ABSTRACT
We have more than once had occasion to deplore the distress and misery which commonly prevail among soldiers’ wives—a condition due to no one single cause, but rather to a combination of circumstances—such as insufficiency of income, absence of provident or helpful habits and of systematic measures of relief and improvement, frequent changes of quarters, occasional enforced separation of husband and wife, when the former is abroad, or in hospital, or undergoing punishment, and generally the depressing local influences which surround the soldier’s home. We trust, therefore, that an attempt which is to be made in one of our largest garrisons to mitigate the condition of this unhappy class will be attended with success. Some officers have set on foot, with the sanction of the Commander-in-Chief, a scheme which is certainly benevolent in its conception, and which can hardly fail to be attended with some good results. As the head-quarters of a regiment of 35,000 men, a place where the wives, widows, and families of this vast regiment congregate from all parts of the world, where as many as 1,800 soldiers’ wives were collected a year ago, a station to which, as a general rule, all Royal Artillerymen are sent for discharge, through which most artillerymen pass in the course of their service, Woolwich stands pre-eminently in need of some large system of relief, and it is what soldiers call attacking en face to attempt to deal with the great mass of misery which is there always aggregated, although ever shifting as to its details. The plan which has been set on foot is one which possesses, therefore, a considerable practical interest, and the working of which deserves to be carefully observed. The scheme now initiated contemplates five measures of relief. It is proposed to apply such funds as may be raised, in the first place, to send women “married with leave,” who have been unavoidably left at Woolwich, to join their husbands. “This,” says a circular which has been issued on the subject, “is the best thing for the wives, the best thing for the husbands, and the best thing for the service;” and there is often nothing except want of funds to prevent women from being thus sent out to their husbands. Secondly, with regard to women married without leave, “it would be prejudicial to discipline and mischievous in practice to hold out to them the hopes of any such boon,” but as these unfortunate creatures cannot, it is argued, be ignored in any scheme of private benevolence, an attempt is to be made to relieve them also. “The only way which suggests itself of mitigating their sufferings and temptations is by finding them work.” This has already been done with marked success by one lady at Woolwich, and an attempt is to be made to re-establish on a more permanent and larger footing a system which has before worked satisfactorily. Thirdly, it is proposed to relieve young mothers by providing a public nursery, or “crèche,” where the children may be left “in charge of proper persons during the working hours of the day, on payment of a small sum; thus enabling their mothers to work for their livelihood.” Fourthly, an offer is to be made to some elder girls of the asylum of the same home on condition of receiving their services, with the advantage to them of such domestic training as circumstances permit. Fifthly, some of the money is to be applied to providing for other elder girls in existing industrial training schools, of which there are several open to receive girls, at a payment ranging from £12 to £15 per annum.
