CARRY ON, SERGEANT!

Postcard by Capt Bruce Bairnsfather

The Chevrons Club opened on the 7th February 1918. It offered Non Commissioned Officers on leave a place to stay in London. Conveniently situated near Victoria Station, the Club provided guests with a hot meal, a bath and a bed, with the chance to relax with a smoke and a game of billiards for just 1 shilling a night or 5 shillings a year.

I have a pile of paperwork relating to the Club's early years. This unique collection paints a picture of an organisation with big plans and good intentions (branches in major naval and inland towns and the Dominions, local unemployment bureaus, war memorials etc). 

Chevrons Club 1918 from Flight Magazine via Flightglobal.com

Although by 1919 the Chevrons Club had a healthy 1,745 members (including 112 Canadians and 227 Australians), subscriptions alone were not enough to keep an increasingly expensive operation afloat. Clearly, this was due (in part at least) to overspending by an Executive Committee comprised of (mainly) senior ranking officers from the armed services, adept at persuading various wealthy friends and colleagues to make hefty donations but inadequate as managers of a residential London club.

In order to help raise £150,000 to continue the extension of the St George's Square headquarters and to establish local clubs, the Executive Committee organised a dance, hosted by everyone's favourite fundraiser, George Robey. 

The grandly titled 'George Robey's Ball' was held on the 5th June 1919 at The Queen's Hall, in Langham Place, London. 

I'm thrilled to say that I've discovered a hitherto undated clip of film from the night in question, on the British Pathé website: http://www.britishpathe.com/video/george-robey-1/query/music
If you follow the link, you'll see that it features George Robey, working the dance floor in his rather creepy 'Prime Minister of Mirth' persona.

Given all the effort involved, the ball made a regrettable loss of about £55, a sum which ignored the "problematical £20 due from Mr Geo. Robey".

Not unreasonably, at their next AGM the membership passed a "vote of censure" of the Executive Comittee's administration, "in view of the colossal losses incurred under their management". The vote was dismissed as "the action of a few malcontents"! 

Seemingly unrepentant and undaunted, the Committee's plans grew more ambitious: a boxing tournament between the British and French Services, held at Holborn Stadium on 22nd June 1920. 

The Boxing Committee, fully expecting a capacity crowd of 3000, spent a whopping £770 on the match. Expenditure included: £72 on the stadium, £60 on unsold programmes, £116 on a press agents' lunch and advertising, £100 on medallions and £68 on 'tube railway' posters.

In the end they sold a paltry 705 tickets, which amounted to receipts of only £525 - another colossal loss.

The Finance Committee Secretary, LJ Farries Esq announced the "adverse balance" in his report to the Executive Committee of July 1920. 

Staggeringly, he managed to blame the French ("the French were entirely responsible") for delaying the match until it was too late in the boxing season. 

In addition, he quoted the "failure of the Goddard-Moran fight" which temporarily closed the stadium box office and a lack of public interest because "the boxing public have been surfeited with boomed matches on which enormous sums have been spent in advertising and nothing short of a sensation will now draw the people, as witness the farcical Burns-Beckett fight".

Perhaps the most disappointing factor of all was the "prevailing apathy" of the armed forces themselves. Farries lamented that "Guards' officers came in some numbers but I doubt if we sold 10 tickets in the War Office or Admiralty; as regards the men I had printed a leaflet...offering service men in uniform half-price seats - not one was sold".

By August 1920, membership had dropped to 930 and part of the newly acquired premises (No. 82 St George's Square) had to be surrendered for a much needed £180.
Based on this downward trajectory, I was gladdened to learn that the Chevrons Club managed to survive the efforts of its first Executive Committee. In fact, it must have prospered, as the St George's Square headquarters were still open in October 1940 when they were bombed by the Luftwaffe.¹ Eventually, the Club moved to Dorset Square, where it stayed, until its closure around 1972.²   

Detail from The Chevrons Club Christmas Card 1919

Footnotes

1/ '23/10/40 Bombed out at the Chevrons Club' Letter written by Elydyr Lewis from the Blog entitled "Letters from London WWII" Originally posted 6th September 2011. 
2/ 'The Last Days of the Chevrons Club' 1972 The National Archives Ref: AIR 2/18841 & AIR 2/18842 

We Smoke Your Health and Wish You Well: WW2 Cigarette Postcards

Overseas League Tobacco Fund Cigarette Postcard 1943

To our modern eyes, supporting the provision of free cigarettes for young men and women would be at best, irresponsible and at worst, immoral.

In the context of both the First and Second World Wars, it was regarded not just as an act of charity but a patriotic duty. A delivery of cigarettes from home brought comfort to the weary soldier on the front line and boosted morale.

The Overseas Club inaugurated its famous Tobacco Fund during the First World War. Its success was legendary: in addition to tobacco for the troops, it donated 350 aircraft to the Royal Flying Corps and paid for a new hospital for wounded airmen.¹

During the Second World War, for the price of just a shilling, the Tobacco Fund, 'with the co-operation of the War Office and the Customs Authorities' was able to send 'duty and carriage-free' a parcel of 50 cigarettes to units at the Front,² hospitals or even ships at sea. Included in each package was a postcard, with the donor's address on one side and a blank space for the recipient's message, on the other. 



My father (for most of his life a non-smoker) was a keen donor to the Overseas League Tobacco Fund. He desperately wanted to join up, having been in the OTC (Officer Training Corps) at university but his requests were always firmly denied. Much to his intense frustration, they decided he was more useful in India. I think the Tobacco Fund was a small but poignant part of 'doing his bit' as he appears to have kept every single reply. As a result, I am fortunate to have 43 of these very special 'reply postcards'. 

Cigarette Postcard 1945

Note the message at the bottom: 'Important: at the request of the authorities' - in capitals - 'Do not disclose any particulars of your unit'. This stricture wasn't always followed particularly closely, as can be seen in the cards below.

   

Cigarette Postcard 1945

This postcard, dated 7th July 1945, was sent by Lalitha Hensman, a Welfare Officer with the Indian Red Cross at South East Asia Command. Having obviously remarked on the address of the donor, she kindly takes care to point out that the 'recipients were Indian soldiers'. 

  

Cigarette Postcard 1944

My third and final postcard was sent in August 1944. Simple and to the point, it really sums up the whole collection: 

These cigarettes were issued to Allied Ex Prisoners of War who escaped through our lines. They were more than acceptable, and we wish to express our thanks to you.

Yours

AG Kennard [?]

NZEF*

* New Zealand Expeditionary Force

Footnotes
1/ 'Founding Father' By Alex May. 'Overseas: Journal of the Royal Overseas League' Issue 3 3rd September 2010 p.13  
2/ 'Tobacco for the Troops' The Spectator Magazine 12th November 1939 from the Spectator Archive

© Emmy Eustace

Roger and Anna Draper

In 1915, as the Colonel's wife, my Great Grandmother Monica Eustace had the sad duty of visiting the newly widowed Anna Lowell Draper. A year later, Anna sent Monica the following two photographs:

Captain Roger Francis Draper 1915

The first is a picture of Anna's late husband, Captain Roger Francis Draper (1890-1915) of the 6th Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment. Written on the back (in Anna's handwriting) is: 

RFD at Godalming June 1915

Anna Lowell Gardiner married Roger Francis Draper on 16th December 1914, in the Private Chapel of London House, Westminster St James in London, just before he left for the front. 

He was killed in action at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli on 22nd August 1915 and his death announced in the Boston Evening Transcript on 13th September 1915.

Captain Draper is remembered on the Helles Memorial, Gallipoli, the War Memorial in Adel in Leeds and the Christchurch Cathedral Roll of Honour in Oxford. 

Anna Lowell Draper 1916

The second photograph was taken by Frizell of Boston, 
probably Fred A Frizell of Boston and Dorchester (as per the 1909 edition of the Boston Blue Book).

It is dated January 1916 and shows Anna holding her baby, Roger Francis Draper, who was born at 322 Beacon St, Boston, Massachusetts, USA on 7th November 1915. 

Anna Lowell Gardiner was an American, the daughter of Robert H Gardiner, a Lawyer and Alice (nee Bange). She was born in Newton, Massachusetts, USA on 9th September 1890.  

It appears that Anna married Henry Richardson Shepley in 1919 but sadly, if online sources are to be believed (an Ancestry tree) little Roger didn't live long, dying aged only 13 in 1928.

****Additional Information****
I have just found two more photographs of Roger Francis Draper, which can be seen on 
descentfromadam.wordpress.com 




Sources:

FamilySearch: 

"Massachusetts, Births, 1841-1915," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FXC6-VYK : accessed 04 Jun 2014), Roger Francis Draper, 07 Nov 1915; citing Boston, Massachusetts, p 328, Massachusetts Archives, Boston; FHL microfilm 2409903 

"Massachusetts, Births, 1841-1915," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FX4M-32X : accessed 04 Jun 2014), Anna Lowell Gardner, 09 Sep 1890; citing Newton, Massachusetts, P 260, Massachusetts Archives, Boston; FHL microfilm 1428244  

US genealogical information courtesy of fellow genealogist Liz Loveland of Metro Boston, Massachusetts via Twitter on @lizl_genealogy 
Further contact details on http://adventuresingenealogy.wordpress.com/