Hal Rogers Archive

From District 8 Kin

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[edit] Milk For Britain Letter

KINSMEN AND THE W.V.R.S.

It was in 1938 just before the infamous Munich agreement was signed, that Lady Stella Reading gathered a few women to form the Women’s Voluntary Services later the Women’s Royal Voluntary Services Shortly after, she asked Elsa Dunbar to join the group and to be in charge of publicity and the distribution of all gifts from overseas once war started.

Women from all over England, Scotland and Wales volunteered in droves and before long numbered a million. They manned canteens to serve tea to firefighters and service men and women during the blitz and they found safe homes for thousands of children in the countryside who had to be evacuated from danger zones and monitored their subsequent care.

It was because of their role in the distribution of Kin milk that Kinsmen became aware of the key role they would play, under Elsa Dunbar’s direction, in the success of the “Milk for Britain” campaign. The following letter from Elsa to my father in 1943 makes clear how children were cared for in nurseries and how anxious the W.V.S was to have assurance that Kin milk would continue to arrive even after the loss at sea of one shipment.

It is important to read the notes at the end of the letter because they serve as a follow-up to the letter.

Diane Rogers,
Nov 11 2001

Two more consignments of milk powder have arrived recently and I am sending you the receipts. We have unfortunately heard to-day that 1200 drums have been lost on the s.s.”Africa and we had to console ourselves with the thought that on the whole we really have been very lucky with the dried milk you have sent us in not losing more.

At our Receiving Nursery in London yesterday, I was told how very useful your milk is being. There is a definite allowance of milk for every child in the country, but it is difficult when, as in the case of the Receiving Nurseries, the children only spend about thirty six hours in one place, to make the necessary arrangements in advance for the right supply of milk each day. Each nursery can deal with about 30 children at a time, but sometimes there are only a small number of arrivals for evacuation and other days, particularly after a raid on London, a lot of children turn up. The Nurseries act as a clearing house for the under fives leaving London for War Nurseries in the country. When the children arrive they have some tapes sewn around their ankles with their names on so that there can be no mistake in identification. There has been only one mistake in all the 5000 who have passed through the three Nurseries and that was because when a small boy was asked which Jean was his sister he pointed to the wrong Jean to whom he had taken a fancy and it was some time before the mistake was discovered. The children are bathed and put into nursery clothes - and where necessary deloused! - and their own clothes gone through and where they are not warm enough or in good enough condition, their wardrobes made up from the nursery stocks. During their stay in the nursery the children have a medical examination and after this are ready to go off by train or car to the Nursery in the country. You can imagine that all this coming and going of children makes the catering arrangements very difficult and the one thing one is always needing is milk for puddings, and sometimes for drinking.

All our canteens and in fact anybody who is catering in every part of the country is being implored to use potatoes wherever possible instead of bread and so many potato dishes can be made appetising with the use of milk and there is obviously going to be increasing value set upon every ounce we receive.

I think we shall soon look on everyone who nibbles a roll in a restaurant as a criminal and are already finding ourselves thinking twice before taking a mouthful of bread. It is very interesting to see the effect of the “Eat more Potatoes” Campaign on the ordinary housewive. For so long she has been having it dinned into her that she must economise on fuel and her immediate response when asked to eat more potatoes instead of bread is “but what about the cooking” and we are having to explain in detail how it takes more fuel as well as shipping space to bring wheat to England than it ever will to cook the potatoes.

We have recently had several enquiries about the future of shipments of dried milk from Canada from people who, quite obviously are looking well ahead and are determined not to use up all they are getting now unless they can count on more, and I don’t know whether you are in a position to give me, confidentially, any idea of your future policy. This sounds most dreadfully grasping, I know, but please don’t think it is meant in this way. We are getting so used to looking ahead six or twelve months that it is becoming almost second nature. I shall be grateful if you can give me any line which will help me in telling people just how much they should conserve and how much they can go ahead using. We know we have got a difficult year in front of us and that conditions are likely to grow more and more austere, and I feel you will understand my asking whether you can give me any sort of information on which to base our present distribution arrangements.”

“H.A. Rogers Esq.,
Association of Kinsmen Clubs of Canada,
26 Wellington Street East.
Toronto, Canada. 13th February 1943.

NOTE:
1. This letter was written originally on onion paper which has been lost. The photo copy was difficult to read and so this typed copy was made by Diane Rogers, daughter of Founder Hal Rogers, for Kinsmen records on Nov. 11, 2001.The W.V.S. heading and signature were added from a photo copy of the original.

2. It is interesing that in this letter Elsa Dunbar addressed my father as “Mr. Rogers”. They were soon on a first name basis which lasted during his lifetime. Little did she dream that her plea on Feb.13,1943 for more information re: future milk shipments would result in a total of 50,000,000 quarts of dried milk being sent by the end of the war. Only one other shipment was sunk. This occurred in the Halifax harbour and the drums of milk recovered. Insurance was collected by the Kinsmen for the loss she referred to at the beginning of her letter and replacement milk purchased. Later correspondence revealed that many poor British children were unused to drinking milk so a hesitant request was made for the addition of chocolate. Elsa Dunbar and Lady Reading were afraid that if they asked for chocolate, Kinsmen might be offended. The Kinsmen, however, readily complied. Dried chocolate milk was sent and became popular with the children. Contrary to the report in the 85th Kin Anniversary Magazine, after chocolate milk was requested, it was sent until the “Milk for Britain” campaign ended.

3. During the war, the W.V.S. was given royal status because of its war work and became the Women’s Royal Voluntary Services - a designation of which they were very proud. After the war, Lady Reading was made a Dame by King George VI, Elsa was given the O.B.E. followed by the C.B.E., and Hal Rogers was given the O.B.E. on the recommendation of Lady Reading.

4. In 1998, Diane Rogers was privileged to spend three days with Elsa at her home in Chobham, Surrey. The Rogers family had kept in touch with her after she stayed at their home on her visit to Canada in 1946 to thank Kin for their wonderful war effort. They visited her several times over the year including a trip in 1983. Then, after visiting Vimy Ridge in France with his grandson Steven and his wife Barbara, Hal Rogers visited Elsa to say goodbye. He was 84 years of age. Elsa died in early Feb. 2000 at her home “Ailsa Craig” a month short of her 93rd birthday.