More regarding the Prince of Wales’s National Fund:
Perhaps the relief was not always best spent, but showing how it was meant to be used – this from Chorley:
Chorley Guardian and Leyland Hundred Advertiser 5 September 1914
CHORLEY RELIEF FUND
A local fund has been started to be administered in co-operation with the Prince of Wales’s Fund. It will be used for dealing with immediate local distress. The following are the returns of relief for the various wards.
| Applications | — | Declined | — | Granted | ||
| North | 95 | 56 | 39 | |||
| South | 151 | 121 | 30 | |||
| East | 96 | 41 | 52 | |||
| West | 38 | 12 | 26 |
The total amount of relief distributed up to last Monday amounts to £42 6s.6d. Most of the relief is given in kind, that is, a card to a certain value is given to the applicant, who can take it to a shop and make purchases with it until the amount is exhausted. There have been cases where spending has been indiscriminate and unwise. For instance, a woman after obtaining her card directly went and bought a blouse, a pound of the best boiled ham, two black lead brushes and two pounds of apples. In the majority of cases, however, the money has been wisely laid out.
Relief and asylum were also sought for some 100,000 Belgian refugees who escaped to England. Adlington and district responded generously.