Mrs. Clara Nicholson of Chorlton ……. the mile of pennies ……. and a Disaster Appeal

“In the Russian famine we are witnessing the most terrible devastation that has afflicted the world for centuries.

"Hordes of starving disease infected people have left their homes" 1921

It is estimated that 35 million people will require relief.  I am sorry to say that such news as we have received points to a most appalling catastrophe”.*

The words could have come from any one of several celebrities or journalists looking to camera and reporting on a human disaster against a background of moving and awful images of starving people.

But not so, they come from the Manchester Guardian reporting on the appalling famine that was ravaging Russia in the summer of 1921.

And in the face of that famine thousands of people were on the move.  Some were heading towards Turkestan, others to Siberia and more to Poland in the knowledge that there were “no food supplies and no shelter and they are doomed to annihilation.  Of these migratory bodies only some 20 per cent are able bodied and MORE THAN 30 PER CENT. ARE CHILDREN. The condition of these last is piteous.  Many of them have been abandoned to their parents.  The people are eating grass, roots and other rubbish”. **

Now my Wikipedia tells me “The Russian famine of 1921–1922, also known as the Povolzhye famine, was a severe famine in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic which began early in the spring of 1921 and lasted through 1922. This famine killed an estimated 5 million people, primarily affecting the Volga and Ural River regions.”***

The mile of pennies, 1921

Reading the Manchester Guardian’s coverage I am struck by the depth of the crisis, and how contemporary were the appeals for help, particularly for The Save the Children Fund, which produced a series of films about the famine and the wider relief problems across Europe.

Here in Britain people were encouraged to send subscriptions responding the simple appeal “Send what you can ‘All you can- Today!”

And individuals and groups looked to the imaginative ways they could raise money and that has led me back to Mrs. Clara Nicholson of Chorlton who along with others set out to raise £220 by making a “mile of pennies”.  

The event took part on October 30th, 1921, in the waiting room of the former tram office on Barlow Moor Road, because the location was a busy spot on a Sunday afternoon.

And just like modern fund-raising activities the committee had invited the Lady Mayoress to take part, personalizing the appeal by specifying “Twenty four pennies will keep one Russian child for a week and so every step in that 'proposed mile' would bring hope and happiness where there is only despair."****

One of the members of that committee was Mrs. Clara Nicholson of Gilbrook Edge Lane, and as you do I went looking for her.

Chorlton Tram Office, circa 1920/30s

And in 1921 I found her at Gilbrook which was number 10 Edge Lane, married to James Nicholson, who was a clothing manufacture with works at Worsley Street in Hulme.

Sadly their home on Edge Lane had vanished by 1933, but I did come across their house on Wilbraham Road close to Blair Road where they had lived a decade earlier.

As yet that is about it, and the trail goes dead.

There is a Clara Nicholson living on “private means” in Oldham in 1939, but that is about it, which is a shame because I would like to know more about her charity work.

But someone may offer up more.

We shall see.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures, Cartoon and description of the mile of pennies, 1921, the tram office with waiting room, circa 1920s-30s from the Lloyd Collection

*The Most Terrible Devastation that has Afflicted the world for Centuries., Manchester Guardian, August 28th, 1921

**ibid, Manchester Guardian, August 28th, 1921

*** Russian famine of 1921–1922, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_famine_of_1921%E2%80%931922

***From Chorlton-cum-Hardy to the Volga Valley, Manchester Guardian, October 20th, 1921