Volunteering

These cards were intended to be placed in a home or business window, as proof that the individual had supported the war effort by purchasing Victory Bonds.

These women, all of whom are identified on the back of the photograph, served snacks to soldiers at a tea shop run by the Canadian Red Cross Society in Hamilton, Ontario.

Silk postcards were very popular souvenirs for soldiers during the First World War, and provided an important source of income for French and Belgian handicraft workers.

Many groups in Canada, including the Vancouver Kiwanis Club through the British Columbia Overseas Tobacco Fund, the Overseas League (Canada) Tobacco and Hamper Fund of Toronto, Ontario, employers, and relatives, sent cigarettes to soldiers, and received postcards of acknowledgement and thanks in return.

Postcards produced by the YMCA, such as this one showing members of the RCAF going into a YMCA hut at an airfield in England, were distributed free of charge to Canadians overseas.

The Canadian Legion funded and staffed welcome rooms at major railway stations across Canada, where servicemen and women could relax while waiting for a train.

The label confirmed that "There is sufficient yarn in this ball to knit one pair of service socks."

Every member of society was expected to donate to patriotic causes - this envelope was distributed in schools so children could donate in support of Canadian seaman.

Fund-raising advertisements often used images of children to encourage their parents to donate generously.

Women from the Border Cities Welfare League of Windsor, Ontario, provided cigarettes and writing to materials to American soldiers who passed through the city on their way to Europe.