Military Hospital Requirements

From the Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser, 22nd January 1916.

COMFORTS FOR THE TROOPS.

The Mayoress of Reigate (Mrs. G. A. R. Ince) has been able to send the number of woollies required to France, viz., 100 mufflers and 100 pairs mittens.  She has now got a further requisition for the 31st to be sent to a military hospital, and the letter states that the things are very urgently needed. The requisition is:-20 dressing gowns, 25 helpless bed jackets, 25 nightingales, 25 pairs slippers, 12 pairs operation stockings.

Grey flannel and red flannel are preferred for the bed jackets, striped flannel for the nightingales, and the Mayoress appeals for materials to make the things, or the money to buy the material with.  A meeting of the ladies of the Clothing Committee was held yesterday (Thursday) afternoon to consider the desirability of starting a war workroom at the Buildings.  There is so much to be done that it is necessary to get people to come in and work. The requisitions will be continuous from now until the end of the war.

[The 100 mufflers and 100 pairs of mittens would have been a requisition from Sir Edward Ward, under the new scheme for collecting comforts for the troops.  For instance, here is a report in December 1915 of a requisition for mittens from the voluntary groups in Radnorshire.  I believe that military hospitals (as opposed to say Red Cross hospitals) were under the direct control of the War Office;  it seems from this report that the provision by volunteers of  'comforts' for the patients in military hospitals also came under Sir Edward Ward's direction.  Although as usual, some of the comforts seem necessities rather than luxuries.]