Olive Smith-Dorrien

Olive Crofton Smith-Dorrien DBE (26 February 1881 – 15 September 1951) was the wife of Horace Smith-Dorrien, known for setting up the Lady Smith-Dorrien’s Hospital Bag Fund. She was also president of The Blue Cross and the Royal School of Needlework.

Biography

Lady Smith-Dorrien was born on 26 February 1881 in the Kensington district of London.[1] Her father was Colonel John Schneider. In 1902 she married Horace Smith-Dorrien.[2] They would have three sons.[3] During the Great War Lady Smith-Dorrien founded the Lady Smith-Dorrien's Hospital Bag Fund. After hearing in April 1915 that it was hard to safeguard wounded soldiers' valuables while they were in hospitals. She wrote to her husband, offering to sew bags for soldiers to hold their valuables in. The assistant director of medical services of the Second Army responded, requesting 50,000 such bags. Though work began in her own home, the fund expanded in 1916 and again in 1917. At its peak, 12,000 people worked for the Fund, in the United Kingdom and the United States.[4] Volunteers for the fund sewed between 40,000 and 60,000 bags a month to hold soldiers' valuables.

By 1 January 1918 the fund had distributed over 2,500,000 bags.[5] Estimates range as high as five million bags by the end of the war.[2] Her work continued even after Horace Smith-Dorrien was removed from his command.[4] For this work, she was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE).[6] She also served as President of the animal welfare charity, The Blue Cross, working to alleviate the suffering of war horses during.[7] For her services as president of The Blue Cross, she received the gold medal of the Reconnaissance française.[2] In 1932, Olive Smith-Dorrien was named principal of the Royal School of Needlework (RSN).[2] In 1937, the RSN worked on the Queen's Train (Coronation Robe), canopy and the two chairs to be used in Westminster Abbey during the Coronation,[8] for which she received the King George VI Coronation Medal.[2]

The Fund reopened in 1940 during the Second World War.[2] During the war, she was president of the Clothing Branch of the Officers' Families Fund[3] and chairman of Soldiers', Sailors', and Airmen's Families Association Central Clothing Depot.[2] During the Second World War, she also led the Royal School of Needlework in collecting lace which was sold for the war effort.[3][9] She died on 15 September 1951 in the Chelsea area of London.[10][11]

References
  1. "Olive Crofton (née Schneider), Lady Smith-Dorrien". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
  2. "Smith-Dorrien, Lady Olive Crofton". Who's Who. ukwhoswho.com. A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
  3. "The obituary of Lady Olive Smith-Dorrien". The Times. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
  4. Grant, Peter (2014-02-18). Philanthropy and Voluntary Action in the First World War: Mobilizing Charity. Routledge. ISBN 9781134500383.
  5. "Women's War Work". Encyclopædia Britannica. 1922.
  6. "No. 30460". The London Gazette. 4 January 1918. p. 367.
  7. Olive Smith-Dorrien For Horses of the Allies.; Lady Smith-Dorrien Makes an Appeal for the Blue Cross The New York Times 15 December 1915, p. 14.
  8. "Our history | Royal School of Needlework | The full history of RSN". Royal School of Needlework. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
  9. History of the Royal School of Needlework Archived 13 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  10. The obituary of Lady Olive Smith-Dorrien Archived 25 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  11. "No. 39391". The London Gazette. 23 November 1951. p. 6159.
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