Appendix 5
The Trustees Today
by Keith Deiderfield
(Secretary of the Douglas Bader Foundation)
In this appendix
About the Trust
The Trust was founded in 1915 to relieve the war-wounded, in particular those who had lost limbs, and it concentrated its efforts on running Queen Mary’s Hospital for this purpose. A large number of casualties from both the First and Second World Wars were treated at the Hospital. After a period of control by the Ministry of War Pensions, the Hospital passed into the mainstream of the National Health Service in 1961 to whom the Trust transferred its property interests in stages. The last interest in property at Roehampton was transferred in 1990.
The conduct of the Trust is governed by an Order of the Charity Commissioners dated 10th April 1972, which superseded earlier Orders. The beneficiaries under this Order may be summarized as those disabled in war and their widows.
Some years ago the Trustees decided their objects were not best carried out through giving individual assistance to beneficiaries (which involved a substantial amount of casework and staffing), but through making grants to ex-service charitable organisations which have similar objects and to certain other organisations which demonstrate that they benefit the same groups.
The Trustees wish to receive applications from organisations which qualify for the receipt of grants; they try to contact such organisations, drawing attention to their objects, and, in particular, to the desirability of information about the number of war pensioners assisted, since war pension entitlement is the most positive indication of being disabled in war. But organisations which can apply should not omit to state assistance to war pensioners’ widows, nor be unaware that entitlement can arise from disabilities attributable to service in the armed forces which is not obviously service in war.
OBJECTS
1) Relief of needy men and women who served at any time in the armed forces of the Crown and were disabled in such service and their widows and dependents. Also ex-Merchant Navy and Civil Defence personnel who were
disabled during the 1914-18 or 1939-45 wars and their widows and dependents. In practice ex-servicemen and women are normally accepted as having been disabled in service if they are in receipt of a ‘war’ disablement pension from the Department of Social Security: such pensions are awarded for disabilities attributable to service whilst in the armed forces, whether in war or peace.
2) Assistance for nursing or residential home Charities whose aim it is to provide accommodation at least partly for the above groups of beneficiaries. Also grants for medical research having particular regard to the needs of disabled persons who served in the armed forces.
The Trustees have no plans to change their objects, but are well aware that they may need to vary their methods in the light of developments such as ‘Care in the Community’ which will change seriously the funding of many nursing homes and residential homes. The Trustees will also need to bear in mind the changing pattern of the age of beneficiaries, many of whom derive from the Second World War. While numbers of potential beneficiaries may well decline in the fairly near future, the cost of looking after survivors may well increase.
By the nature of the composition of the Board of Trustees, the Trust has links with several ex-service organisations and government departments, which assist their activities.
The Douglas Bader Centre
For further information about the work of the Trustees please write to:
Alan Baker Esq.
Clerk to the Trustees
Queen Mary’s Roehampton Trust
13 St George’s Road
Wallington
Surrey
SM6 OAS