St Dunstan's Oak Serving Tray

Tiger oak serving tray with brass handles handmade by First World War veterans at St Dunstan's Hostel for Blind Ex-Servicemen, London, 1916 - 1927

People who stayed at St Dunstan’s Hostel for Blinded Soldiers and Sailors were taught a trade as part of their occupational therapy. This varied from typing, telephony, cobbling, poultry farming, basket weaving, and woodwork. This object is an example of the ornate trays that men and later women were taught to make in the hope that they could sell them and live independently. The Hostel opened in 1915, during the First World War, with space for 14 residents but soon needed more space as demand for spaces grew. A year after the institution opened it moved from Bayswater Road to Regent’s Park to a building named St. Dunstan’s, which the charity took their name from after 1923. The facility was so over-subscribed that in 1921, three years after the war ended, there were still 57 men waiting to be admitted. When veterans returned home, the charity also had an after-care team to give life-long support.

Sir Arthur Pearson founded Blinded Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Care Committee in 1915 as place to help service personnel who had lost their vision in the First World War and in his words to ‘learn to be blind.’ Pearson himself had lost his sight because of a glaucoma. Several First World War veterans returned to help and train people with sight loss or visual impairment from their service in the Second World War. The charity increased its scope to any veteran with sight loss, no matter how and when their visual impairment or sight loss occurred and in 2012 the organisation changed their name to Blind Veterans UK.