{{Short description|Creator of hospital bag fund World War I}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Olive Smith-Dorrien | image = Olive Smith-Dorrien 1918.png | birth_name = Olive Crofton Schneider | birth_date = 26 February 1881 | birth_place = Kensington | death_date = 15 September 1951 | death_place = Chelsea | occupation = Activist | spouse = {{Marriage|Horace Smith-Dorrien|1902}} }}
'''Dame Olive Crofton Smith-Dorrien''' {{postnominals|DBE|country=GBR|size=100|sep=,}} ({{nee}} Schneider; 26 February 1881{{Spaced en dash}}15 September 1951) was the wife of Horace Smith-Dorrien, known for setting up the '''Lady Smith-Dorrien's Hospital Bag Fund'''. She was also president of the Blue Cross Fund and the Royal School of Needlework.
==Biography== Olive Crofton Schneider was born on 26 February 1881 in the Kensington district of London.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp90520/olive-crofton-nee-schneider-lady-smith-dorrien|title=Olive Crofton (née Schneider), Lady Smith-Dorrien|last=|first=|date=|website=National Portrait Gallery|language=en|access-date=2019-09-02}}</ref> Her father was Colonel John Schneider. In 1902 she married Horace Smith-Dorrien.<ref name=":0">{{Who's Who|title=Smith-Dorrien, Lady Olive Crofton |type=was |doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U243067}}</ref> They had three sons, two of whom predeceased their mother:<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://ghgraham.org/text/olivesmithdorrien1881_obit.html|title=The obituary of Lady Olive Smith-Dorrien|website=The Times|access-date=2019-09-02}}</ref>
*Grenfell Horace Gerald Smith-Dorrien<ref>Bassano portrait at [http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw77269/Grenfell-Horace-Gerald-Smith-Dorrien-Sir-Horace-Lockwood-Smith-Dorrien Grenfell Horace Gerald Smith-Dorrien; Sir Horace Lockwood Smith-Dorrien]</ref> (1904-1944) served in the army, reaching the rank of brigadier. He was killed by shellfire on 13 September 1944 during the Italian Campaign, whilst commanding the 169th (London) Infantry Brigade. His grave is in the Gradara War Cemetery, in the Commune of Gradara in the Province of Pesaro and Urbino.<ref>{{cite web|author=Reading Room Manchester|url=http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2078278|title=Casualty Details: Smith-Dorrien, Grenfell Horace Gerald|publisher=Cwgc.org|date=13 September 1944|access-date=14 August 2013}}</ref> *Peter Lockwood Smith-Dorrien (1907-1946) was killed in the King David Hotel bombing on 22 July 1946.<ref>[http://members.cox.net/ggthomp/petersmithdorrien1907.html Peter Lockwood Smith-Dorrien 1907–1946] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081007222310/http://members.cox.net/ggthomp/petersmithdorrien1907.html |date=7 October 2008 }}</ref> *Bromley Davis Smith-Dorrien (29 October 1911 – 11 February 2001)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/individual/833626 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090205120215/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/individual/833626 |archive-date=5 February 2009 |title=David Smith-Dorrien |publisher=Ftvdb.bfi.org.uk |access-date=14 August 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/56476/pages/1691|title=The London Gazette|page=1691|publisher=London-gazette.co.uk|date=8 February 2002|access-date=14 August 2013}}</ref> He joined the Foresters in 1940.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/34772/supplements/290/page.pdf|title=Supplement to the London Gazette|date=16 January 1940|access-date=14 August 2013}}</ref> After the war, he worked to keep alive his father's reputation, designing a first-day cover commemorating the Battle of Le Cateau<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.dacorumheritage.org.uk/article/general-sir-horace-smith-dorrien-the-hero-of-le-cateau/ |title=General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien – The Hero of Le Cateau |access-date=30 August 2020 |archive-date=30 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190930140756/http://www.dacorumheritage.org.uk/article/general-sir-horace-smith-dorrien-the-hero-of-le-cateau/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> and helping his father's biographer A. J. Smithers.
Horace and Olive Smith-Dorrien informally adopted Power Palmer's two daughters (Frances Gabrielle and Celia de Courcy), who were left homeless after his second wife's death in 1912.{{cn|date=March 2026}}
==Lady Smith-Dorrien's Hospital Bag Fund== During the Great War, she founded the Lady Smith-Dorrien's Hospital Bag Fund. After hearing in April 1915 that it was hard to safeguard wounded soldiers' valuables while they were in hospitals. She wrote to her husband, offering to sew bags for soldiers to hold their valuables in. The assistant director of medical services of the Second Army responded, requesting 50,000 such bags. Though work began in her own home, the fund expanded in 1916 and again in 1917. At its peak, 12,000 people worked for the Fund, in the United Kingdom and the United States.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iQXnAgAAQBAJ&q=Lady+Smith-Dorrien+Hospital+Bag+Fund&pg=PT54|title=Philanthropy and Voluntary Action in the First World War: Mobilizing Charity|last=Grant|first=Peter|date=2014-02-18|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-50038-3|language=en}}</ref> Volunteers for the fund sewed between 40,000 and 60,000 bags a month to hold soldiers' valuables.{{Citation needed|date=September 2019}}
By 1 January 1918, the fund had distributed over 2,500,000 bags.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|title=Women's War Work|date=1922|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref> Estimates range as high as five million bags by the end of the war.<ref name=":0" /> Her work continued even after Horace Smith-Dorrien was removed from his command.<ref name=":2" />
She was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE).<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=30460|date=4 January 1918|page=367}}</ref> She also served as President of Our Dumb Friends' League's Blue Cross Fund, working to alleviate the suffering of war horses.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0000748%2F19151116&page=5 |title=Wounded Horses in War time|newspaper=The Leeds Mercury |date=November 16, 1925|page=5|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>Smith-Dorrien, Olive. [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/12/15/100183381.pdf For Horses of the Allies.; Lady Smith-Dorrien Makes an Appeal for the Blue Cross] ''The New York Times'' 15 December 1915, p. 14.</ref> For her services as president of the Blue Cross Fund, she received the gold medal of the Reconnaissance française.<ref name=":0"/>
In 1932, Olive Smith-Dorrien was named principal of the Royal School of Needlework (RSN).<ref name=":0" /> In 1937, the RSN worked on the Queen's Train (Coronation Robe), canopy and the two chairs to be used in Westminster Abbey during the Coronation,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://royal-needlework.org.uk/our-history/|title=Our history {{!}} Royal School of Needlework {{!}} The full history of RSN|website=Royal School of Needlework|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-09-02}}</ref> for which she received the King George VI Coronation Medal.<ref name=":0" />
The Fund reopened in 1940 during the Second World War.<ref name=":0" /> During the war, she was president of the Clothing Branch of the Officers' Families Fund<ref name=":1" /> and chairman of Soldiers', Sailors', and Airmen's Families Association Central Clothing Depot.<ref name=":0" /> During the Second World War, she also led the Royal School of Needlework in collecting lace which was sold for the war effort.<ref name=":1" /><ref>[http://www.royal-needlework.org.uk/History.html History of the Royal School of Needlework] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081013054225/http://www.royal-needlework.org.uk/History.html|date=13 October 2008}}</ref>
==Death== Horace Smith-Dorrien died on 12 August 1930 following injuries sustained in a car accident at Chippenham, Wiltshire; he was 72 years old. He was buried at the Three Close Lane Cemetery of St Peter's Church, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire.<ref name=keynsham>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20041225044845/http://www.1879memorials.com/specinf/hlsmth_drrn.html Lt HL Smith-Dorrien, 95th Regt, Special Service Officer, veteran of the Anglo Zulu War of 1879]}}</ref><ref>Terry Jackson [http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/news/newsflash/1319-horace-lockwood-smith-dorrien.html Horace Lockwood Smith-Dorrien] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929135453/http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/news/newsflash/1319-horace-lockwood-smith-dorrien.html |date=29 September 2011 }} 13 June 2010.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/news/newsflash/1427-remembering-general-horace-lockwood-smith-dorrien.html |title=Remembering General Horace Lockwood Smith-Dorrien |publisher=Westernfrontassociation.com |date=30 August 2010 |access-date=14 August 2013 |archive-date=3 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130703232210/http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/news/newsflash/1427-remembering-general-horace-lockwood-smith-dorrien.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Dame Olive Smith-Dorrien outlived her husband by more than twenty years. She died on 15 September 1951 in Chelsea, London.<ref>[http://members.cox.net/ggtext/olivesmithdorrien1881_obit.html The obituary of Lady Olive Smith-Dorrien] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110525045600/http://members.cox.net/ggtext/olivesmithdorrien1881_obit.html|date=25 May 2011}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette||date=23 November 1951|issue=39391|page=6159}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}} {{People in animal welfare}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith-Dorrien, Olive}} Category:1881 births Category:1951 deaths Category:Blue Cross workers Category:British activists Category:British women in World War II Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Category:English animal welfare workers Category:People from Kensington Olive Olive Category:Wives of knights