We have a duty to care for war orphans and widows (From Surrey Comet)

We have a duty to care for war orphans and widows

11:48am Thursday 13th November 2008

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The nation’s media this week has been full of the 90th anniversary of the First World War and it is right that we continue to remember those who fell in that dreadful conflict.

In doing so, let us also remember the personal suffering of those left behind, the widows and orphans.

Losing a husband and father was tragedy enough, but in the decades before the welfare state, they also lost their sole means of financial support.

Cast into destitution and unable to provide for their young families, many war widows had little choice but to give up their children into whatever care they could find – often a long way from the family home.

So, having lost a father, young children effectively “lost” their mothers and families too.

Many of the young girls who lost fathers in the First World War were sent to us in Wandsworth. The Royal Victoria Patriotic Building on Wandsworth Common was built as a national orphanage for the daughters of British servicemen killed in the Crimean War.

Over the next eighty years it was “home” to more than 4,000 girls, who lost their fathers in that and subsequent conflicts. Next year – 2009 – marks the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first girls at the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building.

Earlier this year I had the privilege of meeting a few of the women who were sent there after the First World War – some as young as three years old. Their stories were tragic, moving, humorous and inspirational – and all the more remarkable for recalling a time still within “living memory”.

Those of us born to later generations who continue to benefit from their sacrifice and that of their fathers should ensure they remain so.

SIMON McNEILL-RITCHIE
Royal Victoria Patriotic Building

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