Assisting Mrs Tommy Atkins: Gender, Class, Philanthropy, and The Domestic Impact of the South African War, 1899–1902

Despite the well-established historiography examining the South African war’s impact upon British society, little attention has been paid to the plight of British soldiers’ families or to the charitable efforts mobilised to maintain them in the absence of adequate state support. This article, focusing on the key charity in the field, the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Families Association (SSFA), examines the SSFA’s wartime policies and considers how the Association’s actions influenced subsequent state policy-making. It explores the motivations and attitudes of its middle-class, mostly female, volunteers, on whose sustained commitment the work of the SSFA depended. In analysing the sources of the SSFA’s funding, it considers how class and regionality shaped public giving to patriotic philanthropy. Finally, it investigates how perceptions of soldiers’ wives and mechanisms for their support in the First World War were affected by the South African war experience. Overall, the article aims both to demonstrate the importance of philanthropic aid to soldiers’ families in understanding the domestic impact of this imperial war, and to trace the longer term effects on the development of policies towards servicemen’s dependents.