The Fund was founded in 1853 as the Post Office Clerk’s Charitable Fund its aims and objectives being “the relief of urgent cases of distress which may arise amongst the families of deceased Clerks of the General Post Office”. At that time the prime need for help arose through ‘death-in-service’ because of poor life expectancy. The beneficiaries were defined by grade in keeping with the hierarchical tendency of both the institution that was the Post Office and the Victorian era. Membership subscriptions were fixed at “one penny per week.” In the first year, eight widows were assisted at a total cost of £105 in grant aid. Clearly the plight of widows was perilous. Though a Post Office Clerk was some rungs up the ladder his wages made it unlikely that he would be able to afford life assurance. Families were large and relatives and charity were the only safety nets available.

The governance of the Fund was in the hands of senior officials from the various departments of the Post Office. AGMs were often chaired by the Postmaster General a custom which carried on into the 1960’s. Though often thought to have been a founder, in fact, the first trace of Anthony Trollope’s connection with the Fund is in 1860 when he chaired the AGM. Another key figure on the scene at the time was Rowland Hill. The Fund which bears his name was founded in 1882 and was brought into being to provide assistance to other grades below that of ‘Clerk’.

By 1900 the governance of the Fund appears to have involved a small number of Trustees whose role was largely honorary and designed to add prestige to the Fund, thus improving the chance of membership recruitment amongst senior officials of the Post Office. By today’s standards the number of individual cases remained small; in 1902 there were just 20. The presiding PMG was The Marquess of Londonderry and there were by then 1,304 subscribers. A ground-breaking change occurred in 1916 when an amendment to the rules was adopted which enabled female subscribers to be represented on the Committee.

Records from the inter-war years show increased activity and the establishment of separate funds for ‘distress’ and ‘pensions’, the forerunner of today’s ‘regular grants’. The practice of making loans had also started. The staffing had increased too, there also being an Assistant Secretary.

In 1950 the governance was not much changed from the turn of the century. The Trustees were all titled, the Committee a little larger. The capital of the Fund included specific monies set aside to provide places for orphans at Christ’s Hospital. The Committee met ten times during the year and made 71 grants totalling £1,577:4s:6d.” The practice of PMGs presiding at AGMs continued in the post-war era. Amongst those appearing in the records were Reginald Bevins, Anthony Wedgewood-Benn and John Stonehouse.

By 1985 the Fund had arrived at a compact with the Rowland Hill Fund whereby it now catered for BT people whilst RHF looked after Post Office beneficiaries. The 1986 AGM took place on 3rd July and was presided over by Mr I.D.T.Vallance in the Conference Suite of BT Centre. Associated with the Annual Report are the minutes of the 1985 meeting, which show Sir George Jefferson as having been in the chair. At this time the Secretary was Denis Cleary who had just succeeded Fred Clements in the role. Denis’s long association with the Fund continued through his work as a Committee Member, Pensioner Visitor and Trustee (1996-2002). The number of cases for 1985 was reported as 154. The BT donation stood at £30,169.87, total net worth at £186,042. Minimum subscription rates were 2p per week and 10p per month.

In 1996 the Fund was granted a new constitution which reflected the requirements of up to date charity law. The role of the Board of Trustees was expanded to include the administration and full governance of the Fund which was now registered with the Charity Commission. Since then their have been just two Chairman, John Steele (1996-2002) and Alex Wilson (from 2002) both of whom were HR Directors for the BT Group. The Board remained a mixture of serving and former officials including the modern equivalents of the Chief Solicitor and members of Internal Audit.

Today’s Secretariat are part-time staff and one volunteer. With one exception they are all ex BT. The Case Secretaries work on a rota basis and are home-workers. Following many years in London, the Fund Office moved out first to Slough and more recently to Reading Central Tel Exchange.

Rowland Hill

Anthony Trollope