Berkshire and The War: the "Reading Standard" pictorial record. Volume 4. p 933

CAVERSHAM WAR WORKERS.

BALMORE HALL WORKING PARTY.

The closing of the Working Party held at Balmore Hall, Caversham, since August, 1914, was made the occasion of presenting to Miss Rose and Miss Elsie Radcliffe, by the members, two brooches, being replicas of the voluntary workers' badge, in gold with the crown in scarlet enamel and rose diamonds, in cases on which were the ladies'™ initials and the dates 1914-1919. These were
accompanied by an illuminated testimonial bearing the names of all the subscribers, among whom were workers both past and present.

Miss Sanderson, in making the presentation, said how much the members had appreciated the work of the Misses Radcliffe, and felt that the working party had been the means of drawing together many people who otherwise would not have been known to each other. Though all rejoiced that the raison d'étre of the Working Party was gone, they regretted the winding up of the pleasant weekly meetings.

Miss E. Radcliffe, in thanking the members for their gifts, said that the Working Party had been in existence since the early days of August, 1914, and during that time they had met nearly always once a week and sometimes oftener. They had made over 42,000 articles, which had been sent either to the Reading War Hospitals Depot, or to the Care and Comforts Committee in Reading and to Queen Alexandra's Field Force Fund, and some to special hospitals, regiments, etc. Subscriptions amounting to £409 had been received for the purchasing of material. The members had naturally varied from time to time, but there had been an average of between 60 and 70 workers each Friday. Miss Radcliffe warmly thanked the members for their regular attendance for so long a period.

Miss Rose and Miss Elsie Radcliffe gave the use o f the Hall, and had shown untiring energy in organising and carrying on the work that had been done there, and they are hoping to still collect the members around them, but to work now for foreign missions.

[photo, group, interior] CAVERSHAM FREE CHURCH WORKING PARTY. [Photo by Taylor, Caversham.]

[photo, group, interior] MEMBERS OF ST. PETER'S, CAVERSHAM, WAR WORKING PARTY. [Photo by Taylor, Caversham.]

CAVERSHAM FREE CHURCH.

The Caversham Free Church War Working Party, whose superintendent is Mrs. F. G. Roberts and treasurer Mrs. W. J. Warwick, held its first meeting on 2nd November, 1915, in rooms provided by the Caversham Free Church, who also supplied the lighting and heating. The certificate of the D.G.V.O. was granted in December, 1915. By March, 1916, sixteen V.W. badges had been earned and issued and since then a further fifteen have been granted, while ten have been relinquished. Over 2,000 articles, all textile, have been made and sent to the War Hospital Supplies Depot. The material for 1,500 has been provided by funds raised by the members, and that for the remaining 500 larger articles has been supplied by the Depot.

Huntley, Boorne & Stevens' Remarkable Record.

The firm of Huntley, Boorne and Stevens, Ltd., lost during the early part of the war, by enlistment, over 300 men. Practically all of these went voluntarily; 54 of the 300 have been killed, and many more are still missing. The work for His Majesty's Army and Navy came along very rapidly during the early part of 1915, and this work had to be undertaken by the older men left, and women, many of whom had to be specially trained, as the work was entirely novel to them. Whilst the war lasted the firm made large quantities of tin boxes for packing Messrs. Huntley and Palmers'€™ ration biscuits for the troops in the field and hundreds of thousands of small tins and tin linings were also supplied to Messrs. Huntley and Palmers, which were filled with biscuits for the Navy and Army canteens, Y.M.C.A., Church Army and Salvation Army. Amongst the earliest articles made for the War Office were the Army pattern water bottles, which were supplied continuously from December, 1914, to the end of January, 1919, no less than 436,000 being made during that period.

Another big line was canisters for generating smoke to screen troops in advancing. These were most successful in practice, and over 3,000,000 were manufactured during the last 18 months of the war. The firm was approached by the inventor of the shrapnel helmet to know whether they would undertake the manufacture of the helmet in large quantities. He had nothing more than sketches to show, and it is to the credit of the firm that the shrapnel helmet proved the success it did during the 4½ years of war.

The inventor particularly impressed upon the firm the extreme urgency of the whole matter, and their tool makers worked, most loyally, long and tedious hours, in preparing the original dies for making the first steel helmet. The first six o f these helmets were hurriedly lined and fitted with straps and sent out for Sir Douglas Haig's approval. His message came back that he wanted hundreds of thousands of them.

The amount of experimental work in connection with these helmets was enormous, as the shape had to be exactly to the inventor's drawings, and endless experiments were made by the firm in stamping various kinds of steel to the proper shape. Much of the steel submitted was eminently suitable for stopping shrapnel and rifle bullets, but was utterly impossible from a stamping point of view.

The manufacture of tins for supplying tobacco rations to His Majesty's Army and Navy lasted the entire period of hostilities; also the manufacture of chocolate ration tins. Over 6,000,000 detonator and grenade cases were made , and round fuse tins; large numbers of stampings in connection with aircraft work for local and other firms, surgical tins and rocket tubes for distress signals for use in the Mercantile Marine.

The total number of articles, apart from biscuit tins and tin linings for biscuits, manufactured during the war, represents well over 19,000,000, and for most of these, particularly aircraft work, dies and tools had to be specially made.