Today, on 25th June, we celebrate Armed Forces Day; a day of recognition and support for all the men and women who form the Armed Forces community: from currently serving troops to Service families, veterans and cadets. SSAFA, the Armed Forces Charity is an organisation that has been supporting armed forces personnel and their families for over 130 years. With a volunteer network that reaches into every county in the UK, and 11 countries around the world, SSAFA is the UK’s oldest national tri-service Armed Forces Charity.
We are proud to be associated with them, and here, we take you through a short history and look at the work of this vitally important charity.
The Beginning
In 1885, Major (later Colonel Sir) James Gildea wrote a letter to The Times newspaper, appealing for volunteers and money to support the military families who were left at home, following the Second Expeditionary Force setting sail for Egypt.
A fund was soon set up and shortly afterwards Her Royal Highness, The Princess of Wales, became the first president of what became known as the Soldiers’ and Sailor’s Families Association (SSFA).
The next twenty years saw the set-up of community nurses, later known as Alexandra Nurses (named after the Princess of Wales), and the Royal Homes for Officers’ Widows and Daughters was built and opened by King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in July 1905.
World Wars and Home from Homes
With the outbreak of World War One, the British government requested the assistance of SSFA in taking care of the families of soldiers who had gone to war. After just five months they had paid out more than £1 million pounds from a National Relief Fund and expanded to over 50,000 voluntary workers.
In 1919, following the formation of the Royal Air Force the previous year, SSFA became SSAFA, the Soldiers’, Sailors’ and Airmen’s Families Association. A Royal Charter followed in 1926 and demand for SSAFA’s services increased in the years leading up to the beginning of World War Two. The first overseas bureau was set up in Cairo in 1941 to field enquiries from servicemen about their families back home.
SSAFA’s work from then on has seen them assist prisoners of war returning from Korea in 1953, provide support for families during the Falklands conflict in the 1980’s, and assist the Ministry of Defence with British Forces Germany, providing health and social care services.
In 2008, responding to a campaign by Sue Norton and her husband Captain Peter Norton, who had been injured serving in Iraq, SSAFA set up Norton House, a free ‘home from home’ for relatives visiting injured service men and women.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II formally opened SSAFA’s headquarters at Queen Elizabeth House in London in 2013.
Mission
For over 130 years, one organisation has serviced the needs of the people who serve us, and their families. From the youngest recruit, to the oldest veteran, no-one’s service is forgotten.
SSAFA works in partnership with other military charities and specialist organisations to make sure those in need get the support they require. They provide support wherever it is needed, both in the UK and worldwide.
You can read the story and watch a video from Army Sergeant Marc Johnston, a serviceman whom SSAFA helped during his ‘darkest hour’, HERE.
Our Association
We at Hattons of London are so proud of our association and long-standing partnership with SSAFA, and to be able to donate 10% of all net profits on sales generated by military themed sovereign ranges. Through ranges including the We Will Remember Them Sovereign range, the Prince William 40th Birthday Sovereign range, and most recently the Queen Elizabeth II Tribute Sovereign range, we have raised in excess of £750,000, with over £200,000 of that in just the last year – this is a proud achievement for everyone at Hattons of London, and we would not have been able to do that without our amazing clients.
