In September 1899 war between Britain and the Boer republics over British influence in South Africa became inevitable. The need to send a large military force to Africa led to the mobilisation of the Army Reserve, which was mainly composed of ex-soldiers who would suffer financially when they returned to active service. Buoyed up by a tide of patriotism, charities began to raise money to support the reservists and their families. The Daily Mail and its proprietor Alfred Harmsworth were prominent in the fund-raising.

The newspaper’s campaign caught the attention of Rudyard Kipling. Kipling wrote the poem The Absent-Minded Beggar and sent it to Harmsworth in the hope that it would encourage donations. It exhorts the reader to remember the soldiers, ‘Each of ‘em doing his country’s work’. Published in the Daily Mail on 31 October 1899, the poem caught the mood of the times. It was recited in music halls and theatres and Kipling suggested setting it to music. Arthur Sullivan agreed to provide the tune and the artist Richard Caton Woodville jr, well known for his military paintings, produced an accompanying illustration of a gallant British soldier, entitled A Gentleman in Kharki. The song was a huge success. The published poem and the music sheets sold in vast qualities and Caton Woodville’s illustration appeared on a variety of souvenir merchandise. It featured on commemorative medallions, made by Spink & Son Ltd. These were issued in various sizes and metals.

This medallion belonged to Mrs Gabrielle Enthoven. From an early age Mrs Enthoven, née Romaine (1868-1950), was fascinated by the theatre. After her marriage in 1893 she began to collect press cuttings and playbills and, following the death of her husband in 1910, she became involved with the Pioneer Players, a feminist theatre company for which she wrote plays. As her collection of theatrical material grew, Mrs Enthoven became aware that no archive or museum was documenting the British theatre as she was doing. In 1911 she wrote to the Observer newspaper, beginning a campaign for the establishment of a national collection for the performing arts within an existing museum. Though she received support in the press, an attempt by the London Museum to establish a permanent exhibition of theatre was unsuccessful. Mrs Enthoven, however, continued her campaign and, after several attempts, in 1924 she persuaded the V&A to take her vast collection, which by this time was outgrowing her home. The Gabrielle Enthoven Collection was housed in the Prints and Drawings department and Mrs Enthoven continued to work on the collection in a voluntary capacity and provided funding for staff and for new acquisitions. The Gabrielle Enthoven Collection was one of the founding collections of the V&A's Theatre Museum (1974-2007) and the collection's playbills, cuttings, photographs, prints, designs and memorabilia are now held in the V&A Theatre and Performance department.

During the First World War, Gabrielle Enthoven volunteered for war work and from August 1914 until December 1915 she was chief of records for the War Refugees Committee, a voluntary body which organised the reception of refugees fleeing mainland Europe. At the end of 1915 she joined the Red Cross, becoming chief of the records department for its Central Prisoners of War and Missing Persons Committee. Because of ill health, she left the Red Cross in August 1920. She was awarded an OBE for this work.