League of Fairy Godmothers

[Seany]

Seen this on Ebay - very intrigued as never heard of this scheme nor able to find anything about it. any hints on where to find out more?

[travers61]

Several mentions in the newspapers of 1914/1915. Seems started early 1915 to send papers weekly & parcels three weekly to gunners at the front, who have no close relations to send them parcels.

https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results?basicsearch=league of fairy godmothers&retrievecountrycounts=false

[Seany]

Thank you -

[Guest]

   Hope to  write a little bit later this week , as these small groups interest me. Yes,-started by the wife of a gunner brigadier, in Hayes, Middlesex.  Seems to have survived until into 1916 at least. No known papers traced but one other item only at IWM- the papers of a soldier called Brady,interned in Holland. Interestingly, although the scheme started to support gunners, he was not one.  There are also references to the same idea being revived in 1939-40-again in that area of Middlesex (Ashford) by a lady, Mrs Qua, who had been a Fairy Godmother  in the Great War version.

     I suspect that the Royal Artillery records may have some stuff buried away on it (though they may not know it as yet) but the likeliest source of further information is going to be the local newspapers that covered Hayes at the time.

There are any number of these  small do-gooder efforts- I  have written on GWF about the Field  Glasses Scheme run by the National Service League (It did a saddle and tackle scheme as well) and  also the local ammunition volunteers- who made shell cases on hobby lathes in garden sheds;etc.  My favourite so far is the scheme over my side of London proposed by a retired army colonel in Woodford (The Essex one) to collect up used tea leaves and ship them over to the troops in France as a treat- Of course, the tea leaves would have to come from the "right" sort of household- wouldn't want our fighting men palmed off with secondhand cheap working class tea,would we?  Standards,dear boy,standards......

[JOVE23]

I am curious as to what a "Japanese Air Pillow" is!

[Marilyne]

I seem to recall reading in a memoir (was it "drawing fire"??" ) that the quartermaster (the "S4") was sometimes called the Fairy Godmother detachment by the soldiers… because one could Always dream of getting the requested items but would on the other hand be handed out useless stuff or asked for reports at the most incongruous moments.

 

I'll need to delve back in my documentation… once it's all sorted out in the new house …

 

M.