Group    From 8/7/1915  To 1919

Silver Thimble Fund

Categories: Benefactor

Miss {Elizabeth} H. E. Hope-Clarke of Wimbledon, inspired by her own damaged silver thimble, started collecting damaged or unwanted thimbles and other trinkets to contribute to the war effort. She launched the appeal in The Times newspaper in 1915. Undamaged items were sold, others were melted down.

Your Local Guardian tells the story: "Miss Hope-Clarke and her sister were soon joined by Lady Maud Wilbraham and a staff of volunteers. Some 60,000 thimbles were rapidly converted into two ambulances as vast quantities of trinkets arrived at the Hope-Clarkes’ Wimbledon house {2 Church Road}, which remained the fund’s headquarters for nearly the entire period of the war."

Queen Alexandra, the King's mother, became the patron of the fund which went international, to the colonies and beyond. Closed down at the end of the Great War, the charity was re-established in WW2.

Our picture shows one of the ambulances bought by the fund.

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This section lists the memorials created by the subject on this page:
Silver Thimble Fund

Creations i

Thimble shelters - north

The navy has been referred to as "Britain's sure shield" since, at least, Tra...

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Thimble shelters - south

{On the panel, facing the Palace:} Erected by "The Silver Thimble Fund", 1919...

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Other Subjects

Blanche Esther Barnett

Blanche Esther Barnett

Blanche Esther Berliner was born on 4 November 1876 in Bristol, Gloucestershire, the eldest of the three children of Berman Berliner (1848-1913) and Helen Harriet Benjamin Berliner née Thoemin (1...

Person, Benefactor

1 memorial
Richard Moore

Richard Moore

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Person, Benefactor, Sculpture

1 memorial
Sir John Everett Millais

Sir John Everett Millais

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Person, Art, Benefactor

5 memorials

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Leigh Hunt

Leigh Hunt

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Person, Literature, Poetry

6 memorials
Avondale Park

Avondale Park

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6 subjects commemorated
Missions to Seamen Institute

Missions to Seamen Institute

From Port Cities: " ... the Missions to Seamen organization {was} founded in 1856. Its task was to coordinate the work of various Anglican ministries on behalf of seamen.  The organization's most o...

Group, Social Welfare

1 memorial
4th Battalion (Royal Fusiliers)

4th Battalion (Royal Fusiliers)

London unit which served in WW1.

Group, Armed Forces

1 memorial
Charles Cheers, Baron Wakefield of Hythe CGE, LLD

Charles Cheers, Baron Wakefield of Hythe CGE, LLD

Charles Cheers Wakefield was born and raised in Liverpool. (Cheers was his mother's maiden name). Became an oil-broker, founding his own firm in 1899, C.C. Wakefield & Co. later Wakefield Oil C...

Person, Commerce, Lord Mayor, Philanthropy, Politics & Administration

1 memorial