 The WVR was established in December 1914 in response to German bombing raids on East Coast towns during the First World War

Lady Londonderry also aided with the organisation of the Officers' Hospital set up in her house, and was the first woman to be appointed to be a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Military Division, upon the Order's establishment in 1917.Lady Londonderry's friendship with Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, although platonic, was a source of gossip in her time and has since become an iconic friendship of English social history.When her father-in-law died in 1915, her husband inherited the title, whereupon Edith became Marchioness of Londonderry.