Guide Gift Week was a fundraising appeal by the

Girl Guides Girl Guides (or Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) are organisations within the Scout Movement originally and largely still for girls and women only. The Girl Guides began in 1910 with the formation of Girlguiding, The ...

throughout the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

in 1940. The

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

was at this time engaged in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and much of the money raised was used to help those in the Armed Forces. An announcement in April 1940 in the magazine ''The Guider'' appealed for a total of £20000. Two

air ambulance Air medical services are the use of aircraft, including both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters to provide various kinds of urgent medical care, especially prehospital, emergency and critical care to patients during aeromedical evacuation an ...

s, being "the first specially constructed ambulance aircraft to be used by the R.A.F. in the war", cost a total of £15000 and the remaining £5000 was to be spent on a lifeboat. Money was to be raised directly from the members, each being asked to contribute half a day's salary or income. Younger members raised money by doing odd jobs, such as gardening and child care. At the end of the designated week £46217 had been raised and money continued to be added to the fund. Money raised in Guide Gift Week finally bought: *two air ambulances *a lifeboat, later named the Guide of Dunkirk *two mobile canteens to be run by the

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

*equipment for rest huts for the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

*furnishing and equipment for the Trefoil Hut in

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

for the Merchant Navy *twenty motor ambulances for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

. The

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

holds footage of the presentations of many of these items.

Notes

References

* *{{cite book, last =Liddell , first =Alix , authorlink= Alix Liddell , title =Story of the Girl Guides 1938-1975 , publisher =Girl Guides Association , year =1976 , location =London Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting Girlguiding * Scouting and Guiding in Australia

See also

Notes

References