HeritageB U L L E T I N Volume 6

BELOW THE SHELF

Did you know? Remember that on our Archive and Heritage Collection website you can now read about day-to-day and special events that

happen at the archive including our volunteering award and the golden age of knitting as well as the WRVS history on our blog wrvs.org.uk/hbblog

Now and thenOur main cover is a WRVS open day exhibition from July 1979 at WRVS Headquarters, Old Park Lane, London. In the image are a number

of large posters that highlight the various WRVS services and its need for volunteers. You can see the work carried out by volunteers today on our website wrvs.org.uk

“I do not think we should be upset by getting no Kudos for our work. The thrill is doing the job properly. ” Lady Reading – 1949

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In 2008 it was decided to close the archive to the public, so that our archivist and team of volunteers could

work on the collection to better preserve and catalogue it. This aimed to make it more accessible and enable the re-opening of the enquiry service and launch of an online catalogue in January 2013. Four years and over 5,000 boxes later we are ready to do just that.

Our enquiry service opens this month; it is a remote service which will allow you to send us your enquiries by phone, post or through the online enquiry form on the Our History section of the WRVS website wrvs.org.uk/about-us/our-history. Your enquiry will then be researched by our volunteer team who have been trained in everything from receiving and recording your enquiry to researching and replying to you. We will spend up to one hour on your enquiry from start to finish. So if you have any queries about the history of the WRVS or its members then contact us and we can try and satisfy your curiosity.

Fulham, London, December 1948GODMOTHER’S SCHEME“One of our members entertained two boys for twelve days at Christmas – from the L.C.C. Home at Sidcup. She also sent boxes of soldiers etc., to the home. She took the boys to the Circus one day and afterwards to tea, and though one had nine cream cakes and the other seven, they were not sick”

Sheffield, Yorkshire, September 1950“We paid a visit to Matron and the Superintendent at Fir-Vale this month, and we hear that the Trolley service there is eagerly looked forward to by the old folk who love to spend their little pocket money on new combs, hair nets etc.”

Abingdon Rural, Oxfordshire, November 1973-1974“Drayton Club celebrated its 25th Anniversary when 131 sat down at 1pm to an old fashioned hot dinner. Beef and Yorkshire pudding, four vegetables, apple pie and cream, biscuits, cheese, coffee. We were delighted to welcome our late Berkshire Organiser and Emergency Organiser and to welcome our County Organiser, Deputy Organiser Liaison Officer for Darby and Joan Clubs in Oxfordshire. [sic] A WVS film taken by Town and Country Productions Ltd in 1963, with many shots taken at our Centre was much appreciated and we had requests to show it again at the Club’s Christmas Party. A wonderful three tier cake was made and iced by the Deputy Leader of the Club.”

Alongside this service will be the launch of our online catalogue which will allow you to search some of our collections yourself with more being added as time goes on. At the moment you can:- discover which counties and centres we have narrative reports for from 1938-1945, find out what is in our collection of posters and explore our photographs some of which you will be able to view online. You can access the catalogue from the Our History section of the WRVS website. We hope you will make use of the online catalogue and learn more about the history of WRVS.

New inNew to the collection is this hand painted china plate by Muriel Humphrey. It was presented to former WRVS Chairman Lady Elizabeth Toulson on her visit to

Cambridgeshire in 1994. It has images of different services, including:- toy libraries and clothing depots, carried out by WRVS in Cambridge.

Recently giftedThe personal papers of Mrs Theresa MacDonald MBE, all the way from Australia. These included documents about how she established the Home Helps Scheme at

the end of World War Two. There were also newspaper cuttings nicknaming her the Pocket Dynamo.

CONTACT Matthew McMurray on Tel 01380 730 211 or email matthew.mcmurray@wrvs.org.uk VISIT wrvs.org.uk/archiveandheritagecollection

Welcome to the sixth edition of the Heritage Bulletin, which has been researched and compiled by our Cataloguing Co-ordinator Jennifer Hunt. Jennifer continues to work on our collection of Narrative Reports and has managed to catalogue all those written between 1938 and 1945. This issue features articles on our Archive Volunteer Project of the Year award, The Home Helps Scheme and how we organise our collections.

The last six months have been extremely busy preparing for the re-opening of the enquiry service and the launch of our online catalogue. The volunteers have been given training in how to answer enquiries. Their hard work over the last twelve months repackaging, sorting and cataloguing photographs, narrative reports and posters has made a tremendous contribution to preparations for this year.

In the last few months we have received a number of new items for our collection. These include two books signed by Lady Reading photographs of WRVS volunteers from Rhos-on-Sea and Colwyn Bay. There was also a gold plated tea spoon and a very special addition - a WVS great coat which would have been worn by WVS members during World War Two. We think this is the only one of its kind in a museum.

It only remains for me to wish you Happy New Year.

Matthew McMurray

WRVS Archivist

From the WRVS Archivist

Enquiry service and online catalogue

From the narrative reports

The front page of our online catalogue.

ON THE SHELF – NEW ADDITIONS

The Home Helps SchemeOriginally intended to be the Home Workers Scheme, Home Helps assisted those in need of domestic service for thirty years. During that time it was an essential part of social welfare in Britain.

In 1944 the WVS Centre Organiser for the City of Oxford, Theresa MacDonald, asked the local authority’s permission

to pioneer a new scheme, Home Helps. Its purpose was to work alongside and form an attachment with the local health services. At first it dealt with maternity as its top priority and then concerned itself with old people as well as chronic cases. Eventually the Helps took on any cases which were a health emergency.

As a public health service, Home Helps took on jobs such as washing, cooking and child care. They were employed by the local authority but administration was in the hands of a voluntary organiser. The WVS trained the Helps and promoted the scheme. At first very little formal training was given but later Helps could work towards the National Institute of Houseworkers’ Diploma.

In 1946 WVS opened a Home Helps department at headquarters in London and

used its network to publicise the scheme. The department also ran residential training for Home Help organisers. Different local schemes added their own flair to training meetings including celebrations such as Christmas, birthday and anniversary parties. Buckinghamshire went further and held a county rally for its Home Helps.

When the National Health Service Act (1948) came into force the Ministry of Health stated that Home Helps was vital to the new service. Many health services however wanted to take full control of the scheme. In some areas the WVS remained very involved with Home Helps, though over the years many handed over to local authorities and paid organisers. By 1964 only a few WVS run schemes remained in counties such as Cornwall, Worcestershire and East and West Sussex. Home Helps was finally wrapped up in 1974 with the closure of the final scheme in East Sussex.

Pictured is an Alice in Wonderland tea pot created for Mad Hatters tea parties held by WRVS in March 2000. The tea pot looks like a set of children’s books either

side is a scene from the Mad Hatters Tea Party in Alice in Wonderland. The Mad Hatters Tea Parties were the first major fundraising events arranged by WRVS.

Out of the box is this Meals with Care booklet from 2003, for WRVS frozen meal delivery service. The booklet includes the range of main meals and deserts available for people to

order. In the image you can see the booklet’s centre spread.

A Home Help assisting in the kitchen, Cambridgeshire, 1946 and A WVS Home Help member on her way to a client, 1947.

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Dear Matthew“I think the crochet doll Probably came from the Portsmouth Office. The District Organiser ... got Darby and Joan Clubs making such dolls which were distributed to families in the city which had few if any toys. The idea later spread to Fareham District nearby. The dolls were always small enough for small children to hold, beautifully made, with complete cloths outfits, they were presented to children in shoe boxes, which contained a mattress and cover. The dolls were not all dressed as WRVS – soldiers, sailors and nurses were also popular.”

Mrs Joan Kirby MBE, Winchester, Hampshire

ON THE SHELF – OUT OF THE BOX

Over to you Our letters this issue tell stories about Cottingham and the crochet doll which featured in Volume 5.

We really enjoy reading your letters about the memories you have of WRVS, please keep sending them in.

Dear Matthew “My sister Marjorie Simmons, who lived in Cottingham, had been working for the WRVS in Hull for many years. She then found a property for sale in the centre of Cottingham. As the WRVS did not own property in those days, she managed to persuade some local business people to put money in to buy the property. They then had to convert the building into a meeting place for members. ... All the work was done by volunteers.

After the building was in full working order Princess Margaret came to visit. She was delighted with how the place was being run. Marjorie was later awarded an OBE for all her hard work”Eileen Taylor, Colwyn Bay, Conwy

Alice in Wonderland tea pot Meals with Care booklet and menu

To support the archive CONTACT Matthew McMurray on Tel 01380 730 211 or email matthew.mcmurray@wrvs.org.uk VISIT wrvs.org.uk/archiveandheritagecollection

“We must not lose our history”Recently we spoke to Gillian Highley MBE who first became involved with the organisation in 1965 as treasurer of her local Darby and Joan club. She told us ‘‘Over the years I started several afternoon clubs, a dancing club, several trolley shops and led an emergency team. I continued volunteering for WRVS for so long because I knew how much people needed our services.”

Having been a WRVS volunteer for so long Gillian understands how important its history is and has shown this by including the WRVS Archive & Heritage Collection in her will. “I want to support the Archives as WRVS has such a proud history and it should not be lost.”

If you would like to receive more information about how you can secure the future of WRVS history please do reply using the slip provided.

Archive material has to be sorted into a hierarchical

structure which tells us where it can be found in the archive. The hierarchy is made up of different levels which explain the content and context of the material in them.

There can be many different levels to a collection’s structure these can include and are arranged in the following order:

Fonds: the French word for collection. At WRVS this level encompasses all the material in the collection directly related to the organisation (WRVS).

Sub-fonds: groups of material in the collection. They are usually grouped by the department that created or collected them. These groups are the sub-fonds in the collection; one example is WRVS Headquarters (HQ).

Series: a group of files which are related to each other, have

the same use or were created and complied together. HQ has a few series underneath it, one of these is Publications (PUB).

File: a physical folder of material such as an activity or service performed by WRVS. The PUB series has several files of posters in it all relating to the services they were published for, for example posters relating to Food (F).

Item: each individual piece of material in a file. In the F file there are fifteen individual posters, one example is a Meals

on Wheels poster advertising for helpers (PSTR-F-002).

When a record’s place in the hierarchy has been decided we need a way of finding it again. Each item in the collection is given a unique reference number. In the examples above the references for individual levels have been given in brackets when joined together they form the reference for a Meals on Wheels poster WRVS/HQ/PUB/F/PSTR-F-002. In the future this reference will allow us to find where that poster is in the collection.

ON THE SHELF – PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE COLLECTION

Two WVS members of the Overseas Welfare Service organise a barbecue to celebrate the twenty-first anniversary in the grounds of Royal Air Force Station Sylt,

North Frisian Islands, West Germany. In May this year WRVS celebrates its seventy-fifth anniversary.

Date: July 1954

Archive Volunteer Project of the Year Award 2012

In September 2012 our volunteers were awarded with highly commended status in the Archive and Record Association Archive Volunteer Project of the Year award 2012. The judges were very impressed by the work our volunteers have undertaken in order to preserve the collection. It is even more significant as the judges have never given out a highly commended status for the award before. On Wednesday 12 September John Chambers the Chief Executive of the Archives and Records Association (ARA) came to the archive to present the volunteers with their award. You can watch the presentation on our online blog.The award shows how dedicated the volunteers are to the archive. So far 30 volunteers, aged between 22 and 88 have given 900 hours of their time per year. Without this hard work the archive would not be ready for the 75th anniversary or the re-opening of our enquiry service.

THANK

YOU

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WVS Services Welfare barbecue, RAF SyltSix WVS members walk in a group down a gravel track after giving a One in Five talk, given to inform women about the effects of a nuclear explosion, at the Spurn

point lifeboat house, Hull, North Humberside. In the background can be seen the Spurn point lighthouse.

Date: 14 April 1962

One in five talk at Spurn lifeboat house

An artistic interpretation of the hierarchy

CONTACT Matthew McMurray on Tel 01380 730 211 or email matthew.mcmurray@wrvs.org.uk VISIT wrvs.org.uk/archiveandheritagecollection

Organising archive material

“When I retired, I joined WRVS and did a weekly round delivering Meals on Wheels. Some of the recipients were not much older than I was which made me feel fortunate that I was able to perform this worth while service.

Years later, I saw an article in the local paper about the opening of the archive collection in Devizes, with an appeal for volunteers. Now I volunteer one afternoon a week and the tasks allocated to me have introduced me to what the collection is about. To begin with I sorted out material such as magazines,

brochures, and photographs. I then spent some time cataloguing the photographs which involved describing the scene, the people and the date. This was most interesting, especially looking at the wartime ones.

Now I am working on the Narrative Reports. Over the years they have become a bit worse for wear so I am unfolding creases and removing old rusty staples and pins. While doing this I

glance through them and one needs to look no further than these reports to know about a “caring society”. WVS/WRVS members were involved in all aspects of community welfare.

An afternoon in the life of this apprentice archivist is never dull.”

If you want to know more about the WRVS Archive & Heritage Collection you can visit our web pages: wrvs.org.uk/archiveandheritagecollection

If you have a story to tell or material which you would like to donate to the collection please contact Matthew McMurray the archivist. If you have an enquiry please contact the archive enquiry team either by post, telephone or online at wrvs.org.uk/enquiry_service Further information about the service is also available on the website.

If you do not currently receive the Heritage Bulletin and would like to do so please contact us using the details below.

Matthew McMurray, WRVS Archive & Heritage Collection, Unit 1A Bath Road Business Centre, Bath Road, Devizes, Wiltshire, SN10 1XA Telephone: 01380 730 211 email: archive@wrvs.org.uk

Every reasonable endeavour has been made to find and contact the copyright owners of the works included in this newsletter. However if you believe a copyright work has been included without your permission, please contact WRVS.

VolunteerPearl Reading

“One needs to look no further than these reports to know about a “caring society”. WVS/WRVS members were involved in all aspects of community welfare.”

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