Silver Thimble Fund
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The Silver Thimble Fund was founded by Miss Hope Elizabeth Hope-Clarke of Wimbledon in 1915 to collect damaged thimbles and other items made from precious metals, melt them down and raise money for medical equipment. It became "one of the most successful charities of the First World War". Hope-Clarke started with a letter in ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' in July 1915, appealing for damaged thimbles and other trinkets. The Silver Thimble Fund was run from her house in Wimbledon throughout the War, and
Queen Alexandra Alexandra of Denmark (Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia; 1 December 1844 – 20 November 1925) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 22 January 1901 to 6 May 1910 as the wife of King ...
(the King's mother) became the charity's patron. By 1919, 30 appeals resulted in 60,000 thimbles being collected. The Fund acquired 15 ambulances, 5 motor hospital launches, 2 dental surgery cars and a disinfector, and 160 collecting centres were established across the Commonwealth. The War Memorial Shelters are two
Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
commemorative shelters in
Kensington Gardens Kensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, are among the Royal Parks of London. The gardens are shared by the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and sit immediately to the west of Hyde P ...
, London, about 140m east of
Kensington Palace Kensington Palace is a royal residence set in Kensington Gardens, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. It has been a residence of the British royal family since the 17th century, and is currently the official L ...
, built in about 1919 by the Silver Thimble Fund, to commemorate the Great War, and the soldiers and sailors who fought.


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{{DEFAULTSORT:Silver Thimble Fund Organizations established in 1915