During the First World War, Mary Winifred was a volunteer with the 26th Devon Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment from November 1915 until March 1919. The hospital in which Mary Winifred worked as an unpaid volunteer was housed in Torquay Town Hall.
With thanks to Debbie Cameron for finding Mary Winifred's Red Cross VAD record card.
M. Winifred Wedgwood's WW1 poetry collection, "Verses of a V.A.D. kitchen-maid" was published by Gregory & Scott, Torquay in 1917.
“Christmas 1916: Thoughts in a V.A.D. Hospital Kitchen”
There’s no Xmas leave for us scullions,
We’ve got to keep on with the grind;
Just cooking for Britain’s heroes,
But, bless you! We don’t really mind.
We’ve scores and scores of potatoes,
And cabbages also to do,
And onions, and turnips, and what not,
That go in the Irish Stew.
We’re baking and frying and boiling,
From morning until night;
But we’ve got to keep on a bit longer,
Till Victory comes in sight.
Then there’s cutting the thin bread and butter,
For the men who are very ill;
But we feel we’re well rewarded;
For they’ve fought old Kaiser Bill.
Yes! We’ve got to hold on a while longer,
Till we’ve beaten the Hun to his knees;
And then ‘Goodbye’ to the kitchen;
The treacle, the jam and the cheese.
by M. Winifred Wedgwood
Source: Catherine W. Reilly "English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography" (St. Martin's Press, New York, 1978)
