Appendix A: Past Officers of the National League Presidents Benjamin O. Purse 1905–1916 R. D. Smith 1916–1917 Benjamin O. Purse 1918–1920 David B. Lawley 1920–1921 Alec Henderson 1922–1924 R. Hughes 1925–1933 James Grierson 1933–1941 J. Wittham 1942–1946 James Grierson 1947 Thomas Smith 1948–1961 Fred Mears 1962–1964 Dan West 1965–1979 C. Hynes 1979–1988 Neil Reid 1988–1991 W. McCready 1991–1997 Jimmy O’Rourke 1997–2000 Gareth Davis 2000–2013 Robert Mooney 2013– General Secretaries Benjamin O. Purse 1897–1899 (Northern Section of the League) Peter Miller 1899 William Banham 1900–1902 John E. Gregory 1903–1925 G. E. Glister 1926–1927 Alec Henderson 1928–1948 Thomas H. Smith 1949–1969 Thomas J. Parker 1969–1979 Michael A. Barrett 1979–1994 Joe Mann 1995–2013 John Park 2013– 167 Appendix B: Songs The Song of the National League Lyrics by J. Lynch. All hail to thee, Spirit of Brotherly Love, Thy influence here is supreme; Do thou from our counsels all discord remove, And flowing keep harmony’s stream. Chorus. To sing we success to the National League Unite hearts and voices round, Resolving to yield to no sense of fatigue Till vict’ry our efforts have crowned. We hail thee, great spirit of unity strong, And pray thee amongst us to dwell; We know that without thee, though countless our throng, We cannot act wisely or well. We hail thee, mild spirit of wisdom, and ask That thou o’er our counsels preside, Deciding how each may essay his own task, And acting to all as a guide. Source: Blind Advocate 10 (June 1899), p. 94. The Marcher of the Blind Lyrics by D. B. Lawley. Tune: ‘England Arise’. Citizens! Behold ye all the cruel wrongs, The blame for which to Government belongs. The Blind from mill and mine and shop and womb, Whose poverty bespeaks a living tomb, We march with hearts aflame, we seek no idle fame, Demanding simply Justice in the People’s Name. Workers! all ye who toil to enrich the State, Yet live in poverty so desolate. Fooled and plundered ye by despots so are we, Remember! He must strike the blow who would be free, Then rise in all your might, your hearts with ours unite, With us forth to glory and the People’s Right. 168 Appendix B: Songs 169 Though we seem few, the thraldom we deplore, Is suffered by our thousands thirty-four. Who, sightless to the Mill of Life must turn, To find the cause for pain and smart and burn. Though lordly be our foes, in the toilers we repose, Our Faith is planted in the People’s Cause. Then, like the needle swings towards the pole, Resenting beggars’ doles and grubber hole. We seek fair play of which you’re ne’er afraid: Which to the Blind must mean complete State Aid. For this cause we march, with all our hearts aflame In quest of Justice in the People’s Name. Source: Blind Advocate (April 1920), p. 8. Notes Introduction 1. B. Purse, ‘The Blind of Great Britain’. Chapter IV. BA (January 1899), p. 34. 2. In 2014 Queen Elizabeth II alone acted as patron of over 600 voluntary organisations. http://www.royal.gov.uk/HMTheQueen/QueenCharities/ Overview.aspx [last accessed 28 May 2014]. 3. C. Braithwaite, The Voluntary Citizen (London, 1938), p. 171, quoted in Nicholas Deakin and Justin Davis Smith, ‘Labour, Charity and Voluntary Action: The Myth of Hostility’, in Matthew Hilton and James McKay (eds), The Ages of Voluntarism: How We Got to the Big Society (Oxford, 2011), p. 75. 4. Justin Davis Smith, ‘The Voluntary Tradition: Philanthropy and Self-Help in Britain 1500–1945’, in Justin Davis Smith, Colin Rochester and Rodney Hedley (eds), An Introduction to the Voluntary Sector (London, 1995), pp. 9–39; Matthew Hilton and James McKay, ‘The Ages of Voluntarism: An Introduction’, in Hilton and McKay (eds), TheAgesofVoluntarism, pp. 1–26. 5. Rodney Lowe, The Welfare State in Britain since 1945 (3rd edn., Basingstoke, 2005), pp. 284–91; Virginia Berridge and Alex Mold, ‘Professionalisation, New Social Movements and Voluntary Action in the 1960s and 1970s’, in Hilton and McKay (eds), The Ages of Voluntarism, pp. 114–16. 6. Matthew Hilton et al., A Historical Guide to NGOs in Britain: Charities, Civil Society and the Voluntary Sector since 1945 (Basingstoke, 2012), pp. 303–8. 7. Ibid., pp. 326–7. 8. A useful overview of the terminology and categories employed is provided by Jeremy Kendall and Martin Knapp, ‘A Loose and Baggy Monster: Bound- aries, Definitions and Typologies’, in Smith, Rochester and Hedley (eds), An Introduction to the Voluntary Sector, pp. 66–95. 9. William Beveridge, Voluntary Action: A Report on the Methods of Social Advance (London, 1948), p. 10; Justin Davis Smith, ‘The Voluntary Tradition: Philan- thropy and Self-Help in Britain 1500–1945’, in Smith, Rochester and Hedley (eds), An Introduction to the Voluntary Sector, pp. 9–39; Helen McCarthy, ‘Associational Voluntarism in Interwar Britain’, in Hilton and McKay (eds), The Ages of Voluntarism, pp. 53–7; Nicholas Deakin, ‘Civil Society’, in Paul Addison and Harriet Jones (eds), A Companion to Contemporary Britain 1939–2000 (Malden, MA, 2007), pp. 407–26; James McKay, ‘Voluntary Pol- itics: The Sector’s Political Function from Beveridge to Deakin’, in Melanie Oppenheimer and Nicholas Deakin (eds), Beveridge and Voluntary Action in Britain and the Wider British World (Manchester, 2011), p. 83; Hilton et al., A Historical Guide to NGOs in Britain, pp. 1–11 and 284–6. 10. Deakin and Smith, ‘Labour, Charity and Voluntary Action’, p. 93. 11. Hilton et al., A Historical Guide to NGOs in Britain, p. 39. 12. ‘Speech by TUC Deputy Gen. Sec. Brendan Barber to Centenary Conference of the National League of the Blind and Disabled, Friday, 11 June 1999’, p. 1. TUCL, HD6661z. 170 Notes 171 13. Ibid., p. 2. 14. Madeline Rooff, Voluntary Societies and Social Policy (London, 1957), p. 178. 15. R. Ann Abel, ‘Visually Impaired People, the Identification of the Need for Specialist Provision: A Historical Perspective’, British Journal of Visual Impairment Vol. 7(2) (1989): 47–51. 16. Brian Grant, The Deaf Advance: A History of The British Deaf Association 1890– 1990 (Edinburgh, 1990); Peter W. Jackson and Raymond Lee, The Origins of the British Deaf Association (Feltham, 2010); Hilton et al., A Historical Guide to NGOs in Britain, pp. 104–7. 17. Thomas H. Smith (ed.), National League of the Blind 1899–1949: Golden Jubilee Souvenir Brochure (Glasgow, no date), pp. 8–10; Tom J. Parker, The National League of the Blind and Disabled 1899–1974: Years of Excite- ment ...and Disappointment (Glasgow, no date), pp. 3–8. 18. The League’s own narrative claims that it affiliated with the Labour Party in 1909, but this is not correct. Michael A. Barrett, ‘Justice not Charity: Campaigning for the Blind and Disabled’, Scottish Trade Union Review (April– June 1991), p. 22; NLB, Report and Balance Sheet 1905, p. 15 and Report and Balance Sheet 1906, p. 5, both in WCML, WRep. 19. Colin Rochester, ‘Voluntary Agencies and Accountability’, in Smith, Rochester and Hedley (eds), An Introduction to the Voluntary Sector, pp. 201–2. 20. Conference Report, Manchester, 7–9 February 1925. WCML, CRP. Minutes, EC Meetings, London, 27–9 June 1925, p. 1 and London, 19–23 June 1937, p. 5, both in WCML, NEC Minutes 1920–37. 21. Tom J. Parker, ‘Editorial’, BA (January 1969), p. 1. 22. On poor people’s movements, see Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward, Poor People’s Movements: Why they Succeed, How they Fail (New York, 1979). 23. The League’s Cork branch had become defunct in the early 1920s and the Belfast branch remained with the parent organisation. Pat Lyons, A Place in the Sun: A Brief History of the National League of the Blind in Ireland (Blackrock, Co. Dublin, 1999), pp. 7–8. 24. The ISTC had also merged with the Power Loom Carpet Weaver and Tex- tile Union before forming Community in July 2004 by joining forces with the National Union of Knitwear, Footwear and Apparel Trades, http://www.community-tu.org/information/100308/100310/history/ [last accessed 17 September 2012]. 25. http://www.community-tu.org/who-we-represent/nlbd-sector.aspx [last accessed 9 July 2013]; http://www.community-tu.org/information/100308/ 100310/history/ [last accessed 8 November 2012]; http://nlbit.wordpress. com/ [last accessed 9 July 2013]. 26. See, for example, ‘Wigan Blind on Holiday’, BA (October 1909), p. 1; ‘London Notes’, BA (September 1944), p. 3; ‘Report of Social of the West London Branch’, BA (March 1947), p. 4. 27. NLB, Report and Balance Sheet 1914, pp. 11–12; WCML, WRep. ‘Why Travelling Concessions for Blind Persons?’, BA (October 1950), pp. 6–7. 28. ‘Editorial’, BA (January 1951), p. 4; ‘The First Museum for the Blind’, BA (January 1962), p. 7. 29. ‘Quarterly Notes’, BA (July 1951), p. 2. 172 Notes 30. Res. No. 7, Report, 1967 Triennial Conference, 20–2 May 1967, p. 3, WCML, CRP. Res. No. 37, Report, 1988 Triennial Conference, 14–16 May 1988, p. 22, TUCL, HD6661z. 31. There are far too many articles on medical procedures in the Blind Advocate to list them all. For just two examples, see ‘American Ophthalmic: A Dis- appointing Operation’, BA (February 1899), p. 48; ‘New Eye Operation’, BA (October 1956), p. 8. 32. The League argued that he was in fact victimised for being a member of the League. ‘A Blind Workman Victimised by Henshaw’s Charity, Manchester!’, BA (February 1901), pp. 1–3.