War Refugees Committee , charity aiding First World War refugees

The War Refugees Committee was a voluntary body set up about August 1914 to deal with refugees fleeing from the threat of the German armies in Europe, many of them from Belgium. The Committee arranged for them to be met at ports and stations, found temporary hostels for them and tried also to find work for them.

In September 1914 the Committee came to an agreement with the Local Government Board whereby the LGB took over much of the work, and the Treasury much of the funding, while the Committee, with local voluntary committees, continued to look after the allocation of refugees to places found for them and to meet trains and boats. The Committee appears in the Annual Charities Digest until 1918: presumably thereafter it was disbanded as having no further role to play.

The reception, housing and registration sub-committee, formerly the executive sub-committee, of the executive committee was set up to perform the duties in relation to refugees described by its title. It began work in late August 1914 and appears to have ceased to function in the middle of September, presumably as a result of the changing functions of the War Refugees Committee. The sub-committee minute book, though thin, gives a clear idea of the machinery set up to cope with the pre-war crisis.