Although the Australian Comforts Fund was not officially established until 1916, the concept originated in 1915. The Fund was an amalgamation of various state volunteer organisations formed to arrange for the fighting forces to receive additional “comforts”, in the form of supplementary food, other personal items and clothing. It was first suggested by the Queensland Patriotic Fund, and initially had headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, the primary training base for the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), leading up to the Gallipoli campaign.
In addition to the Queensland fund, the ACF involved the Citizens’ War Chest Fund (Sydney), the Lady Mayoress’s Patriotic League (Melbourne), the League of Loyal Women of Australia (Adelaide), the Victorian League of Western Australia (Perth), and the Tasmania on Active Service Fund (Hobart). By December 1915, it was announced that:
This Comforts Fund has taken over all the distribution of general comforts to the mess at the Front at the request of the Military Authorities, who give every assistance in the way of storing accommodation and transport. Parcels for particular individuals must go through the post.
Among the goods delivered in the early days of the fund were milk, arrowroot, cornflour, porridges, cocoa, chocolate and tinned sardines in oil. The additional luxuries were a welcome supplement to the bully beef and biscuits of the standard army rations, although only one delivery of care parcels reached Gallipoli during the eight months of the campaign.
In 1916, the Australian Comforts Fund was formally constituted under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence, with delegates from each of the state organisations. Its remit was to deal with the physical well-being of the fighting units, while the Red Cross dealt with the needs of the sick and wounded, and the Y.M.C.A. dealt with the “moral welfare of the troops”, providing entertainment and amusements.
Over the course of the war, the Fund dispensed more than 12 million cups of tea and coffee from mobile canteens close to the battle lines. It also distributed care parcels containing tobacco, chocolates, newspapers, clothing, and knitted items such as socks and balaclavas. After the war ended, the ACF was dissolved on 16 April, 1920.
The Australian Comforts Fund was revived in January 1940 after the outbreak of World War II. The Australian War Memorial records that:
The Australian Comforts Fund (A.C.F.), formed in January 1940, …worked in conjunction with the Salvation Army, the Y.M.C.A. and the Y.W.C.A. Its ‘comforts’ ranged from hostels, clubs and canteens in Australian towns, Jerusalem, Alexandria and Singapore and elsewhere, Christmas hampers, embarkation kits, and film screenings.
The ACF was run largely by women volunteers, although the honorary general secretary of the revived fund was, of course, a man: the banker Mr C. R. (later Sir Clarence) McKerihan. Women did most of the administrative and manual work, including packing Christmas hampers, of which more than 1.5 million had been dispatched by the war’s end. The hampers were supplied to each army unit and distributed by ACF commissioners.
In 1944, the list of contents for the hampers was:
6 ounces mixed dried fruits; 1lb. preserved fruit; 4oz. cream: 8oz. Christmas pudding; 1lb. Christmas cake; tin of talc powder; tube of toothpaste; stick of shaving cream; 2oz. cigarette tobacco; pkt. cigarette papers; ½lb. chocolate; 3 pkts. chewing gum; handkerchief; washer; pencil, writing pad, envelopes; greeting and acknowledgement cards.
The article, in Brisbane’s Courier-Mail, noted that miles of wrapping paper would be needed, along with thousands of yards of material to make the handkerchiefs. Volunteers were put to work to knit the washers.
World War II officially ended with the Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945, and the Australian Comforts Fund was finally dissolved on 27 June 1946.