This film is part of Free
Work at St. Dunstan's
Activities at St. Dunstan’s hostel for blind soldiers in Regent’s Park.
Overview
Boot-mending and basket-making are among the activities on offer at St. Dunstan’s hostel for blind soldiers in Regent’s Park. The ex-servicemen were provided retraining in various professions, including joinery and gardening, from instructors who were often blind themselves. The programme was intended to help soldiers adapt to their blindness, advocating an ethos of self-reliance that prepared them for future employment opportunities.
St. Dunstan’s was established in 1915, offering physical and emotional support to vision-impaired veterans. Initially based in elsewhere in London, they quickly outgrew their Baywater premises and needed a larger facility to cope with increased demand from soldiers, often suffering from the effects of mustard gas attacks, amongst other causes. This building in Regent’s Park was owned by Otto Kahn, a New Yorker banker, who loaned the fifteen acre property to the charity free of charge until 1920. The organisation is now known as Blind Veterans UK.
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