Miss Edith Fanny Rowe
YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION
EDITH ROWE WAS THE ELDEST daughter of a former Mayor of Exeter. At 44 years old, she was well known in the city as a Sunday school teacher at the Mint Chapel, a representative on the local Board of Guardians and Education Committee, as well as a member of Exeter Women’s Liberal Association and the National Union of Women Workers. She had also carried out the duties of mayoress for her widowed father while he was in office and was even a member of the Ladies Sewing Movement.
Edith Rowe. (Authors’ collection)
As soon as war was declared in 1914, the Young Men’s Christian Association went to work. In less than two weeks, 250 recreation centres had sprung up across Britain, many of them near transport hubs where they would see plenty of military traffic. From these centres mostly volunteers, whether it be women or men too old to serve, handed out sandwiches and food, even something for men to read on their journeys. As early as November 1914, the first YMCA contingent also arrived in France and began setting up a similar operation at Le Havre. By 1916 they had gone on to establish them in other base towns such as Étaples, Rouen, Boulogne and even the likes of Paris and Marseilles.
In mid-1915, the YMCA gained permission to establish one of their respite centres for troops closer to the front line. By the end of that year they had hundreds of them on the Western Front, located in villages, towns, dugouts and close to dressing and casualty clearing stations: anywhere where tired and hungry men may come by. Here they offered hot drinks, biscuits and cigarettes. The YMCA huts were a familiar sight to all and were hugely appreciated by the soldiers. One location by a railway siding at Étaples gave out nearly a quarter of a million cups of cocoa every month.
The YMCA huts were just the tip of the iceberg as far as the organisation’s contribution to the war effort was concerned. All sorts of personal touches and niceties were provided to make life a little easier for those fighting the Great War: religious services, mobilising hundreds of entertainers to go overseas and entertain the men, operating canteens and postal exchanges for the army, looking after the interests of prisoners of war on both sides of the lines, sending photos of loved ones to men at the front and providing writing paper so they could send letters. They even escorted families to hospitals to visit dying loved ones and made sure they had a safe place to stay.
On the outbreak of war, Edith Rowe and her sister Katie began by helping at local soldiers’ clubs in Exeter, before moving up to London to help with the YMCA canteens at Woolwich, which was experiencing a huge boom thanks to the munitions industry. In mid-October 1916 the two sisters sailed for France and arrived on the Somme. They based themselves at Abbeville, an important junction behind the front line and close to where their brother was serving as a subaltern, although their work carried them out in motor cars to a much wider area.
A YMCA concert in progress at the front. (Authors’ collection)
On Thursday 26th October, Edith complained of a headache and went to bed, telling her sister not to worry and to go on working. She suffered frequently from such headaches and Katie thought no more of it, going about her duties and assuming that, having rested, Edith would be fine by the evening when they were due to help with a concert for some troops. When she returned to their lodgings, however, Edith was much worse and she called for help. Her elder sister’s condition continued to deteriorate. A second brother rushed to France but arrived a day too late. Edith fell unconscious and early on the morning of 28th October she passed away. The cause of death was cerebral meningitis. One branch of the YMCA gave a figure of 286 casualties, including six men and two women killed in action while working for them. It also claimed more than 300 awards, citations and decorations, including the French Legion d’honneur, Orders of the British Empire, Distinguished Service Crosses and the Distinguished Service Medals. Edith Rowe, whose life had been defined by her selfless work for the benefit of others, was buried with military honours at Abbeville Communal Cemetery Extension, plot I.H.25.