Widow’s Rings Cut From Hand For Mayor’s Fund

Northern Advocate, 28 May 1940, Page 8

Widow’s Rings Cut From Hand For Mayor’s Fund

Two gold rings were sawn from an elderly widow’s fingers so that she could give them to the Sydney Lord Mayor’s Patriotic Fund. They were the engagement and wedding rings of Mrs M. White, of West Wyalong. She had worn the rings for so long that they could only be removed by cutting. Mrs White’s husband, who lost an arm in the 1914-18 war, died a few weeks ago. Another gift to the fund was a multi-coloured woollen bed-rug, knitted by 30 women whose sens died in the last war. The knitters, most of whom are more than 70 years of age, are members of the Sailors and Soldiers’ Mothers, Wives and Widows’ Association of New South Wales. - Each knitted a number of the hundreds of four-inch squares, which Mrs May Mercer, founder of the association, assembled to form the rug. Now 71, Mrs Mercer was awarded the King’s Medal and other decorations. Her son, who was killed, and her husband both served in the 1914-18 war.