The following ladies eventually formed the Committee:
Lady Ardee, the Hon. Mrs. Wilfred Smith, Mrs. Fisher-Rowe, the Hon. Mrs. Corry (who resigned later on account of illness), the Hon. Mrs. Dalrymple-White, the Hon. Mrs. Earle (who resigned later and went to Switzerland to join her husband), Mrs. Montgomerie, the Hon. Mrs. G. Legh, Mrs. Ricardo, Viscountess St. Cyres, Lady Helen Seymour, Mrs. Barrington-Kennett, Mrs. St. Leger Glyn, and Mrs. Stucley.
When the Committee first started it was decided to look after families only on the married roll, leaving the others to be dealt with by the Soldiers' and Sailors' Families Association, to which the Regiment sent a subscription of £100; but it was found that families were so well provided for by Separation Allowances, that it was only in special cases that assistance was needed. The Committee, therefore, undertook to assist special cases, whether they were married people on the strength or not. The ladies of the Committee kept in constant touch with each family either by correspondence or by personal visit, and by degrees they were able to ensure that every case was looked after.
When the cold weather arrived, the needs of the men at the front became of paramount importance, and the wives of officers, non-commissioned officers, and men set to work to make warm mittens and hand-made socks, the wool being provided to a great extent by the Comforts Fund.
Owing to certain officers contributing large sums to the Comforts Fund, which had already been generously supported by the officers, Sir Reginald Thynne was able to send, in addition to what are called comforts, newspapers, tobacco, and cigarettes every fortnight, as well as footballs, boxing-gloves, and other things that the men love. Colonel Streatfeild also decided to supplement the appliances supplied by the War Office, and sanctioned the supply by the fund of such articles as trench periscopes, telephones, and bicycles for orderlies. Later, gramophones were provided, and when Christmas came Sir Reginald Thynne was able to send a plum-pudding to each man at the front. This necessitated 2000 plum-puddings being sent in 1914, and 4000 in 1915 and 1916, in addition to a certain number to the Grenadiers on the Brigade and Divisional Staffs. During the last two years of the war, the supply of plum-puddings for all the Expeditionary Forces was undertaken by the Director-General of Voluntary Organisations.
Prisoners of War Fund
Early in the war the problem of how to deal with the Prisoners of War had to be faced, and Sir Reginald Thynne, having organised the Comforts Fund, now turned his attention to this at the request of Colonel Streatfeild. The Grenadiers were fortunate in having far fewer prisoners than other regiments, but the fact that there were men of the Regiment at the mercy of a country, which had proved itself capable of the most dastardly cruelty, was enough to warrant energetic steps being taken at once to ensure that the men in Germany should not starve.
Major-General Sir Reginald Thynne set to work to devise some organisation by which parcels of food would reach the prisoners regularly, and a Prisoners of War Fund, to which many old officers of the Regiment contributed, was started, and in the initial stages was partly financed by the Comforts Fund.
In the first place it was decided to send all men in Germany a good parcel of food and some tobacco every fortnight, but this was not enough, and a system was started by which many prisoners of war of the Regiment were "adopted" by a lady belonging to the Regiment, a wife, a mother, or a sister of an officer. The adopter was asked to undertake the despatch of a parcel once a fortnight, so that with the parcels from the Fund each prisoner received weekly a sufficient supply of food. This worked admirably, but the labour involved was necessarily heavy, since the men were constantly moved from one place to another.
By an arrangement with the American Embassy in Berlin a complete refit of outer and under clothing was sent to each prisoner by Colonel Streatfeild, but these were not provided by the Prisoners of War Fund.