1
BELGCROIX RUGE DE BELIQUE BELGIAN RED CROSS 48 Grosvenor Gardnes, S.W.L. London
August 9th 1918 Received 12AUG1918 Dear Mr Billinge, In answer to your letter
of the 24th ult. we have pleasure in informing you that we have received a further
bale of Hospital requisites from the Irish War Hospital Supply Depot. Knowing we
owe this gift to your kindness, we wish to tender you our warmest thanks for same.
With kind regards, yours sincerely Edward Benning John Billinge Esq. I2, Booth
Street Manchester
This letter is part of a three-sided correspondence between the Irish War Hospital
Supply Depot in Dublin, the Belgian Funds Committee in Manchester, and the Belgian
Red Cross in London. The Belgian Funds Committee, represented by John H. Billinge
as Hon. Secretary and Treasurer, arranged for the Irish War Hospital Supply Depot
to regularly ship medical items to the Belgian Red Cross in London, where they were
used to treat wounded Belgian soldiers. Eleanor Dallas Pratt, Catholic wife of a respected
Anglican surgeon based in Dublin, served as Hon. Secretary to the Irish War Hospital
Supply Depot. The letters on behalf of the Belgian Red Cross were written by M. Albert
Maeterlinck and C. E. R. Abbott. Maeterlinck was a Belgian national and returned home
in January 1919. All files are kept at the Manchester Central Library. The bound volume
also contains the lists all dispatched supplies and letters of thanks or supplication
from soldiers and their families.