This scrapbook documents how Eleanor spent the first year of the First World War. It begins as Eleanor recounts hearing about the death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, from Prince Louis of Battenberg who sat at the next table to her and her family at the Savoy on 28 June 1914. During 1914, Eleanor re-commenced the running of First Aid classes aimed at elite women, which she ran from the Duke of York’s Headquarters in Chelsea, London, with St John’s Ambulance. In September 1914, her scrapbook records her work for the Territorial Relief Fund, which provided economic support for men in the territorial army who had acquired disabilities because of the war. Eleanor includes some photographs of herself, as well as a couple of newspaper clippings on her work. At the weekends, Eleanor frequently travelled to France to support her husband, Reginald Brett, Lord Esher on hospital visits.

Besides reflections on the different elements of her war work, she regularly notes the weather, how the war impacted her children and her husband, as well as various social engagements. She includes several newspaper clippings and illustrations on nurses, children, and animals, as well as key war officials. Her scrapbook also includes letters sent from her husband while away from home, where he summarises the escalating conflict.

Other highlights in the scrapbook include: attending a banquet in Glasgow [Scotland]; receiving an invitation from Secretary General of St John’s Ambulance to begin running emergency classes; travelling back and forth between Edinburgh and London, arriving to the Duke of York Headquarters and finding a mutiny of the Irish Guards; reflections on running the First Aid Classes, offering help to her Belgian cousins who later arrived in England; comments on meeting potential beneficiaries of the Territorial Relief Fund and travelling to Paris for the first time during the war; visiting the RAMC Hospital in Versailles [France]; British Red Cross Hospital in Champs Elysees [France]; American Hospital at Neuilly, and a VAD detachment in White City, London; seeing her cousins in New Lodge, the difficulties of travelling to Paris and Boulogne [France]; visiting hospitals in Boulogne; and a visit from Bonar Law and Austin Chamberlain to the Duke of York’s Headquarters in Chelsea.

Other items inserted include: letters from Lord Esher on the escalating military situation; various photographs and postcards on the destruction of buildings in Europe; leaflets advertising Eleanor’s First Aid classes, the sheet music for “It’s a long, long way to Tipperary”; drawings of the Duke of York headquarters where Eleanor held her classes; a letter discussing Eleanor’s uniform as Commandant in the Territorial Branch of the St. John Ambulance Association; a label attached to craft items made by French soldiers; a ribbon of the Mons Star medal; photographs of some of Eleanor’s work colleagues; typescript anecdotes on grey paper; a Pears soap advertisement of a nurse; a poem about a farmer turned solider; a postcard of a child with a dog; various notes of French currency; a poem about the death of John Delaney and the anonymous death of many soldiers; letters received from soldiers looking for help from the Territorial Relief Fund; a clipping describing Eleanor’s work supporting her husband in hospital organisation; a postcard from her granddaughter Angela.