In standard histories of both the First World War and charity a myth has arisen that is as pernicious as those about the Christmas Truce or ‘donkey’ generals.1 The story goes that on the outbreak of war a troop of middle-class ladies began a frantic spate of sock knitting that not only had little impact on the war effort but was equally transient in its effect on both philanthropy and those involved. Of course, some notable exceptions are admitted but only when charity reached the ‘front line’ in the form of Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs), the Scottish Women’s Hospitals or the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). On the home front, charity gets little coverage other than work in aid of Belgian refugees.2 In some ways this is not surprising, as a good deal of contemporary coverage was equally dismissive. The soldier with more knitted ‘comforts’ than he knew what to do with was quite pervasive whether in the cartoons of Punch or the inflated memoirs of Robert Graves.3