Dore & Totley Minesweeping Trawlers Comforts Fund Archive


During the Second World War a group of local ladies came together to knit garments and provide other ‘comforts’ for the men working on the minesweeping trawlers out of North Shields. 

 

They and memories of their activities would have been lost to us, were it not for a box-file of correspondence discovered in 2015 at a house which had been in the Grayson family (of Grayson’s Solicitors) for eighty years.

 

These had been stored away by Kathleen Grayson, a founder member and Secretary of the Dore & Totley Minesweeping Trawlers Comforts Fund, which became one of the most productive comforts groups during World War II and raised over £110,000 (today’s money) between 1941 and 1946.

 

The story is told in Pauline Burnett's book Knit For Victory.

Dore & Totley Minesweeping Trawlers Comforts Fund : Minute Book
Minute Book.pdf

Adobe Acrobat document [2.2 MB]

Dore & Totley Minesweeping Trawlers Comforts Fund : Invoices
Invoices.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [507.3 KB]

Dore & Totley Minesweeping Trawlers Comforts Fund : Correspondence 1941
Correspondence 1941 v 2.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [1.7 MB]

Dore & Totley Minesweeping Trawlers Comforts Fund : Correspondence 1942
Correspondence 1942 v2.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [2.4 MB]

Dore & Totley Minesweeping Trawlers Comforts Fund : Correspondence 1943
Correspondence 1943 v2.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [3.6 MB]

Dore & Totley Minesweeping Trawlers Comforts Fund : Correspondence 1944
Correspondence 1944.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [2.5 MB]

Dore & Totley Minesweeping Trawlers Comforts Fund : Correspondence 1945
Correspondence 1945 v2.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [1.4 MB]

Dore & Totley Minesweeping Trawlers Comforts Fund : Correspondence 1946
Correspondence 1946.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [651.5 KB]

Dore & Totley Minesweeping Trawlers Comforts Fund : The Depot For Knitted Garments For The Royal Navy
The Depot For Knitted Garments.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [2.3 MB]

Dore & Totley Minesweeping Trawlers Comforts Fund : Williams Deacons Bank Ltd.
Williams Deacons Bank Ltd.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [1.4 MB]

Dore & Totley Minesweeping Trawlers Comforts Fund : Sunshine Trawlers
Sunshine Trawlers.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [1.4 MB]

Dore & Totley Minesweeping Trawlers Comforts Fund : Miscellany
Miscellany.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [719.6 KB]

Knitted Garments for the Royal Navy booklet from The Depot for Knitted Garments for the Royal Navy
Knitted Garments for the Royal Navy book[...]
Adobe Acrobat document [6.8 MB]

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