Arquivo RCP - York Red Cross and St. John Penny-A-Week Fund

When war was declared in September 1939 it was decided to reconstitute the Red Cross & St John Ambulance Joint War Organisation (JWO) as was done during the First World War to ensure efficient and combined use of resources and avoid wasteful duplication. Both organisations were wholly dependent on dedicated volunteers and public fundraising as was their JWO.

The JWO worked to provide assistance to the armed medical corps, supplementary hospital and nursing staff, distribution of medical supplies, assisted Rest Centres & staffed ambulance units as well as providing first aid & training. In addition to their mainstream duties, the JWO also saw to the welfare of prisoners-of-war and their needs according to the Geneva Convention. The Penny-a-Week Fund scheme made a major contribution to the provision of Red Cross food parcels for prisoners-of-war and soldiers serving abroad. This service was vital as much to morale as for their physical wellbeing.

To finance this aspect of their work, the JWO would organise national and local fund-raising schemes across Britain including the Penny-a-Week scheme. As its name suggests, participating workers would have a penny deducted from their weekly pay-packet or money would be collected door to door by local volunteers. After 1943, there was the option of increasing contributions to 2d (2 pence) per week for those who could afford it. In wartime Britain, even one penny still had some spending-power at a time when an average weekly wage was around £10.

Members of the penny a week fund were given metal badges to show their support, whereas volunteers for the scheme and local fund committee members were given enamelled badges showing the crests of the Red Cross and St John's Ambulance.