World War I begins 

When President Wilson declared war against Germany on April 7, 1917, Americans were psychologically unprepared to participate in the "war to end wars," Evangeline Booth (USA National Commander 1904-1934) summoned a Salvation Army National War Council and created a National War Board to meet the needs of American soldiers. She appointed national, territorial, and provincial war secretaries so that the entire Salvation Army was placed on a war-service basis.

American boys

The Army set up service centres, hostels, adjacent to United States military camps. But Evangeline wanted to do more than serve military in the United States. "American boys are going to France," she said. "We must go with them."

She sent Lt. -Colonel William S. Barker to France to find out how The Salvation Army could best serve the American troops. Barker found that American Expeditionary Forces, upon landing in France, did not go to the front at once.

Soldiers who had expected to be participating in great battles found themselves drilling in mud from morning to night. An epidemic of homesickness spread through the troops.

Send over some lassies

Barker cabled: "SEND OVER SOME LASSIES." Evangeline determined to send only the very best. "I felt it was better to fall short in quantity than to run the risk of falling short in quality," she stated. "Quality is its own multiplication table. Quality without quantity will spread, whereas quantity without quality will shrink."

Pioneers 

The first group of 11 officers (a married couple, 4 single women and 5 single men) sailed on August 12, 1917. Evangeline charged them: "You are going overseas to serve Christ. You must forget yourselves, be examples of His love, willing to endure hardship, to lay down your lives, if need be, for His sake. In your hands you hold the honour of The Salvation Army and the glory of Jesus Christ.... Anyone failing will be shot! She concluded, "I promise you nothing. I don't know what you will get into, it may be life, it may be death; it may be sickness, it may be loss - I promise you nothing!"

The 'Lassie' who fried the first doughnut in France

Real home cooking 

By October, 1917, ensigns Helen Purviance and Margaret Sheldon had been appointed to the First Division, at Montiers-sur-Saulx. After 36 days of steady rain, with a blanket of depression hanging over the whole area, they agreed that "we ought to be able to give them some real home cooking, "but supplies had run out and were difficult to buy locally. The only things they could purchase were flour, sugar, lard, baking powder, cinnamon, and canned milk. "What about pancakes?" "No good cold, or without syrup." "Doughnuts?"

The first doughnuts 

The first doughnuts were patted out by hand. A small wood fire was coaxed in a low, pot-bellied stove. A frying pan was used and the first doughnuts were fried "seven at a time."

The tempting fragrance of frying doughnuts drew the homesick soldiers to the hut, and they lined up in the rain, waiting for a taste. The word went around: "If you're hungry and broke, you can get something to eat at The Salvation Army."

The doughnut reminded the soldiers of home and could be made in any kettle over an open fire. But as Herbert Wisbey explains in Soldiers Without Swords: "It was not the delicious home cooking, but the spirit in which it was served that captivated the men".

'Soldier's Rest Room U.S.A.' - Refreshments in the trenches

Doughnuts and death 

The doughboys noticed that Salvationists catered to their needs rather than hobnobbing with officers. As instructed by Evangeline, none went near an officers' mess. They trudged through the sticky mud to the chow line to get in line with their "boys."

The doughnut girls saw death frequently. During major engagements, they often worked in field hospitals. Soldiers who had died during the previous twenty-four hours were buried each afternoon. Sometimes only a few people could be present.

USA Doughnut Girls - Ansauville c.1918

Burials and prayers 

The girls would always attend the burials, singing, praying and leaving wild flowers at the graves. Off to one side, the Germans were buried. When the simple services for American soldiers were over, the girls would say, "Now friends, let's go and say a prayer beside our enemy's graves."

The first doughnut girls

Helen Purviance

Helen Purviance was born 16 February 1889. She entered the Salvation Army school for officers' training in the USA Eastern Territory and was commissioned in 1908. She was selected for special war service in 1917 and was with the first contingent of women sent by the Army to the war zone. She was in Europe when the idea was born to serve doughnuts to American soldiers and fried the first doughnut served by The Salvation Army in France to a man in uniform.

This photo of her, taken when she was 28 years old, shows her helmeted with a gas mask around her neck, near the front lines in France.

She later held other appointments in New York state (the Bronx, Syracuse, Fuiton, Oswego, and Buffalo) and in New Jersey (Paterson). She was also on the staff of the Eastern training college. After a period of years in the Central Territory, she returned to the Eastern Territory as assistant field secretary and retired from that appointment in 1949.

Lt. Colonel Helen Purviance, one of the original World War I "Doughnut Girls", was promoted to Glory aged 95 on February 26 1984 at the Peabody Retirement Community, North Manchester, Indiana.

Louise Holbrook

Louise Holbrook was born in 1893 and married in 1912. Three years later applied with her husband (Alva) for officership from Boulder, Colo. and by 1918 they were on the front lines in France with the 28th Infantry. They were stationed under the fire of German guns, handing out doughnuts and coffee, and at the little town of Cheppy she was partially buried in rubble from a shell. Three weeks later she was back at work.

She was a gifted musician, playing four instruments in her service for God. But as with her fellow Doughnut Girls, she is remembered by thousands for boosting morale in sight of battle on the front lines.

In 1941, with war breaking out in Europe and in the Far East, Commissioner McMillan assigned Louise and her husband to Schofield Barracks in Honolulu, to organize the work as requested by the military.

In 1943 the couple retired to the mainland to live in Vallejo, California. Louise Holbrook was promoted to Glory in 1991.

Doughnut recipe approved by one of the original 'Doughnut Girls'

5 cups flour, 2 cups sugar, 5 teaspoons baking powder, 1 saltspoon salt, 2 eggs, 1 3/4  cups milk, 1 tablespoon lard

The dough must be thoroughly kneaded, rolled smooth and cut into little rings a little less than a quarter of an inch thick. Drop the rings into a fat that is hot enough to brown the doughnut slowly. The fat should be hot enough to bubble when the doughnut is dropped in. Turn the doughnuts several times so that they will brown evenly. Then lift them out, holding them over the kettle a moment to drip the extra fat. Dust with powdered sugar while hot. Yield: four dozen doughnuts.

Doughnut cutters

Doughnut cutters soon appeared everywhere, fashioned from all kinds of materials - an evaporated milk can and a shaving tube, baking powder can tops and coffee percolator tubes, even a seven-pound shell fitted with a one-pound shell.

A doughnut cutter made from two tin cans

Wartime