69617: The National Egg Collection

This story was shared at the Somerville Great War Roadshow at Somerville College, 15 Nov 2014. My mother, Nancy Steele, was born in Woodstock near Oxford and was aged 12 when the war started. She and her sisters collected eggs for the National Egg Collection scheme throughout the war; the eggs were sent to sick and injured soldiers in hospital. I believe the girls would put their names and addresses on the eggs and mother received two letters from one of the recipients, a gunner in the Royal Field Artillery called Arthur William Dixey. At the end of the war, my mother received a certificate for collecting the eggs. I am still amazed that at that time, the eggs travelled to France and arrived unbroken!