This post is written by me, with additional conversation provided by an IG follower, Deb Greensill, from England.
Joanna writes:
During the Second World War, Canadian women on the home front knit socks, scarves, vests and balaclavas for the military, and sewed hospital supplies, garments and quilts for British civilians who had lost their homes in bombing raids. If the items the women made were shipped by the Canadian Red Cross, a tiny cloth label was sewn onto it, stating “Gift of the Canadian Red Cross Society”.
But not all items sent were shipped by the Red Cross, and some women and children added a more personal touch. Primary sources indicate that paper tags were sometimes pinned onto the handmade items, with the maker’s name and address. On occasion, Canadian newspapers from the wartime period printed the letter that the maker received back from the recipient of the gift. These aren’t common, but even more rare is to find one of these tiny pinned-on notes, to know what the maker said in the note.
In March 2024, I posted on Instagram about a wartime knitting exhibition I had visited at the New Brunswick Military History Museum in Oromocto. For the exhibition, women in Nova Scotia had knitted garments from original wartime patterns in a vintage Monarch Knitting Booklet. The garments were lovingly recreated, in some instances in memory of a relative who had served during the war.
As a response to my post, an IG follower posted:
“I’ve recently inherited lots of family papers, and tucked away in a box is a handwritten note from a lady in Canada who had knitted for the forces. It’s so lovely. I presume it was something my Granddad received whilst serving in the Merchant Navy.”
I was stunned by this response. I begged her to send a photo of the note. I had never imagined one of these notes had survived. Yet here it was.
The follower is Deb Greensill, of Sheffield, England. She writes:
Deb:
I was scrolling through Instagram one day and saw a picture that caught my attention in an account @suture_and_selvedge. It was a post about wartime knitting, which is a subject that really interests me. It was about women knitting garments/accessories for the troops and sending them over, often with a little note. Now I knew I had a little note, and I knew exactly where it was. It was in one of ‘the tins’. The tins have been in the family many years. The tins had belonged first to my beloved Nan Lily and then had been passed down to my Mum Sylvia, the only child of Lily and Nicholas Revill. These tins are old and battered biscuit tins, tobacco and toffee tins. They hold a whole host of treasure. There are birth, marriage and death certificates, random bus tickets, receipts, coins, broken jewellery, letters, cigarette cards, old typed out poems, children’s drawings, my Grandad’s war diary and photos of people we never knew. I have always loved looking through the tins. As a child, I remembered it was a special treat, and my three girls have spent happy times with my Mum looking through the contents. After Grandad died this box of family treasures was kept safe and the tins were passed to my Mum after my Nan died. Following my Mum’s death those tins came to me.
My grandad, Nicholas Revill was born in 1902 in Goole – he like to be called Dick. He moved to Sheffield where he met and married Lily Hobson who was born in 1910. At the time of their marriage Dick was a labourer in a gold and silver smelting company. It was known that he had been in the Army prior to that in The Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, KOYLI’s. During the war he served in the Merchant Navy, but the exact detail of his role is not clear – he may have been a gun operator on a merchant ship. He was away for a lot of the war and my Nan didn’t hear from him for over two years. She wrote to the MOD who reassured her that if anything untoward had happened she would know. During the war, Grandad travelled to the USA, Italy, Norway, France, India and Argentina, and he may have stayed in the Merchant Navy after the war. At some point it appears he returned to employment at the steel works. My mum was just 18 when her father died in 1954. Mum talked about him lots and adored him.
I had looked at the little knitting note many times, and it was easy to find in the tins and to photograph it to send off. The note was in a cardboard box with a few buttons, some medal ribbons and three crosses. My Mum had also kept her father’s Bible so I believe Grandad was a man of faith. The note is written in fine cursive:
“Knitted by Mrs. F. G. Hatch, Collins Bay, Ontario, Canada
Would be pleased to hear from you. Good Luck and God Bless You”
Joanna:
I was stunned when I received Deb’s photo of the note. Home for me is Kingston, Ontario, and Collins Bay is now part of Kingston. I quickly searched Newspapers.com for ‘Mrs. F. G. Hatch’ in the time period 1939-1945, Kingston, Ontario, Canada and at first glance found seventeen articles.
Through research since, I have discovered that Mrs. F. G. Hatch was Mary Eva Susannah Hampton Hatch, b. 1903, d. 2003. Eva had a long list of accomplishments. She sang solos at weddings, played the piano and the organ. She was the President of the Jubilee Women’s Institute, a volunteer with the Wartime Prices and Trade Board distributing ration books and was a member of the Princess Chapter 221 of the Order of the Eastern Star. After the war, she was a member of the Kingston Women’s Liberal Association, Treasurer and then President of the Rideaucrest Auxiliary, and a member of Kingston Presbytery Women’s Association. I do not believe that she had children of her own, but she appears to have been very close to her husband’s niece, Jane (Jean) Forsyth, who married Charles Paul Burd and had three children. Eva was married to Frederick George Hatch from Guelph, Ontario (born in Surrey, England) who became a Power Plant engineer at Kingston Shipyards. Eva (nee Hampton) also had four siblings, born in Dufferin County, Ontario near Grand Valley, so there may be nieces and nephews from her family who are still alive. I am hoping that someone, somewhere, has a photo of Eva that will personalize her and help us know more about her.
What is the significance of this tiny piece of paper? What story does it tell us?
In writing the note, we learn of Eva Hatch that she was industrious and patriotic, participating in knitting for the war effort, and serving as President of her Women’s Institute branch which was prolific in its work for the war effort. We learn that she accepted leadership roles and was community minded, volunteering with organizations all her life. We learn that she was a woman of faith, when she said in her note ‘God Bless You’, that she attended church and played the piano and organ there. We also can read into this hand-written note that she wanted to be known, that she wanted her name to be attached to the knitted gift she was sending, that she wanted to make a personal connection to this anonymous person she was sending the gift to, if that was possible at all. I wonder how many notes Eva sent across the sea. I wonder if she heard back from any of the recipients. Eva was one woman of over a million women who were registered as volunteer knitters and sewers for the Canadian war effort. Through this note, she represents the emotions and attitudes of women on the home front who found a way to participate in what they believed was a necessary cause.
In saving the note, we can learn of Dick Revill, that the gift he received had meaning to him. We don’t know if he ever wrote back to Mrs. Hatch, but he kept her note – a connection to someone he had never met but who wanted to know him. The note represented something meaningful to him or he would not have saved it – about a good feeling during the harshness of war, about the kindness and generosity of strangers, about the care of a woman in another country sending him a knitted comfort and wishing him well – we can only surmise why he kept this note. And then, it was kept by his wife, and then his daughter, and now, it is treasured by his granddaughter and her children.
The textile production of women in wartime has hardly been acknowledged. From all around the world, for generations, women of all ages have knit and sewn for the enlisted, civilians and refugees. This tiny 80-year old note by Mrs. F. G. Hatch – Eva Hampton Hatch – has outlived the knitting that it was pinned on. It is a poignant reminder of the power of textiles to convey messages and meaning of support and care, of patriotism, kindness and empathy.
It is unlikely that more of these notes have survived, but if you have seen anything like this, I would love to hear about it. An entry in a diary about receiving knitted or sewn items in wartime, a letter that mentions sending knitting or receiving knitting – any such treasures would continue to the conversation about this story. And I would love to hear from the family of Mrs. F. G. Hatch – Eva!
Special thanks to Deb Greensill for reaching out to share this intimate artifact and family history. Also thanks to Marie Tupper Meldrum who conceived of the knitting exhibition idea and to the knitters at the Four Seasons Fibre Group in Kentville, Nova Scotia, who reproduced the items. Without them, this significant wartime artifact would not be known here in Canada, and the story shared around the world.