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Queen Mary's Clothing Guild

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Queen Mary's Clothing Guild is a British charity which distributes clothing and household linen to other charities in the British Isles.

History

The guild was established in 1882 as The London Guild by Lady Wolverton after being asked to provide garments for a London orphanage. In 1885, The Duchess of Teck became the guild's patron and it was renamed The London Needlework Guild in 1889.

Upon the death of the duchess in 1897, the guild's royal patronage continued under her daughter, The Duchess of York (later Queen Mary), who had worked for the guild from her youth. She formed her own group and personally supervised the arrival and unpacking of the parcels at the Imperial Institute. In 1914, the charity was renamed Queen Mary's Needlework Guild and a new base at Friary Court in St. James's Palace was setup. It then began to supply troops during World War I, with branches being established throughout the Empire and other areas of the world, including China and Argentina. Despite rationing, production continued on a small scale throughout World War II and afterwards.

On 23 March, 1953, Queen Mary invited the Presidents of the guild's group to Marlborough House for the Annual General Meeting but was unable to attend and died next the day. The Queen Mother then took over as patron and the charity was renamed Queen Mary's Clothing Guild in 1986, which was felt best to describe the work of charity.

After the death of The Queen Mother in 2002, in 2003 Princess Alexandra took over as patron. Other royal members were Princess Margaret and Princess Mary.

Patrons

External links



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Last updated on Monday February 04, 2008 at 13:32:23 PST (GMT -0800)
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