1914-11-26kl

Christmas day was less than a month away, Hamilton’s downtown department stores were fully prepared for the then-arrived Christmas shopping season and one Hamilton organization had completed its gift purchases and were about to send them off – to Hamilton soldiers across the ocean.

As it was explained in the Spectator, “not one of the Hamilton soldier boys at Salisbury plain will be forgotten by Santa Claus the coming Christmas time, even though they are so far from home and loved ones. “¹

¹ “Xmas Gifts For Fighting Boys : Daughters of Empire Forward Gifts Today”

Hamilton Spectator.  November 26, 1914.

It was the Municipal Chapter of the Daughters of the Empire that took the lead in the project. For four days in late November, 1914, members of the organization were stationed in a room belonging to the premises of the Stinson estate on King William street. They were there to receive donated parcels of gifts which came there in a steady stream. At the end of the campaign, all the parcels were to be packed into one huge packing case, and forwarded to England. All the various transportation companies involved in the shipment agreed to not charge their usual fees.

The Spectator reporter who visited the King William street room was mightily impressed :

“As there are several hundred Hamilton men in all at Salisbury Plain, the number of parcels received can better be imagined than described. For many of the boys, two and three and even more individual parcels were received, while for others there were none, or only one, some of the latter being comparative strangers without friends in the city before their departure on active service.”¹

The lady volunteers  took great pains to ensure that each and every Hamilton soldier training on the Salisbury Plain would get a gift:

“After carefully checking off the list of names, the Daughters of the Empire in charge themselves sent a small Christmas gift and a card of greeting to those for whom, otherwise, the big box might not have held any remembrance from Canada.

It was arranged that Miss Plummer and Miss Arnold, “who have recently been appointed lieutenants in the Canadian militia,” would be at the Salisbury Plain camp to personally distribute the gifts.

The Christmas spirit which prompted the effort received the following description in the Spectator’s coverage:

“The gladness and joy that will stir many of the boys on opening the daintily wrapped and tied bundles will find an answering glow in the hearts of those left at home at the Christmastide of 1914.”¹