Harold Wood Hospital League of Friends
The Secretary in Autumn 1954 received a letter which was passed to me. It suggested that we send a representative to a meeting regarding the starting of a League of Friends that was to be formed for the Harold Wood Hospital There was to be a meeting at Langtons. As we were still an Urban District Council, they had notified the local charities, of which there were many by that time. I attended this meeting on behalf of the Club. The meeting was chaired by Glyn Richards, the editor of the Romford Recorder and Langton, the Conservative MP for Hornchurch. The Matron of Harold Wood Hospital was there and it was agreed that it would be a good idea, as the League of Friends movement was quite new at that time. Harold Wood was a very old hospital then. The establishing of a League of Friends was agreed, and I was elected to go on the Committee as a representative of Rotary.
At the first meeting of the Committee, we were asked if we had an idea of anybody who might serve as Secretary. I thought of Dot Aldridge, who had been the hostess when we were at the Railway Hotel in Hornchurch. I took her to the meeting and she was elected as Secretary.
We had representatives of Brentwood Rotary Club and we agreed on the formation of the League of Friends. At the first full meeting, we decided to raise money for a hall, as there was no hall at that time. That was our objective and our first event was the fete. The Club was very good in supporting me on that. We had a coconut shy and various stalls. It was a tremendous success, and I continued on the committee for many years, except for an interim of 5 or 6 years when David Roome took over from me. As I might have expected, of course, after all the years I served, I could never get anybody to take my place on a permanent basis, so I went back on the committee again when nobody wanted to take over. The Round Table and other Clubs came from time to time, but did not stay permanently. We were always very lucky with secretaries, however, and only had about four all the time it was going. I will tell more later on.
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