Crochet patterns

From Woman's Weekly, 23rd March 1918.

The Paper With The Best Crochet Patterns!

Instructions inside!

A LOVELY COSY-COVER.

The instructions for working this beautiful Tea-Cosy Design are so simple that anyone could follow them.  Even a beginner would have no difficulty in working this handsome piece of work.

A LITTLE BAG FOR YOUR SUGAR.

This little bag for carrying sugar would make a useful little gift for a girl friend.  Everyone uses them now when going to a restaurant, or a friend's house for tea.

[The tea-cosy cover featured in this post, after I had looked at the 1918 issues of Woman's Weekly in the British Library - we have a tea cosy made to this pattern in the Knitting & Crochet Guild collection.

Sugar was severely rationed by this time, so expecting hosts to provide sugar to go in cups of tea or coffee was evidently considered impolite. Presumably the sugar was in lumps, though the crochet was lined with silk.] 

The Women’s Royal Naval Service

From Woman’s Weekly, March 23rd, 1918.

THE WOMEN’S ROYAL NAVAL SERVICE

THE “WRENS.”

THE very latest war-work for girls is the Women’s Royal Naval Service.  The W. R. N. S. has already received a popular name, and everyone is calling it the "Wrens."  It looks as if it is to be a very popular corps, for Jack Tar is always such a favourite all the girls will want to work for him.
Some girls simply have no idea what work the "Wrens" will do.  One girl said it was no use her joining, for "she was such a bad sailor."  So, first of all, let me tell you all the work is on land, and there is no foreign work either.  All will work at home.  Some will be in London, others at the coast—especially the East, North-East, and South-East Coat.

IF YOU LIVE ON THE COAST. 
ONE chief point of the service is to recruit local women, so that they can live at home while at their work.  Of course, this will not always be possible, but it will be what the "Heads'' will always aim at.  It is a gain to the workers, as it is so much cheaper than boarding elsewhere, and more comfortable.

THE GIRL WHO IS WANTED. 
ANY girl over eighteen can join the corps if she is medically fit, and can give good references. What is wanted is the kind of girl who is really anxious to do her share of war-work—not the slacker.
There is a demand for every type of worker, the skilled and the unskilled—clerks, typists, telephone operators, and, of course, cooks.
Was there ever a time when the woman cook was so much in demand?  For the inner man must be looked after if the outer man is to do good work.
Motor drivers are also wanted (these must be well experienced).  Photographers, tracers, store-keepers; in fact, girls for all kinds of work that women can do to replace the rating.  All these will come as women in the ranks, the officers will act as directors, principals and section leaders.

THE GIRLS IN BLUE. 
THE first group of the W.R.N.S. to start work is London, and almost directly after the coast towns follow on, and before very long we shall all become quite familiar with the "girls in blue."  No girl will be taken who is already engaged in Government work unless she obtains special permission to leave.  The age is from eighteen upwards.  This should give a good opportunity to women who, while still good workers, are beyond the age limit for some kinds of war-work, provided the authorities think the applicant suitable, and she can pass the medical board.

THE PAY YOU MAY EXPECT. 
THE pay is different for the various kinds of work, so that one cannot state a general rule.  It may be 25s. a week, or it may be 40s.; the more highly skilled the work the better the pay.  If a girl is a good worker, she will be sure to gain promotion in course of time, if the war continues, as with each class or sub-class there a minimum and a maximum figure for the pay.
Arrangement-are made to lodge the women in hostels or billets, in the caw of those not living at home.  About 14s. a week will be deducted from their pay for board, lodging and washing.  Those who live at home will not have any deduction made from their pay.  If a girl is sick while at a hostel or billet, she will receive free medical attendance; if in her own home she will receive medical attendance under the National Insurance Act.
A fortnight's leave with pay will be given each year.  When a woman joins her travelling expenses will be paid, also if she is transferred to another place; and when her engagement is at an end, her expenses are refunded, so that in no way is a girl out of pocket.  The hours work  out about the usual war-hours, and as the work is so varied it is impossible to say if it is heavy or light, so much depends on the work and the worker; it certainly is nothing like the work in some branches of war-work.  A very neat but smart uniform is provided free—blue, of course.  It is of a really good material and well made.  It is very neat and business-like, but very smart.  There is a long, wide coat, and for officers a skirt and coat, and such a useful hat.  The coats have a typical sailor collar.  As it is the latest uniform, it has all the best points in it, and those who designed it may well feel satisfied with the result.  A "Wren" looks what she is, a useful war-worker, and quite a "Miss" Jack Tar.  The entire outfit is a very suitable one, and will please even the zealous war-worker—well, she is only a woman, after all, and does like to look nice, besides the photo of her and her uniform that must go off to the Front.

An officer is addressed as Ma'am.

GO TO THE LABOUR BUREAU. 
THE best place to get all particulars, and the most convenient, is the nearest Labour Bureau, or, as it is now called, the Employment Exchange.  If you are a skilled worker, enter for your own work.  If you have never done anything before, do not let that prevent you joining up; you will be useful somewhere at some job, and then you will have the satisfaction of helping and working for those who by day and by night guard our shores, and to whose constant vigil we owe the very food we eat.

Ministry Of Food: Supplementary Rations For Heavy Workers.

From the Halifax Courier, 23rd March 1918.

MINISTRY OF FOOD.

SUPPLEMENTARY RATIONS FOR HEAVY WORKERS.

As soon as supplies are available a Supplementary Ration (of meat other than Butcher’s meat and pork) will be allowed to heavy workers.  To obtain a Supplementary Card for this ration workpeople must fill up a form of application.

Workpeople desiring to make application should apply accordingly to their employers for the necessary forms which must be correctly filled up and handed back to the employers.
Those not able to obtain forms though their employers, should apply to the Labour Exchange.

The Supplementary Ration is only for persons on HEAVY MANUAL WORK.  It will not apply to men and women in professional and commercial occupations, office staff, clerks, commercial travellers, dealers, shop assistants, messengers, indoor domestic servants, and others engaged in similar occupations.

Women engaged on ordinary factory work, whether munitions or other work not involving exceptional physical exertion or exposure to weather should not apply.

A workman must not fill up more than one form of application whether obtained here or elsewhere or attempt to obtain more than one Supplementary Card.

A subsequent announcement will be made as to the place and method of issuing Supplementary Cards and as to the date when additional rations will begin.  This will not be before April 7th.

By Order
PERCY SAUNDERS, Executive Officer,
Halifax Food Office, 16th March, 1918.

Saving Daylight

From the Halifax Courier, 23rd March 1918.

SAVING DAYLIGHT AND COAL

Summer-time arrangements:--
1916 – May 21 to October 1.
1917 – April 8 to September 17.
1918 – March 24 to September 29.

Most people in the light of experience, will advance their watches and clocks this evening (rather than at two o’clock to-morrow morning) and sacrifice an hour (which shall be repaid without interest at the end of September) of relaxation or of peaceful sleep.  There will be a few who will not welcome the change.  For a little time the early-morning workers will be inconvenienced, for the light at five or six a.m. will be similar to the conditions of late February or early March, but the long evenings will be appreciated at once.  No class will relish them more than those who are busy with the soil, for up to now it has been impossible to use the spade after the normal work of the day, and the weeks immediately upon us are of vital importance in preparing the ground for the crops which are to do so much to relieve the food situation this year.

Apart from what may be termed the social benefits of Summer-time, it has been proved conclusively that the arrangements effect a great saving in the national coal bill.  But the Coal Controller asks for more.  On his behalf Sir Albert Stanley, President of the Board of Trade, has forecasted many drastic changes which will have a far-reaching effect throughout the country.  For the present, the Southern part of England (the line is drawn from the Wash to the Bristol Channel) is most affected, this area being most distant from the coal fields and the combing-out of the mines and transport difficulties on land and sea having increased.  Gas and electricity users will be restricted to two-thirds of the quantities used last year, and the power stations supplying tramways and electric railways will be rationed. 

These restrictions are in addition to those applying to the whole country.  Thus there is to be no shop-window lighting.  With Summer-time at hand, that will not be a very serious matter, for early closing is very general, but it would be a serious proposition in the winter months.  Places of amusement are not to open before 1.30 and must close by 10.30.  In these parts that will make little difference.  Nor will the ban on hot meals in public eating places before 5 a.m. or after 9.30 p.m.  It is London that will feel these restrictions — London, which more than any other place in Britain, is a city of late nights.  Here, the great majority of people get to work early and are home in good time; there, the day begins later and ends correspondingly.  It would seem, then, that London will have to make some daylight saving rules for itself in addition to the enforcements of the Summer-time Act. 

It is through the threat of coal rationing for “a great part of England” and through a reduced train service “in the very near future” that the country as a whole will be most affected. The coal system would be based upon what London has been experiencing for a considerable time, whilst in the Provinces we have suffered little.  The reduction of domestic supplies by 25 per cent. is forecasted.  As for the trains, the passenger traffic is to be curtailed, and the running is likely to be slower.  Thus the prospects of holiday travel are gloomy.

All these things point clearly enough to the shortage of labour and to the growing scarcity of essential materials.  Considering the length of the war we still have a wonderful degree of comfort, but 1918 is obviously to be a severe test of patience and nerves.

[The 'combing-out' in the coal mines was the reduction in the number of miners because they were needed for military service instead.] 

The Effect of the Women’s Vote

From the Illustrated London News, 23rd March 1918.

LADIES' PAGE.

MR. ASQUITH has, very naturally, expressed his full assurance that a large proportion of the new women voters will ally themselves with the Liberal Party.  Very likely he is right, for the curious franchise qualification devised for women is the neatest possible arrangement for minimising any special results from their votes.  Five out of every six of the new female electorate are qualified to vote merely as the wives of male electors; while the independent, self-supporting women, by the refusal to them of a lodger and service franchise, will be mainly still kept from the polls.  Now it is only reasonable to anticipate that most wives will vote, notwithstanding the secrecy of the ballot, under their husbands' influence and direction.  As Mrs. Seddon, wife of the famous Premier of New Zealand, said to me when I asked her if the wife's vote there had tended to cause "discord in the family"—which was a favourite bugbear of past discussions—"We find," said Mrs. Seddon, "that there is very apt to be a family vote.  When a husband and father is all that he ought to be, not only his wife, but his sons and daughters too, are likely to think as he does, and all go to vote on the same side."  The wife's vote, especially when she owes her possession of the right entirely to being her husband's wife, must be, in short, much of the nature of the old "faggot votes."  This is inevitably the case.

When the Married Woman's Property Act was under discussion, a great Judge said that he believed it would make no difference, for there hardly existed wives who could not be "either kissed or kicked" out of their money!  This may, at any rate, be the case with the wife's vote.  Indeed, wives will frequently even regard the vote, coming to them solely because they are their husbands' wives, as something over which a sort of marital right of control justly exists.  Lawyers call the jewels with which a man supplies his wife "paraphernalia"—not as her own actual property, to dispose of in her lifetime and to bequeath at her death as she wills, but as still the husband's legal possession, which the lady may call her own, but which she only has and wears at his pleasure and for his honour and glory.  The vote, coming in the same way, will be morally regarded by many dutiful wives, and perforce by others under pressure from masterful husbands, as "paraphernalia."  Then, political ignorance and irresponsibility about politics have been hitherto cultivated in women; is it reasonable to expect a generation brought up under that influence to develop initiative and courageous independence?  Or is it not probable (as it is, in fact, true) that the average wife will say that her husband understands such matters more fully than she does, and that she had better simply adopt his opinions and act by his directions?  Such was, no doubt, the expectation with which the vote has been given to wives and refused to a large proportion of the self-dependent women.  We must not look for any vast immediate results, therefore, from the enfranchisement of five million married women.  Still, evolution can be very rapid, and it may prove wonderfully soon that wives will gain individual judgment and conscience in the use of their new power in the State. 

A Village Communal Kitchen

From the Yorkshire Evening Post, 19th March 1918.

A VILLAGE COMMUNAL KITCHEN.

SIR MARK SYKES' EXPERIMENT AT SLEDMERE.

With characteristic thoroughness Colonel Sir Mark Sykes, has adapted the communal kitchen plan to rural needs, and on his Sledmere estate, yesterday, inaugurated the first venture of the kind outside urban districts.

Housed in a rifle range which Sir Mark had built before the war, the Sledmere kitchen serves not only the villagers, but the promoter and his family, his agent, the vicar— everybody in fact in the parish.  The effect is that with a collective use of meat coupons full value is derived from the rations.  In all, about six hundred people benefit under the scheme.

There are paid assistants, with expert knowledge, as well as voluntary workers, and not only substance but variety is aimed at in the arrangement of the menus.  Particular attention is being paid to the needs of the children, many of whom have to travel a mile or two to school from the outlying farms and homesteads.

One little maid, yesterday, dissolved in tears at the prospect of the stern attentions of the Food Controller, because she could not consume all the food set before her.  At the other end of the scale, a farm labourer of the generous Yorkshire type, declared, after a hearty dinner, that he felt like a toad with dropsy!  Evidently, the rations do not err on the side of scantiness.

No meals are served on Sundays, but a double portion can be had on Saturdays, so that there will be little trouble in preparing the Sunday dinner.  The experiment in this remote country district will be watched with interest by many rural areas, and a much wider development of the idea than was expected when communal kitchens were first opened may well be in prospect.

WEAKER BEER.

It is confidently asserted by persons closely connected with the brewing industry (says the "Daily Telegraph") that there will be further Government restrictions very shortly with regard to the strength of beer.  The proposal, it is stated is to reduce the specific gravity from 1036 the figure fixed for war-time when the strength was last lowered, to 1030.  The brewing standard of specific gravity in normal tunes is 1055.  The reason given for the contemplated change is that by reducing the gravity to 1030 something like 200,000 quarters of barley could be diverted from the brewers to the bakers.  If the anticipations in the trade are realised all brewers will have to come into line, and the standard, so far as specific gravity is concerned, will be the same everywhere.

------

The Ministry of Food decline to include brain workers amongst those who are eligible for the supplementary meat ration, because they declare scientific opinion is unanimous that a man does not need any more food because he works with his brain than he would if he were not working!

[Sledmere is in  Easy Yorkshire.  The house is open to the public, and is still lived in by the Sykes family.  

It's not quite clear how the communal kitchen worked - I presume that participants had to pay for their meals, unless Sir Mark was extremely generous, and wouldn't have had much choice in the matter once they had given up their coupons. It does sound an interesting idea, though.

Beer: I think a quarter of barley means a quarter of a hundredweight, or 28 lb. (12.7kg.)]

A Day in the Life of a Girl Army Pay Clerk

From Woman’s Weekly, 16th March 1918.

A DAY IN MY LIFE.

The Girl Army Pay Clerk Tells Her Experiences.

THERE is an old saying in the Army that soldiering is made up of good times and bad ones, and the life of a girl clerk in the Army Pay Corps may be summed up similarly, with the addition , that the pay is seldom exceptionally good.

The work is to keep accounts, do ledger work, filing and indexing.  Passing an easy test is all that is required to gain her this position.  She begins at a salary of eighteen shillings a week, and rises to thirty shillings.

Her hours are from 9 a. m. to 6.15 p.m., with an hour for dinner and a quarter of an hour for tea; and on Saturdays from 9 to 12.  She works according to Army regulations, and if she stops away without producing a doctor's certificate. her pay is stopped for the hours she is absent.

I remember last Christmas, before I knew of this rule, I was persuaded by a well-meaning hostess to stay over Boxing-night.  This meant that, instead of arriving at the office punctually at nine o'clock, the morning train would not reach London until 11 o'clock.

On my arrival the supervisor said the major wanted to see me, and I was then informed that, by the rules and regulations of the Army, all my Christmas pay had been forfeited, exactly as a soldier's pay would have been stopped.

The life is right for the girl who has just left school and who lives at home; or for the woman who, not having had any experience of office work, wishes to "do her bit," to help the country, and is not dependent on the salary she may command.  The business girl of experience, however, generally finds a better-paid post, for in those days one can hardly do more than exist on 30s. if bed, and board have to be paid for.

Still, the few months I spent in the Army Pay Corp were happy ones.  Previous to this I had been a mother's help.  I chose this way of earning my living because, though I was fairly well educated, I had neither the time or money to take up shorthand or typing to make myself proficient as a clerk.
The Army Pay Corps demands neither of these accomplishments, and the training I received there, working my way to the head of the room, enabled me to get a well-paid post in an office.

The work of the girl in the Army Pay Corps brings home to her continually the tragedy of war.  The only bright visitors are the men home on leave, who make the office their first calling place to collect their leave-money.

TEN DAYS' LEAVE.

THESE boys, with the mud of Flanders still upon their coats and boots, are proverbially cheery, but a broader smile is on their faces when they call on us—the smile of anticipation of the good times they mean to crowd into their ten days' leave.

Other visitors, who call to collect or see the accounts of their dear lost ones, carry the tragedy of their sorrow on their faces.  But even here sometimes the visit has a happy ending.

A JOYOUS REUNION.

I REMEMBER one day an old lady called to go through her boy’s accounts.  He had been reported killed.  She was -heartbroken and her sorrow was pitiful to witness.  After hunting through the files, someone remembered that this particular account had been sent for by another department.  A messenger was sent for it, and came back with the joyful news that, not only was the record of the boy's death a mistake, but the boy himself was actually in the office at that moment, claiming his account.

He had no knowledge that he had been reported killed, and you can imagine the joy of the reunion.  Never shall I forget the look of joy and thankfulness on that dear old mother's face as she and her boy passed out.

Many a woman now occupying a good position owes it to the training she received in the Army Pay Corps, and if the wages had been better I should-not have left.

[One of a series of Woman's Weekly articles about new job opportunities for women brought by the war.  They seem to be honest about the good points and bad points of the jobs - here the author of the article is very clear that the pay is not enough to live on by itself, but that being a pay clerk could be useful experience for some women.]