For the Sake of the Soldier: Voluntary Work of Brisbane Women — John Shaqi
For the Sake of the Soldier: Voluntary Work of Brisbane WomenMacleod, Rita
History
For the Sake of the Soldier: Voluntary Work of Brisbane Women
Macleod, Rita
World War, 1914-1918 -- Medical care -- Australia; World War, 1914-1918 -- War work -- Australia
Apart from the Red Cross Society, the Queensland Soldiers’ Comforts
Fund and other well-known patriotic centres, there are many circles and
guilds and individual women who work for or entertain the Queensland
soldier. Some idea of the work the women are doing is realized when it
is considered that, in the Red Cross alone, each of the 31 Brisbane
branches averages a membership of from 50 to 100 women. In addition to
the Societies formed entirely for patriotic work, there are at least 17
different sewing guilds attached to independent institutions.
Among these centres is the Blind, Deaf and Dumb Institution, the
members of which make quantities of shirts and socks, their work being
particularly neat and well finished. The students of the Queensland
University, the Technical College, and the women of the Mutual Service
Club also make garments and knitted articles for the men, while the
girls of the Y.W.C.A. have given wonderful contributions considering
that the majority of their time is taken up with earning their living.
Not only have they become a sub-branch of the Red Cross Society, and
donated gifts regularly to the Queensland Soldiers’ Comforts Fund, but
they have given of their earnings as well. Each girl gives what she
can afford weekly, a penny, threepence, or whatever the sum may be,
and during the last year they collected over £60 for various patriotic
organisations.
The Church of England Soldiers’ Help Society have been working
energetically almost from the commencement of the war. It was the
members of this Society who organised and established the Anzac Club
in Charlotte-street, and this is by no means the only channel of their
work. Twice a week members go out to the camp and mend the soldiers’
clothes. They have a tent, and the Soldiers’ Hut (which is another
result of their efforts) where they receive damaged garments and
darn, patch and mend them ready for use again. A scheme to relieve
the anxiety of relatives of soldiers who are wounded has been of
inestimable comfort to many mothers and fathers in Queensland. The
Society keep in touch with a chaplain in England, who visits and issues
cards to the wounded men in hospitals in England. The men fill the
cards in, stating their wounds, their circumstances, name, etc., and
these are sent out to Queensland, and they are then distributed to the
relatives by the Society. In this way many parents have been able to
trace their sons, particularly boys who ran away from home to enlist,
and who have failed to keep in touch with their relatives.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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