The Marylebone War Supply Depot

This article comes from the British Nursing Journal dated 7th August 1915.

The Central Depot for all surgical supplies for the Queen Mary’s Needlework Guild was at St. Marylebone War Hospital in London. We are given here an interesting insight into the working of the depot by the correspondent.

In 1915 £1 for a Dundee Cake was a very high price. In April 1915 the weekly budget for a middle class family for a weekly supply of cakes, fruit and pickle as 5 shillings. Taking into account that Afternoon tea with a variety of cakes was still the normal practice of most families.

“THE MARYLEBONE WAR SUPPLY DEPOT.

Anyone accepting the invitation of the St. Marylebone War Hospital Supply Depot, 2, Cavendish Square, W., displayed in large letters over its portico, to “Come and See,” will find the beautiful house (generously put at the disposal of the Committee by the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres), a hive of industry; in which, under the direction of the Hon. Organizer, Miss Ethel McCaul; R.R.C., much willing voluntary help is being utilized to do valuable work for the comfort of the sick and wounded, the object of the Depot being to supply at home and abroad surgical dressings, bandages and general hospital requirements, so urgently needed at the present time.

Her Majesty‘ the Queen recently paid it a visit, and was so pleased with what she then saw, that it is now the Central Depot of the Surgical Branch of Queen Mary’s Needlework Guild; and the Depots in the country work from patterns supplied from this centre, so that any demand from France can be quickly met. Miss McCaul and the Heads of Departments are distinguished by close-fitting coats, dove-grey in colour; and her “runners,” known as the “Bluebirds,” wear a broad blue band of ribbon passing over the right shoulder and joined, below the waist, on the opposite side. The overseers in the various rooms wear a scarlet band round the left arm, with a white “0” embroidered upon it. There are also workers told off to show visitors round, who wear a broad scarlet ribbon over the shoulder and meeting under the opposite arm, who are known as “scarlet runners ’’ ; while those connected with the tea-room have a distinctive “T” embroidered on the ribbon.

The running expenses of the Depot are covered by a weekly subscription of one shilling from the voluntary workers, so that the whole of any donation received is solely devoted to the purchase of material required for making the supplies.

When a representative of this Journal recently visited the Depot, the whole of the energies of the staff were bent on fulfilling a request from the War Office for a quarter-of-a-million pockets for respirators. Each man at present carries one round his neck, but the pocket will enable him to keep one in reserve. It is made of khaki waterproof lining; supplied from the War Office Clothing Department at Pimlico. These flat pockets are supplied so that the men can sew them on to their uniforms. At the top are two button-holes; and tacked on at the side are two buttons, to be stitched on to the tunic. Each pocket, including button-holes, takes an average worker fifteen minutes to make, but in one room is a fascinating button-hole machine, which makes twelve buttonholes in five minutes ; this, of course, considerably accelerates matters. In one room, one saw twenty pockets with beautifully worked button holes made by an old lady of eighty-four, anxious to do her bit.

In the bandage room, for the production of all forms of surgical bandages, some very interesting specimens of the Robertson-Lawson many-tail bandages were on view. Mrs. Robertson-Lawson, by whom they were designed, was trained and has recently been working as Sister at St. Thomas’ Hospital. She found that for bad hip cases the application of a spica bandage necessitating unnecessary, and painful movement, was quite unsuitable, and so designed a shaped many-tail bandage, which proved quite a success, the dressing being easily and comfortably changed, and the back being quite accessible for care. Mrs. Robertson-Lawson kindly demonstrated the application of this bandage, as well of a shaped shoulder one. Both are made of white flannelette (non-flam), which is easily washed. Any regular Military Hospital can be supplied with patterns on application.

The Departments include the surgical dressings room, the splint room, the moss and pine dressing room, the needlework room, where dressing gowns, bed jackets, flannel shirts, pajamas, night shirts, and other garments are made, the slipper room, where slippers of all sorts and sizes for invalids are fashioned, the linen room where old linen is sorted, cut out, and re-made to the best advantage. Thus from sheets are made draw sheets, operation table sheets, tray cloths, feeders, towels, handkerchiefs, fomentation wringers, and dressings. From old bath towels, small towels, and washing gloves; from chintz, soldiers’ bags; from blankets, hot water bottle covers, under blankets, and scrubbers, from which it will be seen that little comes amiss.

In the men’s department there is a large covered carpenter’s shop, fitted with benches, where packing cases, splints, and other articles are made. Voluntary men workers are urgently needed to support this department, and are asked to bring their own tools if they have them. All correspondence in connection with the men’s department should be addressed to J. E. Needham Esq.

Cake Day on Wednesday, July 28th, organized by Lady Thynne and Mrs. Burdon Muller was a, huge success. Over 1,000 cakes were received to be sold for the benefit of British prisoners of war, the Army, the Navy, and the funds of the Depot.

The Queen sent twelve fine Dundee cakes, expressing the wish that they should be bought for prisoners of war in Germany, and they were quickly sold early in the afternoon at £1 each.”

Advert for Queen Marys Needlework Guild.

This advert for Queen Mary’s Needlework Guild appeared in The Times in April 1916.

It asks for a contribution, specifically £50.00. This was obviously targeting the wealthy as in most working cases the amount would have equated to almost a yearly salary.

It was estimated that most families in 1915 spent approx £2 a week on their: food, clothing and utilities, which was about 75% of their total income, thus making a yearly salary for middle class families around £150.00.


The advert reads:

Will you help to bandage a wounded soldier?

We are Sending bandages, splints, and all kinds of surgical dressings to our wounded soldiers at Salonkia, at the Persian Gulf, in France and Belguim, also to those in our home hospitals.

Will you send a little money?

If you have not, please do so now. We also need ward shirts, pyjamas, socks, bed jackets, pillows and hot water bottles.

Knitted socks
Urgently needed
For our Soldiers

Help us in this great work, please. Everything is supplied free of cost to our soldiers and those of our Allies. All the work is done voluntarily. Every penny subscribed spent in material. Everything you send reaches the wounded quickly.

A Cheque for £50
Will do wonders now.
Will you send it?

Come and see what is done with the money and articles that are so kindly sent to us. See the splendid work our women are doing in making bandages etc for our wounded soldiers. See what men can do in making splints, packing cases etc. All volunteers. Come and see and give all you can spare. Know that you too, helped o make a soldiers suffer less pain and helped to bring him back to health and happiness.

Queen Mary’s Needlework Guild

Queen Mary’s Needlework Guild was founded by the Queen on 21st August 1914, specifically to help with ‘comforts’ for all serving soldiers and sailors.

This article from “Women and War Work by Helen Fraser” gives an excellent description of the work carried out by the guild.

“The first work lies in giving him comforts, and the women of our country still knit a good deal and in the early days knitted, as you do now to get your supplies, in trains and tubes and theatres and concerts, and public meetings. This was happening while many of our working women were without work and it was felt that this was likely to compete very seriously with the work of these women. The Queen realized there was likely to be hardships through this and also that there would probably be a great waste of material if voluntary effort was not wisely guided. So she called at Buckingham Palace a committee of women to consider the position and Queen Mary's Needlework Guild was the outcome of it. The following official statement, issued on August 21, 1914, intimated the Queen's wishes and policy.

“Queen Mary's Needlework Guild has received representations to the effect that the provision of garments by voluntary labor may have the consequence of depriving of their employment workpeople who would have been engaged for wages in the making of the same garments for contractors to the Government. A very large part of the garments collected by the Guild consists, however, of articles which would not in the ordinary course have been purchased by the Government. They include additional comforts for the soldiers and sailors actually serving, and for the sick and wounded in hospital, clothing for members of their families who may fall into distress, and clothing to be distributed by the local committees for the prevention and relieving of distress among families who may be suffering from unemployment owing to the war. If these garments were not made by the voluntary labor of women who are willing to do their share of work for the country in the best way open to them, they would not, in the majority of cases, be made at all. The result would be that families in distress would receive in the winter no help in the form of clothing, and the soldiers and the sailors and the men in hospitals would not enjoy the additional comforts that would be provided. The Guild is informed that flannel shirts, socks, and cardigan jackets are a Government issue for soldiers; flannel vest, socks, and jerseys for sailors; pajama suits, serge gowns for military hospitals; underclothing, flannel gowns and flannel waistcoats for naval hospitals. Her Majesty the Queen is most anxious that work done for the
Needlework Guild should not have a harmful effect on the employment of men, women, and girls in the trades concerned, and therefore desires that the workers of the Guild should devote themselves to the making of garments other than those which would, in the ordinary course, be bought by the War Office and Admiralty. All kinds of garments will be needed for distribution in the winter if there is exceptional distress.

The Queen would remind those that are assisting the Guild that garments which are bought from the shops and are sent to the Guild are equally acceptable, and their purchases would have the additional advantage of helping to secure the continuance of employment of women engaged in their manufacture. It is, however, not desirable that any appeal for funds should be made for this purpose which would conflict with the collection of the Prince of Wales's Fund.”

Branches of Queen Mary's Needlework Guild were started everywhere and the Mayoresses of practically every town in the Kingdom organized their own towns. Gifts came from all over the world and a book kept at Friary Court, St. James', records the gifts received from Greater Britain and the neutral countries.

The demand for comforts was very great and in ten months the gross number of articles received was 1,101,105, but this did not represent anything like all. It was the Queen's wish that the branches of her Guild should be free to do as they wished in distribution, send to local regiments, or regiments quartered in the neighborhood, or use them for local distress. Great care was taken to see there was no overlapping, and this is secured fully by Sir Edward Ward's Committee.

Our men have been well looked after in the way of comforts, socks and mitts and gloves and jerseys, and mufflers and gloves for minesweepers and helmets, everything they needed, and the Regimental Comforts Funds and work still exists as well, all coordinated now.”