By Cheryl Griffin.
To begin with, in November 1915, Linda Davis organised a bazaar and garden party at her home, ‘Moreland Hall’, and managed to secure Senator Pearce, the Minister of Defence, to open it. It was at this event that Senator Pearce spoke about the reason for the establishment of the Glenroy Military Hospital – for those who were taken ill before they went to the front.
From this point, Linda Davis worked tirelessly to support the Glenroy Hospital, in addition to other patriotic causes. No doubt she was involved in the Coburg Patriotic League Novelty Fair in April 1917, which featured a ‘lady with a hundred pockets’!
In March 1917, Linda was nominated by the St John’s Ambulance Society as its Queen of Soldiers. This was part of a great fund-raising effort – a Queen of Victoria competition. There were other Queens – of Sport, of Motorists, of Railways, of Music, of Peace and so on.
Linda Davis’ Queen of Soldiers’ fund-raising efforts began with a Military Pageant on 28 April 1917. One of the star turns was an equestrienne display by the Ladies of the Purple Cross and the Misses Crinnion of Rose Street, Coburg. The Remount Section AASC put on a display and there were races, drills, bomb throwing, semaphore displays and even a ‘balaclava melee’.
Then came a Sports Carnival on 12 May at the Coburg Recreation Reserve. It included many groups, including the Coburg Cowboys (who put on a wild west display), Oaklands Hunt Club and a ‘Pre-historic display’ by Coburg Harriers.
A Hard Times Ball in aid of Queen of Soldiers was held at Coburg Town Hall on 12 July and there were many other fund-raising events, the most spectacular of which were the raffles organised as part of Linda Davis’s Queen of Soldiers effort.
