CHAPTER IV

"BRINGING 'BLIGHTY' TO THE SOLDIER"


"Blighty" is Home, the British soldiers in India's corruption of the
Hindustanee, and Blighty is a word we all know well now.

The full records of this are not easy to give--so much has been done.
Perhaps the simplest way is to begin with the soldier at the training
camp and follow him through his soldier's existence. The first work
lies in giving him comforts, and the women of our country still knit
a good deal and in the early days knitted, as you do now to get your
supplies, in trains and tubes and theatres and concerts, and public
meetings. This was happening while many of our working women were
without work and it was felt that this was likely to compete very
seriously with the work of these women. The Queen realized there was
likely to be hardships through this and also that there would probably
be a great waste of material if voluntary effort was not wisely
guided. So she called at Buckingham Palace a committee of women
to consider the position and Queen Mary's Needlework Guild was the
outcome of it. The following official statement, issued on August 21,
1914, intimated the Queen's wishes and policy.

Queen Mary's Needlework Guild has received representations to
the effect that the provision of garments by voluntary labor