She formed her own group and personally supervised the arrival and unpacking of the parcels at the Imperial Institute.
In 1914, the charity was renamed Queen Mary's Needlework Guild and a new base at Friary Court in St. James's Palace was set up.
Despite rationing, production continued on a small scale throughout World War II and afterwards.
On 23 March 1953, Queen Mary invited the Presidents of the guild's group to Marlborough House for the Annual General Meeting but was unable to attend and died the next day.
After the death of The Queen Mother in 2002, in 2003 Princess Alexandra took over as patron.