Crossing Borders in WWI

London, 1914, American Women’s Committee. Alice Dickson 1st standing on left, Daisy Polk sitting 2nd chair in on right, Lou Hoover sitting 4th from the right.

       I've shared a few stories about Daisy and her involvement rebuilding Vitrimont in France. When Daisy left to be married, someone needed to take over. That someone was Alice Dickson. Mrs. Dickson was another very remarkable woman who should be remembered.
     Daisy and Alice were well acquainted from their days in London through their friendship with the Hoovers and then working together on the American Relief Committee (ARC) at the Savoy Hotel when the war broke out. And by the end of 1914, Herbert Hoover had expanded this committee into a much larger organization—the Committee for the Relief of Belgium (CRB), the organization that worked with the British, French, and German governments to coordinate civilian relief efforts in Belgium, overseeing the importation and distribution of food, clothing, and other supplies to Belgian and northern French civilians. Daisy and Alice were active in both organizations.
   Daisy and Alice also got involved in the International Women’s Relief Committee (IWRC), which was formed in August 1914 by Mary Sheepshanks, a prominent British suffragist and pacifist and the editor of a suffragist newsletter "Jus Suffragii" (The Right of Suffrage). The IWRC helped repatriate  women and schoolchildren stranded in Britain, Germany and Belgium when the borders closed. Because these countries were all combatants, neutral American women acted as escorts for these trips.
     Daisy volunteered to be an early escort for the IWRC in October 1914 when she accompanied thirty-five German schoolgirls from England back to Berlin and returned with a number of British girls. What follows is the letter she wrote to Lou Hoover (Mrs. Herbert  Hoover)  detailing this experience:
 Click on any page to see full size and scroll through the letters ...

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To learn more about Alice Dickson, a most interesting woman, I recommend the article "Alice Dickson Goes to War" by Barbara E. Kridl from which much of this article was excerpted. Published in California Genealogical Society's The California Nugget, Fall 2025 issue.
Letter from Daisy Polk to Lou Henry Hoover (LHH), November 1915, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, LHH Papers, Personal Correspondence, 1872-1920, Box 15, Folder 1.