Cup with a history

I am reading a book about the story of the Women's Institutes in the Second World War. It was during this time that the WI got its tag "Jam and Jerusalem" because the WIs were mobilised by the government to make jam in order to preserve every piece of fruit available during the shortage of food in the war. In 1941 alone, 2,250,000 lbs of fruit was preserved by WI members. All this was done voluntarily. We hear a lot about the Land Girls and the women who worked in factories. They were in paid employment whereas these village women worked very hard, not just jam making but "digging for victory", giving hospitality to evacuees and knitting and sewing for the troops, all voluntarily.
Right at the beginning of the war many of the meeting places for the village clubs were requisitioned and new meeting places had to be found. I was interested to read in my book about a WI local to me who were very concerned about the fate of their lovely blue and white china should the hall be taken over. It was urgent that the china be rescued, so a WI husband was recruited to pull a handcart through the village to the hall, and the precious china was rescued under cover of darkness. I had visited this WI several times as a visitor and when in 2006 they could no longer continue I attended the final meeting. There were tears as this WI had a long and happy history. There was some compensation for members who were all able to take home a piece of the historic blue and white china and I was thrilled to have a piece too. I had no idea at the time that it had been trundled through the darkness on a handcart so long ago, but will treasure it all the more now.
It is good to hear that although some of these older WIs are having to close, there are many new exciting younger ones opening all over the country.