Memories of Wagga Wagga: Anzac Day 2020 : Soldiers letters and the Soldiers Comforts Funds in the World Wars

Servicemen and a servicewoman in the ACF office (taken for the Australian Comforts Fund) WW2

Photograph courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales

It's Anzac Day again, and I recently rediscovered an aspect of country town life during the world wars last century, that was extremely important - the role that the Soldiers Comfort Funds played in helping the soldiers at war and the people they left behind. It gave the soldiers much needed supplies and food, and enabled those at home to help, and feel connected to their loved ones in a time of massive uncertainty and sorrow.

The comfort funds supplied soldiers with foods, hygiene products such as soap, razors, as well as newspapers, books, socks and mittens, and was an amazing volunteer effort across Australia in country towns big and small, and in the suburbs and cities. The volunteers gathered together to pack the items to be sent, they knitted the socks and mittens, they cooked the biscuits and fruitcakes, and they donated their money and time to bring these comforting items to the troops.

Images Above : left, from the Daily Advertiser,

Thursday 6 April 1916 . Right, from the Daily Advertiser, 23 September 1915

The Australian Comforts Fund was created in 1916 to bring together all the little organisations that had formed earlier in WW1 in Australia to raise funds for the war effort. In the meetings held in Wagga letters from the soldiers were read out, balls of wool were handed out to the knitters in the group, and stalls and other ways of raising money were organised. When local soldiers died , their names were read out, and the meeting would hold a minutes silence for them.

Soldiers wrote home with vivid descriptions of what was happening to them, to thank those who sent them care packages, to stay in touch with their family and friends. The Daily Advertiser printed some of the letters, and provided instructions on how to address letters to those fighting overseas:

Images above: left, from the Daily Advertiser, Friday 3 December. 1915. Right, from the Daily Advertiser, Tuesday 11 July 1916.

The first formation of the Australian Comforts Fund was disbanded in April of 1920, but was started again in 1939 to again bring comforts and other useful items to the soldiers. The great work the comforts funds and their volunteers did continued through World War 2.

The range of items supplied was expanded to cover really anything that could be shipped, that was needed- small stoves, radios, sports equipment, you name it , it could be supplied. Books were collected and donated to Service Libraries.

Left : from the Daily Advertiser, Thursday 6 May 1943.

Books were collected all over Australia, and donated to the Service Libraries, and some of the books donated were quite ancient, such as the example below ( images from a private collection) . This 1868 edition of Sir Walter Scott's poems, was probably read quite a bit, as poetry was a bigger part of everyday life than it is now, being read, quoted, learnt by heart, and discussed. Reading material of any kind was a prized item, as were little notebooks and pencils, which were also distributed to the troops.

The Australian Comforts Fund, and all the auxiliary organisations and committees that worked for the combined Wagga war effort, were extraordinarily organised and completed a massive amount of work over the course of the war. These activities , and the meetings of the organisations, were reported in the Daily Advertiser, and reading them now, gives a very detailed record of the time.

Troops again, as they did in the first world war, wrote letters to their home towns, to their families, thanking them for the gifts of food and other supplies they received while fighting at the various theatres of war. A simple gift of a Christmas cake, or tobacco, clean socks, biscuits and newspapers, had a huge impact on the fighting men, who had so little.

Above: from the Daily Advertiser, Wednesday 3 July 1940

Other events held included soldiers farewells - Wagga Wagga and the towns in the surrounding districts wanted to send off their soldiers properly, and would hold afternoon teas, or dinners, sometimes accompanied by music.

Above: from the Daily Advertiser, Tuesday 13 May 1941

One of the most welcome items the troops received was the hamper at Christmas - items included were :

"...plum pudding, cake, small tin of fruit, tinned cream, razor blades and tobacco and were donated or sponsored by members of the public".

(Australian Comforts Fund World War II, 1939-1946, Museums Victoria Collections, viewed 25 April 2020)

Last, but not least, a recipe for Anzac biscuits, not the earliest printed, but from the Lismore newspaper Northern Star in February 1929- with controversial adjustments :-)