Charity work
During World War I, Mary visited hospitals and welfare organisations with her mother, assisting with schemes that provided comfort to British servicemen and support to their families. One such initiative was Princess Mary's Christmas Gift Fund, through which gifts worth £100,000 were distributed to serving soldiers and sailors for Christmas 1914, the equivalent of £9.55 million in 2023. She took an active role in promoting the Girl Guide movement, the Voluntary Aid Detachments, and the Women's Land Army. In June 1918, following an announcement in The Gentlewoman, she began a nursing course at Great Ormond Street Hospital, working two days a week in the Alexandra Ward.
In 1918, she was appointed colonel-in-chief of the Royal Scots, an honour bestowed by her father, the King. On 20 November 1918, she became the first member of the royal family to visit France following the Armistice. She visited centres associated with Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service and Voluntary Aid Detachment Units, as well as hospitals treating wounded soldiers. While visiting Ypres she recognised two soldiers from the Royal Scots; the regiment was stationed nearby, and a march‑past of its 17th battalion was arranged. During her visit to Le Tréport, she rode in a whippet tank, which the Yorkshire Evening Post described as a "great experience".
Mary's public duties reflected her interest in nursing, the Girl Guide movement, and the Women's Services. In the period leading up to her marriage, girls and women across the British Empire named Mary or its variants (including Marie, May, and Miriam) formed "The Marys of the Empire", and contributed to a wedding present fund. She presented this fund to the Girl Guides Association for the purchase of the Foxlease estate, and after the exhibition of her wedding presents she donated half the proceeds to the same cause, a total of £10,000, which enabled the project to proceed.
She became honorary president of the British Girl Guide Association in 1920, a position she held until her death. In 1925, she received the Silver Fish Award, the organisation's highest adult honour, in recognition of her contribution to the movement. In 1958, she became president of the Guide Club.
In July 2013, it was reported that British Pathé had identified newsreel film from 1927 showing the ancestors of Catherine Middleton, as Lord Mayors of Leeds, hosting Mary at the Young Women's Christian Association in Hunslet. Sir Charles Lupton and his brother Hugh Lupton, uncles of Olive Middleton, Catherine's great‑grandmother, were among those present.
In 1921, Mary became the first patron of the Not Forgotten Association, a role she held until her death in 1965. The charity's first Christmas tea party was organised by her and held at St James's Palace in 1921, when she invited 600 wounded servicemen for afternoon tea; the event has been held annually ever since. In 1926, she became commandant-in-chief of the British Red Cross Detachments.
In the 1920s, Mary was a patron of the Leeds Triennial Musical Festival. By the 1940s, she was attending opening nights and many of the festival's performances, as was her son, George, and his wife, the Countess of Harewood, née Marion Stein, a former concert pianist. George was a noted music critic whose career included serving as artistic director of the Leeds Triennial Musical Festival.
In 1931, Mary was appointed patron of the Yorkshire Ladies Council of Education. She was also patron of the Girls' Patriotic Union of Day Schools.
In July 1927, it was reported that, at a garden party at Headingley Cricket Ground, Mary was served tea alongside dignitaries who included members of the Middleton family; Olive Middleton, great-grandmother of Catherine, Princess of Wales, was among them. Mary and her son, George, were patrons of the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra which performed soirées at their home, Harewood House. Among those attending was the orchestra's co-founder, Richard Noël Middleton, who was on friendly terms with Mary. Middleton's wife, Olive, served on Mary's fundraising committee for the Leeds General Infirmary. Olive's first cousin, Elinor G. Lupton, also served on the committee and reportedly launched the fundraising appeal in 1933. The committee's vice-presidents included Mary's sister-in-law, the Hon. Mrs Edward Lascelles, who served alongside Olive and her relative Jessie Beatrice Kitson. In 1936, Mary became patron of the Leeds Infirmary.
