The YMCA in War -Anniversary Review Part 4

For many people, the name of the YMCA conjures up memories of the organization’s work during the two world wars. Through its work with the forces and their families, civilian victims of war and prisoners of war, the organization touched more people and gained more publicity and recognition than ever before. In 1917 the association was mentioned 143 times in the “Times” newspaper - more than at any other time before or since.

Certainly, during the first world war, the YMCA suddenly began to come into contact with a much broader section of society. Work with soldiers had first begun in Britain in 1890 when Colonel Goldsmith, a YMCA president in Devonport, suggested the association should provide activities and support at Summer training camps for army volunteers. Over the next few years, the YMCA became involved with the expanding Territorial Army.

Interior of World War One YMCA hut at the Sling Plantation, Salisbury Plain

The moment war broke out in 1914, the YMCA immediately put out an appeal for £ 25,000 to fund emergency war work. The money was raised within days! By the end of the war, the total raised to support YMCA emergency work in Britain had reached  £ 3.75 million.

 The main focus of the YMCA’s working during the first war was the YMCA hut. Built-in cities, villages and railway stations in England and along the front lines and baselines of the French battlefields, these huts provided a comfortable, relaxing retreat for soldiers. They supplied food, a place to rest and stationery for letters home. It was during this period that the red triangle was adopted as an easy-to-recognize emblem of the movement, and through the wartime stationary, it became well-known.

       

           A YMCA hut at Codford, near Salisbury

One mother wrote in gratitude to the YMCA:“ I want to thank you for what your association has done for my boy. When the war broke out he went to the Crystal Palace for his training and found YMCA there a boom. He was sent to Blandford to complete his training and the YMCA was there. He was drafted to Gallipoli and to his amazement he found YMCA in the Peninsula. He was wounded and sent to Suez where once more the YMCA was a great help to him. And yesterday I received a letter from him from Alexandria to say he was convalescing and spending the whole of his spare time in the YMCA building.”

 To meet the desperate need for volunteers for the YMCA’s war work, the National Woman’s Auxiliary was set up, with Princess Helena Victoria at its head. 50,000  women were recruited during the course of the war. As well as providing a place to relax, the YMCA also began an education programme of lectures, discussions, and concerts, which was later taken on by the Army and became their Royal Army Education Corps.

World War One YMCA Dug-out at Bristol

 Not only did the YMCA work with British troops, it also worked worldwide with prisoners of war of all nationalities. The World Alliance of YMCAs co-ordinated work which included food and troops imprisoned in Germany, an industrial programme and mail service for prisoners in Russia, education in Italy camps and camp university for prisoners in Austria/Hungary.

A teenage boy prepares to leave Britain on the YMCA's emigration programme

Taken from the 150th Anniversary Review