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

Mark Leonard Trust

Mark Leonard Trust

Charitable Trust.

Group, Benefactor

1 memorial
Gilbert Johnstone

Gilbert Johnstone

Hon. Gilbert Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone. See his brother Francis for family information. President of the Eton Mission Rowing Club in 1934. Attended Eton, leaving before 1883. The Eton House (pdf dow...

Person, Benefactor, Children, Social Welfare

1 memorial
Lady Mount-Temple

Lady Mount-Temple

Wife of Lord Mount-Temple.

Person, Benefactor

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Leigh Hunt

Leigh Hunt

Poet. Born Southgate. Named 'James Henry Leigh Hunt' after the Duke of Chandos, James Henry Leigh, who was employing Hunt's father, a preacher, as tutor to his nephew at the time of Hunt's birth. F...

Person, Literature, Poetry

6 memorials
Avondale Park

Avondale Park

W11, Walmer Road, The Lodge, Miss Delaney's Nursery School

From RBKC: "Avondale Park, at the top of Pottery Lane, was created in 1892 when the area that had been a huge fetid pool known as "the oc...

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
Public Record Office

Public Record Office

Known as ‘The Strong Box of the Empire’, the Public Record Office was created as a repository for parliamentary records after the 1834 fire which destroyed much of the Palace of Westminster, where ...

Group, Museums / Libraries, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
4th Battalion (Royal Fusiliers)

4th Battalion (Royal Fusiliers)

London unit which served in WW1.

Group, Armed Forces

1 memorial