DARTMOOR’S MOSS GATHERERS

We are all familiar with the common or Flanders Poppy, Papaver rhoeas, which became the symbol of First World War remembrance  after they flowered in profusion near the battlefields of Belgium and France in the unusually warm Spring of 1915.  Their bright red colour came to symbolise the blood lost in battle. However, another plant had a much more practical role in the First World War, and that was the humble bog moss, ‘Sphagnum’.  

During the First World War the use of high explosives caused heavy losses and there were an estimated 20 million men with serious wounds.  Consequently, the demand for dressings outstripped the supply of cotton. This was for two reasons; the war had disrupted the supply from Egypt and it was also used as gun cotton, a source of cellulose used to make nitrocellulose explosives. Alternatives were sought and moss proved to be a cheap and available substitute. Millions of wound dressings were then made from sphagnum moss.  

In 1916 it was officially approved by the war office as a dressing, although using moss for wounds had been known for thousands of years.  Known as ‘Nature’s bandage’, moss absorbs twenty times its weight of blood, pus and fluids, compared with cotton wool, which has only a sixfold capacity. Supplies of antiseptics like iodine were also in short supply in WW1, so moss, which contains a natural antiseptic, also had the advantage of preventing infection.

By 1918 one million dressings per month were being produced in the United Kingdom. Harvesting and processing moss for dressings took place on an industrial scale. Boggy areas, which support growth of sphagnum, were the most useful for collecting and armies of volunteers, mostly women and children, were pressed into service in Scotland, Ireland and here on Dartmoor. Groups needed just one person able to identify the most useful sphagnum moss species, Sphagnum papillosum.

The Dartmoor volunteers were out in all weathers collecting the moss by hand or using rakes. It was then brought back to the depots for cleaning and processing into dressings. There were regional moss collecting depots at Mary Tavy, Tavistock, Okehampton, Princetown and Widecombe.

At Widecombe there is a memorial to the heroic moss gatherers in the form of a naval shell case, donated by the National War Savings Committee. It is found in the shelter of the alms-houses, now the Church House, adjacent to the church of St Pancras.

A brass plaque reads …..

to the people of Widecombe in recognition of their efforts during the First World War in gathering sphagnum moss for the treatment of wounds.

The moss collected near Princetown was brought back to a yard near the prison for sorting and dispatch. Before it could be used, women picked the moss over to remove twigs and leaves. One hundred sacks of dried moss and 500 moss dressings were sent out from Princetown each week for hospital service. Hampers for the moss and dressings were made in Plymouth at the Blind Institution.

At Princetown, from 1915, there was also a centre funded by the Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII, for processing the moss into dressings. It was housed in the old Imperial Hotel, now demolished: Lord’s restaurant occupies the site today.

Mrs Read, the prison Governor’s wife, was in charge of the Princetown centre where she managed a group of 40 volunteers, who processed the moss to dressings. Their expenses were paid by the Duchy of Cornwall.

There the sphagnum moss was first squeezed through a mangle to remove excess water then dried on trestles outside, or inside on special wire trays. A specified dried weight of 2 ounces was then stuffed into muslin bags, which became the dressings.

At Tavistock there was a collection depot at the Bedford Hotel. At another depot at Mary Tavy, a Mrs Groser was manager and responsible for transport and distribution. In 1918 she needed a means of transport to collect the moss and so made a 40 mile journey to Port Isaac in Cornwall to collect a donkey and cart. On her return journey she stayed at an hotel near Davidstowe, and when the owner heard why she was making the journey he did not charge for the room or the donkey’s food.

At Okehampton a bible class involved in moss collection achieved 200 sacks in 2 months. A charming picture of them at work is headed ‘In the bog’. There is also another record from Okehampton of a Mr John Durant, who collected 1000 lbs of moss around Yes Tor, using a special rake and walking 800 miles in the process. He delivered his moss to the voluntary organisations in Exeter, while maintaining his family business in Okehampton.

One idea to boost collections was that Plymothians, who wanted to become involved, could spend their holidays on Dartmoor collecting moss. They could approach the war office for railway passes to reach Princetown. It is uncertain how many took advantage of this opportunity!