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TC The Inns of Court Gainsford Trust — providing support, comfort and help for 130 years
THE INNS OF COURT GAINSFORD TRUST
— PROVIDING SUPPORT, COMFORT AND HELP FOR 125 YEARS
By the Reader of the Temple Church
In 1897, The Inner Temple’s awareness, with that of the other Inns, of the social problems on their doorstep, persuaded the Inns of Court to establish a ‘boys’ club and a working men’s club for the relief of poverty of those living within the vicinity of the Inns. So began a mission, to be known formally as the Inns of Court Mission and more recently as the Inns of Court Gainsford Trust, after Gainsford Bruce who was instrumental in its foundation.
Following his Call to the Bar by Middle Temple in 1859, Gainsford Bruce practised on the Northern Circuit before serving as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Holborn from 1888 to 1892, when he became a judge of the Queen’s Bench Division. Sir Gainsford gave his time to a number of charitable causes. The area around Kingsway, Holborn, Roseberry Avenue and Clerkenwell, as well as the land on which the Royal Courts of Justice was built in the 1870s, was notorious in those days for its slums, and for what one observer described as “nests of disorderliness”, infectious disease, prostitution, open sewers and defective drains.
The Mission’s premises in Drury Lane were opened in 1904 by HRH The Prince of Wales, who in 1892 as George, Duke of York had been made a Royal Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn. Originally established for working men and boys, the Mission expanded with the establishment of a ladies’ section in 1919 which provided various support services, including a children’s crèche. Some of the children became members of the Ladies’ Association and called themselves ‘Gainsford Girls’. Although they shared the same premises, the two sections did not mix.
For the men there was a gym in the basement and four full-sized snooker tables upstairs. It was from here that the Gainsford Amateur Boxing Club was run. A member of the club recalls: “It got kids off the streets”. They went on organised holidays and had a rich history of training boxers. On one occasion in 1958 the club was visited by Royal Bencher HRH The Prince Philip. It was suggested to some young men that they should apply to become barristers’ clerks.
Members of the Bar were encouraged to get involved in the men’s section for one night a week and to make themselves visible, under the direction of such distinguished judges who chaired the Trust, such as Sir Leslie Scarman and Sir Ralph Gibson as they were then, both of whom went on, amongst other things, to become Chairman of the Law Commission. In 1972, there were 300 members on the men and boys’ side. In those days the wives of members of the Bench and Bar were encouraged to take an interest in the Ladies’ section and at that time it was the wives who actually did most of the club’s work.
In due course, in the 1980s the lease of the Mission’s premises in Drury Lane came up for renewal. Sir Ralph Gibson skilfully assembled a good deal with some developers who wished to redevelop the valuable site when Covent Garden was being regenerated following the move of the fruit and vegetable market to Nine Elms, Battersea. If it had gone ahead, the deal would have secured the future of the Mission. But when the Covent Garden Community Association heard about the proposals, they vigorously opposed them. They were seen as an attempt by a bunch of overpaid barristers to burnish their social responsibility credentials but really to enable some property developers to benefit from the redevelopment of Covent Garden Market. That effectively killed off the men’s and boys’ section of the Inns of Court Mission.
However, the Ladies’ Association continued, indeed it flourished. In the 1970s and 1980s, there were on average about 60 pensionable members, many of whom were widows. Members of ‘the Mish’, as it was affectionately known, met regularly for tea and conversation on Tuesday afternoons. There was often some form of entertainment as well: talks, quizzes, magicians, line-dancing and Irish folk singing all featured. The Master of the Temple, Master Robin Griffith-Jones, remembers as a boy on his way home from school, being taken by his mother (who was an active participant in the activities of the Mish) to meet the Ladies.
At Christmas the Ladies met for a lunch, which was hosted by the Inns, followed by carol singing led by the enthusiastic Metropolitan Police Choir, which seemed to grow larger and larger each year and was greatly enjoyed, not least for the badinage and mild flirtation that took place between the ladies and retired policemen.
The religious side of the Mish had been catered for from the start. The minutes of the Council Meeting in May 1945 recorded the announcement, “with a real sense of catastrophe”, that the Reverend George Davey was planning to retire and live in the country. A successor was promptly sought in order to maintain the monthly reading of lessons and prayers which, it was resolved, “must not be allowed to fall into abeyance”. There were also services at Easter and Christmas, conducted by the Master and, latterly, the Reader of the Temple.
Portrait of Sir Gainsford Bruce by Ralph Hedley, 1897 (in Middle Temple Bench Apartments)
© The Honourable Society of The Middle Temple with kind permission of the Masters of the Bench of Middle Temple
There was an enormous number of other events and outings which were organised by the Gainsford Trust over the years, including visits to St James’s Palace and other royal residences. The Gainsford Ladies regularly contributed to Queen Mary’s Needlework Guild. In 1976, Mrs Allard, aged 90, who had made 60 garments, was presented to HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, a Royal Bencher of Middle Temple. The old ladies were still knitting in 2009 when a table of their woollies was apparently a sell out at the Bench and Bar Arts and Craft Exhibition.
In addition, there were country house luncheon parties at the homes of the Trustees, visits to the theatre and the Royal Opera House, day trips to the seaside at Clacton, Hove, Southend and Worthing, with afternoon tea and cakes of course, and perhaps a stop off at a pub on the coach journey back to London.
All of this charitable activity was funded by legacies and donations from the Bench and Bar and their families and friends. It used to be the practice, until recently, for the Trustees to write to congratulate the new Silks on their appointment and invite them to make an annual donation to the Trust.
There were also fund-raising events such as champagne parties at the Inns and a Ball at the Hurlingham Club and in the Inns. A ball programme in the early 1970s reminded participants that the purpose of the Mission had always been “to provide a good social, friendly and sporting centre in which to help build decent citizens”. There were also regular opportunities for the Bench and Bar to reveal their creative talents in order to raise money the sale of paintings and other works of art from the Bench and Bar Art Exhibition, held in Lincoln’s Inn Old Hall. The Master of the Temple’s father, Mervyn GriffithJones (then the Common Serjeant of London) donated two of his paintings to the Mission for sale. In 2001, HRH The Prince of Wales (a Royal Bencher of Gray’s Inn) generously lent one of his watercolours for the exhibition.
The lockdown restrictions caused by COVID-19 dealt heavy blows on so many, including charities like the Gainsford Trust. As a result, the regular Tuesday afternoon meetings which took place in a community hall at Leather Lane, punctuated by outings and events, could not take place and hospital visits were no longer permitted. Not only did the number of beneficiaries begin to decrease but retiring members of the Trust’s Council (many of whom had given years of devoted service) became increasingly difficult to replace, with the wives of Judges and barristers often pursuing high-powered jobs themselves and contributing to family life, without the time to commit to voluntary associational activity of the kind represented by the Gainsford Trust.
As a result, after much deliberation, the Trustees decided earlier this year, with the approval of the Trust’s Council, to transfer the Trust’s assets to the Barristers’ Benevolent Association to continue the work of providing support, comfort and help to members of the Bar and their dependants consistent with the Trust’s objectives and the vision of Sir Gainsford Bruce.
The Rev’d Mark Hatcher
Master Mark Hatcher is a former Trustee of the Inns of Court Gainsford Trust. He is the Reader of the Temple at the Temple Church and an honorary Bencher of The Inner Temple.
