The Ancient Order of Druids
Tinfoil Collection in the Great War
Although salvage in Britain is often more readily associated with the Second World War than the First, between 1914 and 1918 people were asked to collect together various materials to be reused or recycled for the war effort, including jam jars, fabric-backed plans and dog wool (all are discussed in Rummage). The Ancient Order of the Druids collected tinfoil, from cigarette boxes, chocolate and fruit wrappings and paint tubes. (West Sussex Gazette, 1 June 1916; Henry J. Spooner, Wealth from Waste: 1918). This enamel badge would have been worn by one of the Ancient Order of the Druids collectors.
Perhaps understandably, this was regarded as an ‘odd enterprise’ at first, but by the summer of 1918 the Ancient Order of the Druids claimed to have collected nearly 100,000lb of tinfoil, earmarked for munitions manufacture. The sale of these donations raised money which paid for beds in various hospitals. Albert Quick, of the Railway Hotel in Brighton, was one of the keenest collectors.
Ancient Order of Druids Lodge, presumably WWII.
Norwood News, 1932.
The idea behind the collection came from ‘Frenchmen in Soho’, ‘La Fraternitie’ based on Tottenham Court Road, who ‘borrowed the idea from their own county and Belgium’. They collected tinfoil from 1912 but applied more vim to their task after 1915, stepping up the pace of collection. Prince Alexander of Teck, the President of the Ancient Order of Druids, was said to take ‘a keen interest’ in the collection scheme, which was coordinated in London by Mr L. Du Four (West Sussex Gazette, 1 June 1916; Sussex Agricultural Express, 15 February 1918; Thanet Advertiser, 22 June 1918; The Scotsman, 22 July 1918).
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