AID

[Lady Clementine Churchill and the Red Cross Aid to Russia Fund.] Facsimile of a signed autograph letter by the wife of Sir Winston Churchill, a circular to thank contributors to the fund.

Author: 
Lady Clementine Churchill (1885-1977), wife of Sir Winston Churchill; Red Cross Aid to Russia Fund
Publication details: 
Facsimile of letter dated November 1941 and on 10 Downing Street letterhead.
£50.00

According to her entry in the Oxford DNB: ' Also in 1941 she embarked upon what became the most substantial public work she ever undertook when she became chairman of the Red Cross Aid to Russia Fund. Of the £9,000,000 collected in Britain to help the USSR, ‘Mrs Churchill's Fund’, as it was popularly known, raised £6,700,000. In March–May 1945, at the invitation of the Russian Red Cross, she visited Russia to inspect many of the institutions equipped or otherwise helped by her fund.

[Isobel Cripps [Lady Cripps], overseas aid organizer.] Two duplicated Second World War handbills, in the form of facsimiles of Autograph Letters Signed, regarding the British United Aid to China Fund.

Author: 
Isobel Cripps [Lady Cripps; née Swithinbank] (1891-1979), overseas aid organizer, wife of Labour politician Sir Stafford Cripps [British United Aid to China Fund]
Publication details: 
Neither printed handbill dated, but both dating from the Second World War. Both on London letterheads: one for 13 Regent Street, SW1; the other for 57 New Bond Street, W1.
£50.00

Two scarce pieces of wartime ephemera. See her entry, and that of her husband, in the Oxford DNB. The former explains how, during the Second World War, Lady Cripps was president of the British United Aid to China Fund, and that in 1946 ‘she undertook an extensive and arduous tour of China’, being entertained by both Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong. The journey was ‘one of 30,000 miles which included travel by air, sea, road, rail, and truck. Most of the great cities of China were visited and to see co-operative work in rural areas the Gansu Desert was crossed by lorry.

[The Royal Aid in Bristol, 1666.] Two Manuscript Assessments of 'three moneths Royall Aide mony' (land and goods) for 58 individuals, each signed by four mayors of Bristol: John Willougby, Walter Sandby, Sir John Knight and John Lawford.

Author: 
[The Royal Aid in Bristol, 1666.] Mayors of Bristol: John Willougby of the Society of Merchant Venturers; Walter Sandby; Sir John Knight; John Lawford
Publication details: 
Both Bristol, 1666.
£850.00

Ainsworth's 'Thesaurus' (1752) neatly defines 'The Royal Aid, or subsidy money' as 'tributum quod regi ex plebiscito in sumptus belli, &c. praestatur'. It was a one-off household tax, set by assessors and collected locally. (For further information see M. J. Braddick's 2013 paper 'Resistance to the Royal Aid and Further Supply in Chester, 1664–1672'.) The present two documents are each laid out in identical fashion, the two carrying different assessments for 'Land' and 'Goods' for the same 58 individuals.

[Reformatory and Refuge Union, London.] Three issues of 'The Classified List of Child-Saving Institutions, certified by Government or connected with the Reformatory and Refuge Union or Children's Aid Society.

Author: 
[The Reformatory and Refuge Union or Children's Aid Society, London; Arthur J. S. Maddison]
Publication details: 
All three: London: Reformatory and Refuge Union, the first (15th ed, 1897) from 32 Charing Cross, S.W., and the other two (19th ed., 1909; 21st ed., 1915) from Victoria House, 117, Victoria Street, S.W.
£380.00

The three items in uniform light-blue wraps. Housed in a worn solander box with brass clasp. With labels, stamps and shelfmarks of the Board of Education Reference Library. The first of the three 128pp., 8vo. Bound with 'The Law relating to Child-Saving and Reformatory Effecs. Being extracts from Acts of Parliament And other Information. Compiled by Arthur J. S. Maddison' (London: Reformatory and Refuge Union, 1896), 91 + [1]pp., 8vo. The second item is 139 pp., 8vo, and the third 160pp., 8vo.

[Lady Muriel Paget.] Typed Letter Signed to Ernest Frederick Gye, congratulating him on his diplomatic posting to Tangier.

Author: 
Lady Muriel Paget [Lady Muriel Evelyn Vernon Paget, née Finch-Hatton] (1876-1938), humanitarian relief worker [Ernest Frederick Gye (1879-1955), diplomat, son of Ernest Gye and Dame Emma Albani]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 'British Subjects in Russia Relief Association (1930)'. 30 January 1933.
£90.00

1p., 4to. On aged paper, with slight damage at margin and head, not affecting text. She congratulates him 'on the news that I have read in this morning's paper'. She is sorry 'that there are probably no D.B.S. in Tangier', but hopes that 'some day you will go "en poste" to U.S.S.R.' She concludes by thanking him 'for all that you have done to help us with the work for D.B.S. in Russia'.

[Lady Muriel Paget.] Typed Letter Signed to Ernest Frederick Gye, congratulating him on his diplomatic posting to Tangier.

Author: 
Lady Muriel Paget [Lady Muriel Evelyn Vernon Paget, née Finch-Hatton] (1876-1938), humanitarian relief worker [Ernest Frederick Gye (1879-1955), diplomat, son of Ernest Gye and Dame Emma Albani]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 'British Subjects in Russia Relief Association (1930)'. 30 January 1933.
£90.00

1p., 4to. On aged paper, with slight damage at margin and head, not affecting text. She congratulates him 'on the news that I have read in this morning's paper'. She is sorry 'that there are probably no D.B.S. in Tangier', but hopes that 'some day you will go "en poste" to U.S.S.R.' She concludes by thanking him 'for all that you have done to help us with the work for D.B.S. in Russia'.

[An young English Quaker relief worker in Germany.] Seven Autograph Letters Signed from 'David' [to the Tennant family?], describing in vivid terms his work in Lower Saxony (Harzburg, HIldersheim, Goslar) in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Author: 
'David', a young English Quaker relief worker in Germany [The Tennant family of High Wycombe; British Army of the Rhine; Friends Relief Service]
Publication details: 
The first five from 124 Friends Relief Section [or 'Service'] (Quakers), B.A.O.R. [British Army of the Rhine]; the sixth letter from 17 Friends Relief Section; seventh from Work-Camp at Hildesheim,. Between March and July 1947.
£650.00

66pp., 12mo. In very good condition, on lightly-aged paper, each of the letters kept together with rusty staples. All the letters are signed 'David' and addressed to 'My Dear All'. Accompanying them is an envelope addressed in another hand to S. W. J. Tennant, Beechcote, Brands Hill Avenue, High Wycombe, and this may provide a clue to the identity of the recipients, to whom 'David' makes it clear on a couple of occasions that he is not related, signing off one letter 'from your muddle-headed friend'.

[Printed pamphlet.] Poems from the Diary of a V. A. D. By Carrie Portelly.

Author: 
Carrie Portelly (1893-1966), V.A.D., of Buckfast, Devon [Voluntary Aid Detachment; field nurse; nursing]
Publication details: 
Printed by Edwin Trim & Co. Ltd. Wimbledon S.W.19. Undated, but individual poems dated between September 1938 and October 1942.
£250.00

[1] + 38pp., 12mo. Stapled into brown printed wraps, with the title and printer's slug on the cover, which also carries the price of two shillings and sixpence. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Introductory note reads: 'These few pages refer to war-time troubles at home and in hospital, and other people's love laments. C.P.' Unpretentious poetry, giving an insight into the work of a V.A.D.

Autograph Letter Signed Herschell, Lord Chancellor, to unnamed woman, concerning the Children's Aid Society of which, as he says, he was President .

Author: 
Farrer Herschell, first Baron Herschell (DNB)(1837–1899), lord chancellor.
Publication details: 
[Printed heading] 46 Grosvenor Gardens, SW [London] 31 January 1896.
£250.00

Three pages, 12mo, some staining, but text clear and complete. In asking your consideration of the claims of the Childrens' Aid Society a Branch of the Reformatory & Refuge Union of which I am the President, I am not seeking your help for a mere experiment but for work which has been in progress now for nearly forty years with marked success. By means of this Society large numbers of children have been rescued from criminal & vicious surroundings, from the almost certain fate of a future of dishonesty & vice, & have become honest & honourable men & women and useful members of society.

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