IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0074 A/MWS
Held at: London Metropolitan Archives
Title: METROPOLITAN COMMITTEE FOR WAR SAVINGS
Date(s): 1917-1918
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 0.15 linear metres
Name of creator(s): Metropolitan Committee for War Savings
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The Metropolitan Committee for War Savings was intended to be primarily an organisation for the promotion of the sale of War Loans and Savings Certificates, but it by no means confined itself to this activity. It dealt with economies in the use of food and in the cooking of food, nutrition, inequalities in the distribution of food, and even salvage or recycling of materials.
At one period the Committee was much concerned with racial tension caused by the fact (the truth of which was agreed by the Chief Rabbi) that foreign Jews in the East End (most of whom, it was said, could not understand English) could obtain from Jewish shops ample supplies of foodstuffs which the English populace could only obtain in small quantities after queuing for long periods at the ordinary English shops. The Committee proposed a system of rationing. It examined closely the quality of the war-time bread. It even considered a report on the possibilities of extracting grease from the London sewers.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Records of the Metropolitan Committee for War Savings, comprising a minute book of the Committee, 1917-1918. The book had first been used (reversed) to record details of the war savings situation (local committee, local activities, facilities available, etc.) in 60 districts, one by one, in alphabetical order, in the metropolitan area, some as far afield as Barking and Kingston. The last seven entries, at the end of the alphabet, are covered by the later minutes of the executive committee (pasted in), running across them from the other end of the book.
The meetings recorded in the minutes were held at the Mansion House and the Lord Mayor was normally in the chair. Attendance at the first two meetings was large and included a number of mayors and a sprinkling of senior council officers. Attendance at the executive committee meetings was usually nine or ten. It appears that this is the only main minute book of this body. It does not, however, contain the minutes of its various sub-committees and ancillary committees.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
One item catalogued as A/MWS/001.
Conditions governing access:
These records are available for public inspection, although records containing personal information may be subject to access restrictions.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copyright to these records rests with the City of London.
Physical characteristics:
Fit
Finding aids:
Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Records deposited in December 1976.
ALLIED MATERIALS
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Date(s) of descriptions: June to August 2010.