Christmas 1914 - business as usual and charitable appeals

Amid the welter of commercially motivated advertisements for Christmas gifts and seasonal treats, could be found others which, in their appeal for money to provide comforts and cheer to the men serving in the forces, reflected the desire of many ordinary people to mark this first Christmas of the war, as one of particular importance. The habit of charitable giving, nurtured in the traditions of Victorian philanthropy, was to find ample expression during the First World War in the thousands of appeal funds, which were set up to aid every conceivable cause. But perhaps the most memorable of these was the Christmas Gift Fund launched on 14 October 1914, by Princess Mary; a fund, which was to inspire the creation of one of the most enduring mementos of the First World War - the Princess Mary's Gift Box.

HRH Princess Mary with General Grant, during the inspection of the Coldstream Guards married quarters, at Wellington Barracks (1917) Q66239

Princess Mary:
The third child and only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary, HRH The Princess Victoria Alexandra Alice Mary was just 17 when war broke out and the Fund to which she lent her name was the first great national cause with which she became associated.

Her original intention had been to pay, out of her private allowance, for a personal gift to each soldier and sailor. This was deemed impracticable and a proposal was made that she lend her name to a public fund, which would raise the necessary monies to provide the gift. From the outset the young Princess took a deep personal interest in the work of the Fund. She was present at the inaugural meeting held at the Ritz Hotel on 14 October and on the following day, Buckingham Palace released a letter, signed by the Princess, explaining the purpose of the Fund. The charm and sincerity of her appeal were irresistible:

"I want you now to help me to send a Christmas present from the whole of the nation to every sailor afloat and every soldier at the front. I am sure that we should all be happier to feel that we had helped to send our little token of love and sympathy on Christmas morning, something that would be useful and of permanent value, and the making of which may be the means of providing employment in trades adversely affected by the war. Could there be anything more likely to hearten them in their struggle than a present received straight from home on Christmas Day?

Please will you help me?"

Implementation - the General Committee and the Executive Committee

In order to administer the Fund a General Committee was established which included the Prime Minister, various high officers of state and armed services, the High Commissioners for the Dominions as well as notable industrialists and bankers. The bulk of the work was however done by a smaller Executive Committee, established to give effect to the Princess's wishes. Chaired by the Duke of Devonshire, with Rowland Berkeley as Honorary Secretary and Lord Revelstoke as Treasurer, none of its members could have foreseen at the outset that their charitable work would occupy them on and off for the best part of the next six years.

The Executive Committee wrestled with not only decisions on what form the gift would take (an embossed brass box and contents) and criteria for eligibility but also the problems of producing sufficient quantities to provide individual presents for a substantial, but to begin with, undefined number of potential recipients.

Eligibility for the Christmas gifts; numbers and costings
The Executive Committee's first priority was to decide who would qualify for the gift, taking into account Princess Mary's express wish that 'every sailor afloat and every soldier at the front' should have the present. The criteria eventually agreed upon were that all sailors serving under the command of Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, and all soldiers under the command of Field Marshal Sir John French should receive the gift.

The Admiralty's representative on the Committee, Captain Cecil Foley Lambert RN, estimated that about 145,000 men (including Royal Marines) would qualify. General Sir Sidney Seldon Long CB (representing the Quartermaster General) calculated that, including all officers and men and the Indian Contingent, the figure for the Army was in the region of 350,000. The Committee calculated that between £55,000 - £60,000 would be needed to cover the cost of the total number of nearly 500,000 presents. As time was short, the Committee, confident in the generosity of the British public, acted swiftly and placed an order for the embossed brass boxes.

The Gift Box - production problems

Designed by Messrs Adshead and Ramsay, the embossed brass box formed the principal feature of the gift. But limited production of such items in the immediate pre-war period however meant that the Committee encountered quite considerable reluctance on the part of manufacturers to undertake the work. Eventually four firms agreed to co-operate, and contracts were let for 498,000 boxes at a cost of 6¼d per box. The principal production problem stemmed from difficulties in the supply of raw materials. The firms, having undertaken to obtain the brass strip, in fact experienced real difficulty obtaining the material, so much so that at one point the whole scheme faced breakdown. As a consequence the Committee agreed to undertake strip supply direct to the box makers.

Dies for the embossed brass box and proof box. These together with a complete set of the gifts sent out by the Fund, were presented to the Imperial War Museum in 1920. Following the winding up of the Fund, the Secretary, Rowland Berkeley, handed over the records to the Museum and they now form part of the Women's Work Collection, administered by the Department of Printed Books (MH 30526)

A manager of brass supply was engaged, contracts let and a warehouse opened in Birmingham as a collection and distribution point. But the Committee's efforts were not noticeably more successful than the makers, and in the end all the original contracts were abandoned due to the metal suppliers failing to fulfil their obligations. Enough brass was obtained for the initial despatch of gifts, though, with the later expansion of the scheme the Committee had to look to the USA to make good the shortfall. Ironically, the bulk of the brass strip supplied under this arrangement went down with RMS Lusitania when she was torpedoed on 7 May 1915. The problems over the supply of brass plagued the Committee throughout the life of the scheme.

Fund raising:
In contrast, raising money for the scheme proved a great success and on 18 October 1914 the 'Sunday Times' reporting on the splendid response to the initial request for help, published a long list of well-known names of folk who had already donated money. On the second meeting of the Committee, 20 October, Berkeley was able to report that Fund contributions stood at just over £12,000. A week later this figure had risen to £31,000. The total eventually subscribed amounted to £162,591 12s 5d, most of this coming from thousands of small gifts sent by ordinary people from all parts of the United Kingdom. A notable factor in this success was the publicity campaign organised to great effect by Hedley le Bas.

Fund raising

Raising money for the scheme proved a great success and on 18 October 1914 the 'Sunday Times' reporting on the splendid response to the initial request for help, published a long list of well-known names of folk who had already donated money. On the second meeting of the Committee, 20 October, Berkeley was able to report that Fund contributions stood at just over £12,000. A week later this figure had risen to £31,000. The total eventually subscribed amounted to £162,591 12s 5d, most of this coming from thousands of small gifts sent by ordinary people from all parts of the United Kingdom. A notable factor in this success was the publicity campaign organised to great effect by Hedley le Bas.

Le Bas's publicity campaign:
Le Bas reported on 27 October that 39,200 appeals had gone out by post. In addition to those sent to private individuals he also sent 7,000 specifically directed at 'those who kept more [than] five servants', 1,500 to social clubs, 1,500 to golf clubs, 1,600 to schools and 2,600 to Masonic Lodges. Although collection boxes were also sanctioned for places like shops, hotels and the theatres the Committee came down firmly against street collections.

Le Bas despatched 12,000 appeals to commercial organisations, making sure that most of these were directed at firms 'benefiting by contracts for war supplies'. He also targeted specific areas, sending out 18,000 appeals to addresses in Kent and Hampshire, counties in which there were large concentrations of troops. This proved most productive and with the Committee's agreement sent out a further 500,000 appeals to other counties in two stages in November.

The Committee recognised the need to justify their efforts, beyond simply relying on the obvious goodwill the Fund engendered and the Duke of Devonshire highlighted the positive indirect social consequences of the Gift Fund in a letter, dated 25 November to 'The Morning Post':

"In subscribing to Her Royal Highness's fund the public have the satisfaction of knowing that they are not only contributing to the present itself but are affording much-needed relief in industries which are suffering in the war."

The Christmas Gifts

The embossed brass box (MH 30529)

It was anticipated that the majority of eligible recipients would receive an embossed brass box, one ounce of pipe tobacco, twenty cigarettes, a pipe, a tinder lighter, Christmas card and photograph but quite early on Rowland Berkeley reported that he had received strong representations that an alternative gift should be made available for non-smokers. After some discussion the Committee agreed that non-smokers should be regarded as a special group and decreed that they should receive the brass box, a packet of acid tablets, a khaki writing case containing pencil, paper and envelopes together with the Christmas card and photograph of the Princess.

The smokers' Gift (MH 30527)

The non-smokers' Gift (MH 30528)

The Committee was also obliged to consider the tastes of other minority groups and it was recognised that if the dietary rules of various religious groups were to be respected, changes would have to be made in the gifts intended for Indian troops. In due course, 'The India Committee' (comprising 5 senior Army officers with great experience of working with Indian soldiers) came up with the solution. The Gurkhas were to receive the same gift as the British troops; Sikhs the box filled with sugar candy, a tin box of spices and the Christmas card; all other Indian troops, the box with a packet of cigarettes and sugar candy, a tin box of spices and the card. Authorised camp followers, grouped under the title of 'Bhistis' were to receive a tin box of spices and the card.

The Committee had also to consider the appropriate contents for the gift to members of various military nursing services. The smokers' and non-smokers' gifts were both deemed unacceptable for nurses at the front in France who were instead offered the box, a packet of chocolate and the card.

Production problems and substitute gifts

On 17 November the Committee approved the letting of the remaining contracts for the initial order of the tinder lighters, cigarettes, tobacco and Christmas cards for the first 500,000 gifts. Asprey & Co Ltd were to supply half a million tinder lighters at 5½d each. De La Rue & Co 350,000 Christmas cards at 25/- per thousand., Harrods Ltd (together with seven other firms) 483,875 pipes at a total cost of £12,340 11s 5d, while four tobacco firms and cigarette manufacturers between them supplied 44,840 lbs of tobacco and 13,050,000 cigarettes at a total cost of £10,722 17s 5d. In actuality, although some tinder lighters were obtained, Asprey were unable to provide the agreed requisite number. This placed the Committee in a quandary; even if troops in the trenches on Christmas Day had first call on a very limited supply, there were still not enough to go round. The Committee resolved the problem by hurriedly buying in an assortment of substitute gifts: bullet pencil cases, tobacco pouches, shaving brushes, combs, pencil cases with packets of postcards, knives, scissors, cigarette cases and purses. Those sailors who should also have received the lighter as part of their gift, were given instead, a handsome bullet pencil in a silver cartridge case which bore Princess Mary's monogram.

By the end of November it became clear that a surplus of £37,000 had accrued to the Fund's account. This sum allowed for an extension of the scheme so that every man 'wearing the King's uniform on Christmas Day 1914' would eventually receive a gift from the Princess's Fund. This widening of eligibility to an estimated figure of 2,620,019 meant that it would be impossible for the Committee to arrange for the manufacture, supply and entire distribution on 25th December. It was therefore decided to prioritise by dividing potential recipients into three categories or classes.

The three Classes:
Class A: comprised the Navy, including minesweepers and dockyard officials, and troops at the Front in France. Also, the wounded in hospitals and men on furlough, prisoners and men interned (for whom the gift was reserved), members of the French Mission with the Expeditionary Force, nurses at the Front in France and the widows or parents of those who had been killed. Members of this class were to receive the gift on or near Christmas Day.
Class B: all British, Colonial and Indian troops serving outside the British Isles (but exclusive of those provided for in Class A).
Class C: all troops in the British Isles

Distribution:
Berkeley reported at the meeting of 8 December that 220,000 gifts for the Army and 150,000 for the Navy would be ready for delivery on Saturday 12 December. The packing, by Army personnel, was carried out at the Army Depot at Deptford - where the bulk of the goods had been delivered.

Detail of box lid

The Princess's gifts, and the Christmas card sent from the King and Queen to each man and woman serving in the forces added to an already enormous quantity of letters and parcels in the two weeks prior to Christmas and imposed a great strain on the Army administrative and postal services. There were some adverse comments on the difficulties posed by the gift's distribution but on the whole the boxes were very much appreciated by all recipients.

One indication of the special regard the box was held is evidenced by the fact that though plenty of tobacco and cigarettes were consumed, and the pipes smoked, a great many men carefully repacked their presents and sent them home to their wives and families.

After the delivery of the Class A gifts the Committee met on 15 January 1915 to decide on the best means of supplying and distributing the gifts for those in Classes B and C. The main problem lay in the sheer numbers of British and Imperial forces involved, the total being estimated at 1,803,147. Resolved to simplify procedures, in the light of experience, the Committee abandoned their commitment to tackling the dietary and religious differences of so large a number of individuals. They announced that the gift would now be given without reference to race or rank, and settled on the brass box, a New Year's card and a pencil.

At a meeting on 26 January Berkeley divulged the final figures for the distribution, which had taken place on Christmas Day. 355,716 gifts had gone to the British Expeditionary Force, 66,168 to the men at home either on furlough or sick leave, 4,600 to the French Mission to the BEF and 1,390 to members of the various army nursing services, making a grand total of 426,724 gifts. At this same meeting Princess Mary was presented with a special version of the gift box in silver gilt, the lid of which was inscribed with the names of the members of the Executive Committee.

With the administrative work of the Committee now over, since the distribution of the remaining gifts, had been devolved on the various service authorities, Rowland Berkeley remained as Honorary Secretary of the Fund until 1919, after which it was wound up. The sum remaining, after all the Fund's liabilities had been discharged, was eventually transferred to Queen Mary's Maternity Home, founded by the Queen for the benefit of the wives and infants of sailors, soldiers and airmen of the newly formed Royal Air Force.