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Margaret Waring - a Staff Worker and Lady Helper with Camp Soldiers Homes 1 month 1 day ago #94758

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Margaret Elizabeth Waring , M.B.E.; Mentioned in Dispatches

Staff Worker, Camp Soldier’s Homes – Anglo Boer War
Lady Helper, British Red Cross Society & Order of St. John - WWI

- M.B.E. (Civil) Member’s 1st type (1919 Hallmark)
- Queens South Africa Medal to Miss. M.E. WARING
- British War Medal to M.E. WARING, B.R.C. & St. J.J.
- Victory Medal to M.E. WARING, B.R.C. & St. J.J.

There can be no denying that Margaret Waring was a remarkable woman – how many, born in the late 1840’s and no longer in even the second flower of youth, if not imbued with both a passion for their craft and a burning sense of duty and patriotism, would have offered their services, selflessly, in both the Anglo Boer War and the Great War for the good of their fellow man? The answer has to be “not many” and Miss Waring must rank as one of the oldest serving men or women when she finally doffed her uniform for the last time.

Born Elizabeth Margueritte Waring on 25 May 1849 in St. Peter Port, Guernsey, she was the daughter of Francis Waring, the Civil Service Comptroller for Customs in Guernsey and his wife, Frances Margaret.

Growing up a young Margaret would not have been short of playmates, surrounded as she was by many siblings. The 1851 Guernsey census tells us that they were - Francis John (7), Frances Anne (6), Henry George (5), Arthur Joseph (4) and Sophia Emilia (5 months). Margaret herself was 2 years old and, as was befitting the household of a man of importance, there were a number of servants on hand to cater for the young family’s needs. Mary Angel was the Nurse, Mary Ann Masters the Cook and Louisa Simon the second Nurse. All were in the house on Queen Street, St. Peter Port.

At the time of the 1861 census, the family had moved to 7 School Drive in Carlisle where Mr Waring was now the Collector of Customs. Margaret was now 11 and a school girl. Brothers Henry (15) and Arthur (14) were still at home but of the younger Sophia there was no sign. Mary Ann Masters had made the trek with the family from Guernsey to Carlisle and was joined on the staff by Margaret Donald.

By the time of the 1871 census the family had become fragmented with the death of the pater familias on 18 July 1864. Margaret had moved to London to stay with her paternal Uncle, Edward Waring, a Physician, at his residence 49 Clifton Gardens, Marylebone. She was now 21 years old and, apparently, of no occupation. Edward’s daughter, her 22 year old cousin Caroline, was the only other family member in residence and it was with Caroline that she forged a life-long bond.

Ten years later, at the time of the 1881 England census, Margaret, like the rolling stone her life appeared to be, was living as a companion with an elderly Aunt, her father’s sister Margaret at 80 Broad Street in Lyme, Dorset. Now 32 years of age she still had no fixed occupation which, considering the undoubted prosperity and social standing of her family, was not all that unusual for the time in which she lived.

Being a “lady of leisure” did not imply that Margaret did nothing with her time. She would appear to have been disposed to kindly works in aid of charitable causes and it was this spirit of caring that carried her to South Africa during the Anglo Boer War. The belligerents in this war were the two Boer Republics of the Orange Free State and the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek (Transvaal) on the one side, opposed by the might of Imperial Britain on the other. War was declared on 11 October 1899, as the 19th century was about to draw to a close, and wasn’t expected to last long. As events were to prove, this was a serious miscalculation on the part of Her Majesty’s Government and the wily Boers proved to be worthy adversaries – so much so that, in December 1899 in what became known as Black Week, the British effort on the ground met with three unexpected reverses and the cry went out for additional manpower and resources with which to wage war.

A typical Camp Soldiers Home

With the added manpower came the need for services to support them. The army, in Victorian times, was only beginning to come to grips with the need for Nurses, operating theatres and other medical requirements. Hardly a thought had been given to the basic comforts the men were in dire need of – these included someone to listen to whilst lain up in a hospital bed, someone who could write letters back home to loved ones on their behalf (illiteracy was a common problem in the Regular Army), someone who could read to them to while away the long hours and relieve the boredom and many other tasks, small yet vital for morale.

Enter the fray then the Camp Soldiers Homes. Mr and Mrs Osborn Howe were the masterminds behind this fine initiative which provided succour, along the lines described above, to as many of the men they could reach with their limited resources and staff available. It was to this small but august body that a 50 year old Margaret leant her support.

Perhaps the best way to describe their workings, workings which became part of Margaret Waring’s daily lot in life whilst she was attached to them, is to provide excerpts from a letter Osborn Howe wrote which appeared in the Evening Mail of 20 November 1901. Written in defence of the perceived slander of ill treatment by Tommy Atkins towards Boer women and children it read, in part, as follows:

“Since our return from the front we have been painfully impressed by the anxiety evinced by many in regard to certain charges against our troops. May we therefore set before your readers this declaration: -

‘We have lived among the troops at the front from the time we opened the first camp home for them at De Aar in October 1899, until September 1901. During these 22 months we have never seen nor heard of any occurrence which would bring a blush to any cheek.

Our staff of 45 civilian and 17 soldier helpers, distributed between De Aar and Pretoria, have been like ourselves, in closest possible touch with the soldiers, and have never heard of a single case of outrage or ill-treatment. We have been in close touch with sick and dying men in hospital, who have spoken of their sins and confessed them to God but never a word as to ill conduct towards the enemy or their women and children.

Our own experience covers life inside many of the camps, as well as in the towns of the Orange River Colony and the Transvaal. We ourselves advanced in the van of the victorious troops of the 3rd Division, and we were close on the heels of Lord Roberts’ army as it entered Bloemfontein, and also close on its advance into Pretoria. When living in the Orange River Colony we were in the midst of the farm- burning district. We saw how the officers waited until the farmers had had time to digest these repeated warnings, and then with what reluctance both officers and men went to carry out the work of destruction.

When the first concentration camp was formed up we were on the spot, and also saw others spring up. When our troops were lying in their blood-stained garments after the engagements around Paardeberg, the principal medical officer had to request the aid, through the camp homes, of our comforts committee to supply underclothing simply because the railway department could not cope with the enormous demand.”

In addition to the above the Hastings and St. Leonards Observer of 15 February 1902 “fleshed out” as it were, the scope and extent of the Camp Soldiers Homes in the Boer War: -

“The Chairman, in a hearty welcome to Mr and Mrs Osborn Howe, said he had been marvellously struck with the magnitude and the scope of the work they had been doing in South Africa. They had some 27 camp homes and enormous supplies had been issued, amounting to something like £70 000. All our soldiers had access to these Camp Homes where they obtained provisions at the same cost as at home. When they knew that these provisions were issued free of cost to the sick and wounded, when they remembered that free issue had been made to whole Regiments at one time, they at home, on behalf of those soldiers in that distant land ought to feel thankful.”

As can be seen from the excerpts above the work of the Camp Soldiers Homes was both highly appreciated and highly necessary and they seem to have succeeded in providing a “home from home” for the men where they were constructed.

Margaret Waring was one of only four woman Workers with the C.S.H. – although it is mentioned that they had 45 civilian staff, only 18 medals were issued off the roll dated 24 August 1903. Of these, 4 were to the women Staff Workers, including Waring, whilst the other medals went to their male compatriots and Mr and Mrs Osborn Howe.

Post-war it is difficult to pinpoint where Margaret Waring went. She appears to have built up a connection with South Africa but in what role or capacity we know not. She was next sighted aboard the “China” heading for Plymouth on 30 June 1912. She embarked at Gibraltar and it is this rock at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea that is given on the ships manifest as her country of residence.

Two years later, on 4 August 1914 the Great War erupted on the international stage. This war, between Germany and Great Britain (and their various Allies) eclipsed the Boer war of 12 years earlier in sheer size and scale. The British Expeditionary Force took the fight to the Germans in France and Flanders in what was termed the Western Front and, ere long, the hospitals and mortuaries were overflowing with a never-ending tide of dead and wounded.

Helping a Wounded man to write a letter home

Once more into the breach then Margaret Waring. Although not officially sanctioned by the military authorities Waring and many like her, made their way across the Channel to France and put themselves to work, in the most unimaginable conditions, providing succour, comforts and small services to those in need, wherever they were to be found. After many a year of slog and toil Margaret was taken under the wing of the British Red Cross Society. A record card for her exists which reveals that she had been active since December 1914 but was only officially recognised with effect from 1 October 1918, almost at the conclusion of hostilities. Under “Previous engagements under Joint War Committee”, it is mentioned that she was a Hospital Visitor at No. 14 General Hospital, B.E.F. and, under Character that she “Had a good record for work in army units.”

This was certainly an understatement as Waring was Mentioned in Dispatches as a Lady Helper in the London Gazette of 24 December 1917. She was in good company, among the other seven Lady Helpers accorded the same honour was none other than Lady Constance Hatch, one of the leading socialites of the day.

Further honours came Margaret’s way when she was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire for her work as a “devoted hospital worker in hospitals in Boulogne”. The London Gazette of 2 November 1920 carried this news. For her efforts she was awarded the British War and Victory Medals to go with the Queens Medal she had earned 18 years before. She was recommended for a 1914 Star but there is no record of it ever being awarded. But perhaps her most remarkable achievement was that she was recorded as being 69 years old when she was active in France and these accolades were bestowed on her.

The war over, Margaret Waring returned to the loving embrace of her cousin Caroline at 197 Sutherland Avenue in Maida Vale, London. The 1921 England census shows the reader that the two resided there along with a Cook and Parlour Maid. They entertained their friends with Margaret 72 years old and Caroline a year younger at 71.

This redoubtable woman passed away at her home at the age of 88 on 11 January 1938. She had never married and was of “no occupation” – although it could be said of her that she had spent her lifetime busier than most.