- an overheated and unwholesome atmosphere is dispensed with.  Labour is saved, too, because you soak the clothes in RINSO and cold water overnight -- leave them soaking all the night -- Rinse and hang to dry in the morning.

 RINSO is the easy washer -- easy for the housewife -- easy for the wash.

[The copper fire was the fire under the copper, the tub for washing clothes.  Many households would only have one stove, for cooking, and the water for washing clothes would be heated there in pans, and transferred to the washing tub, but larger houses might have a separate laundry room. Our house, for instance, (built about 1906) had a built-in copper in the basement, with its own chimney.]  
.

Sunlight Soap

From the Cleckheaton Advertiser, 2nd April 1915.

Text:

In France you called this "Savon," Tommy dear!

And the meaning of the word is very clear.

What saved the shirt you have on?

Why, good old Sunlight Savon.

It's the SAVON that you SAVE ON - Tommy, dear!

£1,000 GUARANTEE OF PURITY ON EVERY BAR.