大象传媒

In World War 1 eggs were looked upon as what we鈥檇 now call a 鈥榮uperfood鈥� for the wounded and a national campaign was started in 1914 by Frederick Carl, the editor of Poultry World to ship them to hospitals. Backyard chickens were more popular then than now, and quite a few people kept a 鈥榮oldier鈥檚 hen鈥� whose eggs were dedicated to the war effort. Children in particular were encouraged to get involved with eggs being collected via their schools.

During the fighting messages of defiance were often chalked on shells and the children picked up on this and quite often wrote messages on their eggs 鈥淪end the Kaiser where he belongs鈥� and so on but mostly messages were gentler, 鈥淚 hope that you feel better today鈥� 鈥淚 hope a Heilan sodger gets this one鈥�

Writing in the local paper 鈥淭he John O Groat Journal鈥� on May 27th 1918 Rev Jeffrey revealed that Wick alone had sent 27,600 eggs to France since the appeal had begun. This shows a fair bit of self-sacrifice as eggs had greatly increased in price during the conflict. Many Caithness schools took part in providing food and comfort parcels for Prisoners of war held in Germany and after the war, schools received visits from the returning men to thank them for all that they had done. Local historian Harry Gray tells Louise Yeoman about Wick鈥檚 contribution to the scheme. (image: Johnston Collection).