Westmount Soldier's Wives League

I'm always excited when I discover something about the lives of women in our family.  They're more elusive than the men, but no less interesting.  Here's an organization that the Rutherford and Scott women involved themselves with during World War One, or "The Great War" as it was called at the time:  

The Westmount News, November 6, 1914

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN WESTMOUNT WOMEN ENROLL IN SOLDIER'S WIVES LEAGUE

"At the first business meeting of the Westmount Soldier's Wives League held Wednesday morning in Victoria Hall, Westmount, with Mrs. William Rutherford in the chair, the following ladies enrolled in the League:  ...Mrs. William Rutherford....Mrs. A. Rutherford...Mrs. Arthur H. Scott....
It was decided that the League should hold a meeting every Wednesday morning at 10:30 o'clock in Victoria Hall.    Groups of workers were formed to sew and knit for the Westmount Rifles, and it was announced that the Lady Scott chapter of the Daughters of the Empire would make and donate the 'housewives' for the regiment...." 

A "housewife" was a sewing kit that a soldier could carry around with him, with needle, thread, buttons, etc.

An example of a WWI sewing kit or "housewife"--this one is American.

This one is British.

Mrs. William Rutherford (Ida Bulmer) was the chair of the first meeting, although her husband, William Rutherford Jr., would have been 50 years old in 1914, and was unlikely to go to war.  William and Ida Rutherford's son (my husband's grandfather) John Bulmer Rutherford enlisted on March 21, 1916, at the age of 20.  We have in our possession a diary he kept during his training period.  He emerged safely from the conflict. 

Mrs. Arthur H. Scott (Minnie Davis) was not the wife of a soldier either. Her husband Arthur was 49 years old at the time.  She was the mother of Howard Elliot Scott, who did enlist on August 4, 1915.  He died at the Battle of Courcellette, September 16, 1916 (this battle was part of the Somme offensive).

Mrs. A. Rutherford was perhaps the wife of Andrew Rutherford.  Andrew was the brother of William Jr., and married a woman named Florence Mathilda Cornelia Paris on June 7, 1905.   However, their children, born between 1906 and 1910, would have been too young to enlist in this conflict. 

It seems that you did not actually have to be a soldier's wife to join...perhaps just a woman wanting to contribute to the war effort.

A postcard, circa 1910, from the McCord Museum, of Victoria Hall, where the League met weekly.

What was the scope of this organization?  There are a few more mentions of the League in Montreal newspapers over the course of the war.  The Montreal Gazette ran this column on  January 6, 1915:

WILL PAY MONTHLY FEES

MEETING OF WESTMOUNT SOLDIERS' WIVES' LEAGUE

" The Westmount Soldiers' Wives' League held their first meeting of the New Year in Victoria Hall yesterday morning.  There was a lengthy discussion over the question  of monthly fees, with the final decision that each member should pay the sum of twenty-five cents per month.  It was also decided to hold a monthly meeting of a social nature for the wives of the Westmount Rifles men, the first of these to be held from three to six on the afternoon of January 20th in the lodge room of Victoria Hall...The visiting report showed twenty-one families now on the league's visiting list.  A letter received from Major Stewart, thanking the league for the plum puddings supplied for the Christmas dinners for the Army Service Corps,  was read at the meeting.

The ladies will continue their knitting meetings for some time longer, and sewing meetings will be started soon. Mrs. Edmund Sheppard will be at Victoria Hall every Saturday morning from eleven to twelve to give out wool and receive completed work.  At the meeting at half-past ten next Saturday the Rev. A.P. Shatford will give an address."  

On September 15, 1905, the Montreal Gazette ran this notice:

CLOTHING FOR CHILDREN 

WESTMOUNT SOLDIERS WIVES LEAGUE MAKES REQUEST

"A special request was made at the meeting of the Westmount Soldiers' Wives' League yesterday morning for clothing for children about nine years old, and particularly for two overcoats for boys. The Soldiers' Comforts Committee asked for gramophone records, soap, writing pads and envelopes to be sent to the men at the front.

It was decided that instead of the three hundred pairs of socks previously voted for the fifth mounted rifles, that six hundred pairs would be sent. 

Tomorrow is the Red Cross sewing meeting of the League and, while last week's meeting was largely attended, the ladies would like it to be known that others would be welcome.  They have now ten sewing machines for the purpose of Red Cross work."

Sometime during 1915 the League edited and published a fundraising cookbook, imaginatively titled The Cook Book.  Chapters include witticisms such as "How to Preserve a Husband" and advice on "Good Rules for Housekeeping".   I wonder if Ida Rutherford or Minnie Scott contributed recipes?  Unfortunately, I can't find an image of it, but it is described in Culinary Landmarks:  A Bibliography of Canadian Cookbooks, 1825-1949 by Elizabeth Driver.

"The Cook Book.

Q86.1 1915

The/ cook book/ edited by the/ Westmount Soldiers'/ Wives' League/ Westmount Canada.

DESCRIPTION:  22.5 x 150 cm... Small tp illustration of soldier (2  cm high)...Thin card, with image on front, drawn in art-nouveau style, of a woman carrying a plate;  stapled...

Notes:  the aim  of publication, according to p 3,  was "to augment [the Leagues'] Treasury and provide further comforts, etc. for "Our soldier boys at the Front."  Arthur G. Racey...who did the cover design, was a cartoonist at the Montreal Star at the time The Cook Book was published.  Albert Samuel Brodeur, Alberic Bourgeois, Georges La Tour...and Napoleon Savard were book illustrators."   

 Towards the end of the year the League tackled another new enterprise.  This is from the Montreal Gazette, December 1, 1915:

FUND FOR WIDOWS

WESTMOUNT SOLDIERS' WIVES' LEAGUE MAKING PROVISION

"The Westmount Soldiers' Wives' League, at their meeting yesterday morning, voted $1,000 of the eighteen hundred of so which they cleared at their bazaar, as the nucleus of a fund for widows and orphans of soldiers.  They hope to add to this fund from time to time.

The sum of $25 was voted to Captain Bateman to be used for tobacco for the officers and men coming aboard the hospital ship of which he has charge, running between France and England.  

Arrangements were made to send five hundred pairs of socks to Lt-Col. Gunn for the men of the twenty-fourth and five hundred to Lt.-Col. Fisher for the twenty-third....as owing to the condition of the trenches a great many socks are required..."

Here's a snippet on the importance of lots and lots of socks in the trenches from the Australian history journal InsideHistory: 

“Woolen socks were vital during the war and had to be hand knitted to exact standards so they were seamless and comfortable. Aussie soldiers in the cold and muddy trenches needed a continuous supply of clean, dry socks to protect them against the debilitating ‘trench foot’ and they were often sent in ‘comfort boxes’ with cigarettes, food and mail. “The Library’s extensive WW1 collection includes over 900 diaries, with many entries revealing how socks were an obsession for many boys, along with letters and their pay.”

The League seems to have been a very business-like organization, whose mandate stretched as the War went on.  It seems that our women threw themselves into the cause within months of the War's declaration.  Ida (Bulmer) Rutherford chaired the first meeting, which suggests that she may have been  a driving force among Westmount society during her time.