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Gathering herbs for the War Effort

During the Second World War, trade restrictions led to the short supply of herbs and plants essential for the production of medicines. The Ministry of Health and Association of British Chemical Manufacturers responded with a nationwide wartime appeal; companies were willing to pay groups, schools and individuals to harvest, dry and supply locally-grown medicinal plants for domestic use as well as for sending overseas.

Margaret Grace Randall of Cranleigh was one who offered to help, and her papers, recently donated, record her efforts in collecting and drying plants such as ragwort, agrimony, yarrow and chamomile (ÖйúPÕ¾ History Centre reference 10740). Helped by others, including fellow Women's Institute (WI) members, payments were donated to good causes such as the British Red Cross and the Royal Cancer Hospital in Fulham.

Margaret is also known for her colourful posters promoting Cranleigh WI events and activities, many examples of which are held at ÖйúPÕ¾ History Centre (ÖйúPÕ¾ History Centre reference 1587).

Frank Brewer’s War

In the First World War, it was often said that participants had to endure long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. Frank Brewer’s experience in World War II certainly lived up to that adage, although for him the terror lasted a few weeks and the boredom stretched across five years. A Farnham baker by trade, he enlisted in the Territorial Army in 1924, joining the 5th Battalion, the Queen's Royal Regiment (West ÖйúPÕ¾), and rose to the rank of Company Sergeant Major. When war broke out again, he was 33 and an experienced signaller. His battalion crossed to France on 22 April 1940, but a month later C Company was surrounded by the rapidly advancing Germans and Brewer was taken prisoner at Epagnes, near Abbeville.

His war as a combatant was over and he spent the remainder of the conflict in a succession of prisoner of war camps, initially in the region of Torun alias Thorn (now Poland), and then from September 1942 in Oflag in Hohenfels, Bavaria. Among his papers, recently passed to us (ÖйúPÕ¾ History Centre reference 10741), are two small diaries, covering the period of his captivity between 1942 and 9 May 1945; the entries are terse but give a vivid impression of his concerns (food, cigarettes and letters from home, squabbles with fellow Prisoners Of Wars, and the feverish quest for reliable news on the progress of the war) and of the sheer monotony of camp life. He whiled away at least some of the interminable hours in sport and theatricals and by studying for a St John’s Ambulance First Aid certificate and a City and Guilds Motor Vehicle Mechanic course. In April 1945 he was one of a group of prisoners marched through Bavaria by the Schutzstaffel (SS) until rescued by United States troops. His experiences seem not to have dampened his enthusiasm for part-time soldiering. He joined the Reserve in 1946 and then the Supplementary Reserve, as a Royal Engineer (Courier and Postal Unit) in 1951, before finally getting his discharge papers in 1965.

Images

• 'The Teachers World' journal article by Enid Blyton promoting its campaign for schools to collect medicinal plants for the war effort, 1940 (reference 10740/2)
• Cranleigh Women's Institute poster, 1927 (reference 1587/1/3)
• Studio portrait photograph of Frank Brewer
• Queen's Royal Regiment POWs, Stalag 383, Hohenfels, Bavaria