A Practical, Conscientious, Modest and Caring Network
To research the role of the WI in Aberystwyth, and its hinterland, proved to be a challenge but the records held at Ceredigion Archives show that the team work that took place was immense. Well-connected, the branches of the Women’s Institute across Ceredigion were part of a British network of exceptionally well-organised and hardworking women. Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother was a member of the Women’s Institute. The Ceredigion Archives hold a copy of her letter of appreciation:
WI membership steadily increased during WWII, each local branch averaged around fifty-five willing workers. The WI rallied around and jumped to it where a need was identified. The varied WI activities are best summarised as focused on practical steps to boost morale, support and feed the community, in its broadest sense, and educate their members. Mrs Jones of Llanfarian’s membership card, below, underlines the ideals to which hundreds of women across Ceredigion gave their time, their money and their energy.
Most of the local branches of the Women’s Institute in Ceredigion were inaugurated in 1925. During their Remembrance event of that year, WI wartime service was identified as team work, the least they could have done. Women, glad to enjoy some comradeship as rural mothers, waited in fear, and relative isolation, for the arrival of the postman each day. To receive a telegram, telling of the death of one of their sons felt inevitable. As they found out more about the circumstances of that death, and the interment of the body overseas, to learn details of that stark tragedy was important. Bronwen, from the Ceredigion Federation of Women’s Institutes, recalls her Mamgu telling her that, when the padre conducted the internment service in Welsh, knowledge of the soldier’s mother tongue was a comfort. The sense that someone had known the soldier and acknowledged their identity made it feel as if their life had counted.
Throughout WWII the Women’s Institute held half yearly meetings and each local group sent a representative to the annual meeting in London. Business meetings were generally held in the evenings, after the day’s work. In Llanarth, in 1940, a meeting could not take place as there was no proper blackout in the schoolroom. The Education Committee was required to rectify the situation as a matter of urgency. Restrictions were biting by 1943 in Llanarth. Visitors and delegates were supposed to bring their own sandwiches to a meeting and small cakes were available for them to buy.
The annual Horticultural Show was still being held but, with men away at the front, a rota of supervisors for stalls was agreed. In May 1944, a Ministry of Food official visited to give a talk, and members supervised the local jam preservation scheme. With food shortages across Britain, bottling and jam making was crucial to provide nutrition. The network of WIs provided coordination. Food committees were set up and classes on war time cookery. Here’s a flavour of what they were making and the issues of supply that were troubling them:
And of course, any effort required hand written correspondence, and to await a response. The emporium in Tregaron raised issues of concern about the fair distribution of sugar for jam making. The WI made sure that rural areas were not overlooked. And the markets continued, ever more dependent on local produce.
The records reveal an amusing tale, discretely told. The Llanarth Chair had promised that the group would entertain and provide refreshments for the RAF band, in 1945, which was to lead the Wings of Victory Procession. Too late she realised there were fifty people due to attend. Despite rationing, which was clearly foremost in the groups minds when panic set in, a wry comment was recorded. A promise had been made so they’d best get on with it. The RAF band members were not asked to bring their own sandwiches!
Penparcau WI records provide a list of the kinds of classes and practical activities that were carried out across Ceredigion: cookery, fruit bottling, rhubarb canning, horticulture, lectures on First Aid, dressmaking, candle-wicking, knitting. If you are not familiar with candle-wicking, it is a way of making inexpensive fabrics warmer, by pulling soft bunches of threads through a backing fabric. Most commonly used for bedspreads, it was adapted for some war-time fashions.
Llangeithio added wartime alterations to the standard list of classes. Borth group reported, with regret, that they failed to meet for three months in the summer of 1941. The note to HQ includes a reminder that Borth is a holiday resort where members were busy boosting morale through holiday businesses, looking after evacuees, being active in the Women’s Voluntary Service, and making jam. Attendance at meetings may have waned seasonally; the work did not. Beetle drives and whist drives combined fun and fund raising. And the WI’s heart strings were pulled in the direction of many worth causes. They maintained sub-committees for tea and entertainments, kept their keep fit classes going, and organised Poppy Day collections each year.
Perhaps the most striking, the records reveal how outward-looking the WI work was. At a time of enormous hardship, no cause was dismissed. Miss Thomas, Aberaeron branch, was thanked for sending clothing to support the people of Holland during their liberation. Collections were made, in January 1945, for the Land Army Benevolent Fund and Dr Barnardos. Pulling at the heart strings, mothers across Ceredigion were urged to give generously. And the British Empire Cancer Campaign received a range of generous donations.
Other highlights from the various branches around Aberystwyth include the examples below:
Aberaeron branch maintained their regular round of competitions in 1940, and on May 1st they were urged to form a national savings group. Skeptical about the notion of national savings, they formed a local savings group. A speaker, Miss RM Evans NDD delivered ‘a very timely talk entitled ‘The Wartime Diet’. On May 30th the topic was household economy, and the members were told that the local hospital needed special articles. The meeting agreed to collect the required articles. Details are not recorded; a donation of two guineas from WI funds supplemented the articles.
For the second meeting in July members were urged to bring their own fruit for preservation, to be carried out at a local centre. On October 30th there was obvious pride in managing to meet, ‘despite boisterous weather conditions’. With keeping warm a priority, on November 27th they learnt about felt glove making. Entertainments remained high on the priorities, a morale boosting drama competition ran alongside the competition for the best jelly. Membership of the Aberaeron branch stood at fifty-nine in 1940 and burgeoned to seventy-seven by 1942. In 1944 there was a talk by a French refugee about her experiences. And morale boosting included links with overseas pen friends.
Rhydypennau ran sub-committees on: catering, drama, whist drives, fruit preservation, canteen work, national savings and salvage. Make-do and mend, and dressmaking were their most popular classes. Prayer meetings were held every night. And, astonishingly their records show that they collected 300 eggs for the hospital for one of their meetings.
Llanarth branch report states that ‘During the war all business was carried out in the general class, when two or three committee members were always present. It was too difficult to do otherwise.’ Their food committee was very active and held classes on war time cookery. Diet seems to have been their chief concern. In 1941 a scheme was launched for the ‘distribution of Cod Liver Oil to children under 2 years of age’. Yuck, yuck! Can you picture all those screwed up faces? It was good for them for sure. The Llanarth committee were particularly financially minded. They decided, for their weekly classes, starting on 18th November 1941, to raise additional funds for their good works, they would fine anyone who arrived late the sum of 2d. Whilst across all of the branches there was never a complaint about hardship or hard work, it is clear that the pinch was being felt by May 1943.
Eglwysfach branch ordered sugar for preservation in bulk from the retailers. And just one example of emotional support offered, a tragically regular feature of the WI work, was recorded in some detail in the ‘sincere notes of condolence [which] were passed to Mr and Mrs Rowlands and Mr and Mrs Morris in their very sad and sudden bereavements’.
On March 20th 1941, Eglwysfach benefitted from the talk Mr Jenkins MSc of Aberystwyth gave on ‘Garden Pests and Diseases and How to Deal with Them’. Maximising production of fruit and veg was crucial for the war effort.
Penllwyn offered an apology to the confederation: ‘we have not held any institute meeting at all since the holiday last June. Then owing to the blackout and evacuees, members would not and could not come’. Their activities continues nonetheless and a representative attended the annual meeting in London. Later their records reveal that ‘special’ work for Women’s Voluntary Service took the time they would have spent in meetings. Part of the reason for the lack of committee meetings was the requisitioning of meeting rooms, church halls and vestries, by the forces. Thrift needlework talks were held in a member’s home.
On 8 May 1945, Germany surrendered. ‘The President read a letter from the Clerk of the Urban District Council in which he said Miss Thomas, as WI President, had been appointed to serve on a committee to make arrangements for victory celebrations, and the WI Secretary, as another member, was appointed with her.’ And on 19th June a picnic was held on Aberaeron beach.
Blog by Alison Elliott
Images courtesy of Archifdy Ceredigion Archives
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