Comforts for Bedfordshire Territorials

26 September 1916: Readers receive an update on the work of the Bedfordshire Territorial Comforts Fund for men serving overseas. Bedford has sent a variety of packages, comprising 1000 mosquito nets, wrist watches, 50 dozen handkerchiefs, tins of boiled sweets, pipes and a regular fortnightly supply of tobacco and cigarettes. Lieutenant New of Bedford wrote on behalf of the officers’ mess to thank the subscribers to the fund for the supply of cigarettes and cigars that arrived last Wednesday, writing:

‘They came at a most opportune moment, for the summer weather which we have been having the last six weeks has been very exacting, and I do not think that up to now one has been really able to enjoy a smoke. However, now that the heat has died down we are greatly enjoying both cigarettes and cigars. The Regiment is going strong, but don’t think it will be at all unhappy when it takes a more active part again in another zone.’

Source: Bedford Record 26/09/1916

Two years earlier, children at Livingstone Lower School in Bedford had been busy making knitted body belts for the Bedfordshire Territorials, funded by the Whitbread family. The wool was obtained from the Scotch Wool House on the High Street, Bedford:

Headmaster's correspondence, 24 September 1914 (Ref: SDBedfordLIV6/3)