ST DUNSTAN’S VILLA, the training centre in Regent’s Park. To the left is the clock, removed from the Guild Church of St Dunstan-in-the-West when it was demolished in 1828 and installed at the Regent’s Park mansion. The charity took the name St Dunstan’s from the clock.
St Dunstan’s Guiding Lights David Castleton tells us about the organization and the people who have given a helping hand to generations of war-blinded men and women n 1960, looking for a new job and a change of life, I found an ad for Appeals and Publicity Assistant at St Dunstan’s – the charity set up in 1915 to help men and women blinded on war service. I had never given much thought to blindness, but I had heard of St Dunstan’s. I applied and reported for my interview. It was only after I had answered several questions that I realized, to my surprise, that the man behind the desk was blind. His name was Robin Buckley and he had developed the trick of turning his head towards the sound of the voice he heard. He was blinded while serving in the Royal Navy when dismantling an Italian explosive motor boat. He became my boss. I soon discovered that Robin was not the only war-blinded head of department. In addition to the Publicity Department, three others were headed by St Dunstaners, as they were called: the Industrial Department, responsible for finding employment and supporting St Dunstaners in their work; the Estate Department, which found and maintained homes; and the Research
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Department. They all reported to their chairman, Sir Ian Fraser, who had been blinded on the Somme in the First World War. I began to realize I had joined a rather special organization, little knowing then that I would work for the charity for the next 33 years.
Changing attitudes Ian Fraser was only 18 in 1916 when he arrived, totally blind, at Regent’s Park, where the founder of St Dunstan’s, Sir Arthur Pearson, had established his training centre. Within a year, Fraser had become Sir Arthur’s assistant. Later he would succeed him as chairman. Arthur Pearson was a successful newspaper proprietor, owning Pearson’s Weekly, the Daily Express and the London Evening Standard. He became blind through glaucoma. When his sight failed, Sir Arthur is said to have to have told his wife, ‘I will never be a blind man, I will be the blind man.’ He lived up to his words by becoming president of the National Institute for the Blind after achieving great success in fundraising. When the First World War began Sir Arthur was quick to recognize
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that there would be blind casualties and he led a committee that brought about the foundation of St Dunstan’s. His aim for the blinded soldiers was: ‘They should be taught to read and write in the embossed type [Braille], assisted to acquire some occupation and generally trained to become active, self-reliant and self-helpful.’
Turning lives around In my work I had many opportunities to meet with those who had lived through the early years of St Dunstan’s. Some you might describe as ‘living history’, like Tommy Milligan, the second man to join St Dunstan’s, who in my time was a resident in Pearson House, a St Dunstan’s home in Brighton. A tall, urbane, retired businessman speaking French and German, Tommy was a young pastry cook when he volunteered for the Irish Guards on his 18th birthday. He was blinded in action at La Bassée in December 1914 and was among a convoy of wounded men that arrived in Cardiff. On hearing that Tommy was in hospital there, Pearson travelled to Cardiff himself w w w. d i s c o v e r y o u r h i s t o r y. n e t