Young Workers Patriotic Guild button, Education Department of Victoria: Miss Ruth Cambridge

Domed round brass badge with a bronze finish, impressed centrally with a honey bee, accompanied by the words 'EVD Young Workers Patriotic Guild' around the circumference. A stickpin is soldered to the reverse. The owner, Ruth Cambridge, has inserted a piece of card into the back, with her name written in pencil.

Part of a collection of badges which were collected by Miss Ruth Cambridge, daughter of a Boer War veteran, probably Private Owen Cambridge, First Victorian Contingent.

The Young Workers Patriotic Guild badge was awarded by the Education Department of Victoria which was actively involved in wartime fundraising in the First World War. Programmes included the Young Gardeners League, concerts, fundraising and food for soldiers in hospital, especially the Caulfield Military Hospital, and constant letter writing to soldiers abroad. Some 300,337 pounds was raised by the Department during the war.

The Young Workers Patriotic Guild was formed in 1915. According to a booklet published by the department, ('How We Raised the First Hundred Thousand', 1917) juvenile members of the Guild pledged to undertake 'personal labour for the War Relief Fund. ... Boys and girls may select what payable hobby they choose and he or she who earns 1 pound by 'personal production effort' is rewarded with a handsome certificate in colours signed by the Minister and the Director of Education.' Examples given include: 'chopping wood, caddying, growing vegetables, helping mother with housework, selling newspapers, cutting chaff, selling home-made feeders and milk-jug covers, making and vending wirework, sweeping the school, milking cows, marking sheep, making floor mops, helping grandma, emptying the ash-bucket, gathering thistles for the pony, washing buggies, collecting and selling frogs and leeches, baking scones.'

In total, from 1915 until 31 December 1919, the Guild gathered some 80,000 members and raised over 50,000 pounds.