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01 Nov 05 - 04:39 AM (#1594798) Subject: BS: Anyone heard of 'The Cheerful Sparrows'? From: Flash Company Sheila came up with a child-hood memory the other evening of going to a party given by an organisation called 'The Cheerful Sparrows'. It must have been before WW2, and probably in the mid '30s, as her father was still alive, and, she thought, a member of the group. He was a WW1 veteran, and she wonders if it was something arising from that. I tried googling it and came up with two relevant hits, one from The East Kent NHS dated 2003 and one from The Lancashire Evening Telegraph dated 2002. Neither of which linked to any info about the organisation. If it was an Army thing, it was presumably countrywide, as her dad was enlisted in the Warwickshire Regiment and subsequently transferred to the Hampshire's where he was commissioned. At the time of the party, the family was living in Cheshire, (Still do). I said, 'Someone on Mudcat is bound to know', Don't let me down. FC |
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01 Nov 05 - 02:07 PM (#1595127) Subject: RE: BS: Anyone heard of 'The Cheerful Sparrows'? From: Georgiansilver I know of a Cheerful Sparrows organisation which was in the Kent area in WW2 which organised fetes to raise money for charity but can tell you little about it. The person who told me of it died many years ago.....She was an evacuee from London during the war. Sorry can't help any more than that..only to confirm that "The Cheerful Sparrows" existed in Kent at that time. Best wishes, Mike. |
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02 Nov 05 - 12:25 AM (#1595529) Subject: RE: BS: Anyone heard of 'The Cheerful Sparrows'? From: Peace "The Cheerful Sparrows" with the quotation marks. More references to them on the two pages that come up. |
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02 Nov 05 - 12:26 AM (#1595530) Subject: RE: BS: Anyone heard of 'The Cheerful Sparrows'? From: Peace PS, Use North American quotation marks " ". |
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22 Sep 08 - 01:11 PM (#2447401) Subject: RE: BS: Anyone heard of 'The Cheerful Sparrows'? From: GUEST,Friends of the Froth Blowers One of the many charitable spin-offs of the amazingly successful 'Ancient Order of Froth Blowers' (1924-31) which attracted 700,000 members in its first four years , and raised over £100,000 for Sir Alfred Fripp's children's charities. The 'Brotherhood of Cheerful Sparrows' flourished in the mid-to-late-30's and, according to Google, still has a Charity Cup competed for in Thanet. |
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17 Aug 09 - 09:08 AM (#2702170) Subject: RE: BS: Anyone heard of 'The Cheerful Sparrows'? From: GUEST,One Tree Hill apparently in the late 18th C. workers in the City of London set to raise a volunteer army to fight in S. Africa (Boer or Zulu?). a lot of these City boys lived in Honor Oak Park, SE London and travelled in by train. the station master was particularky well liked and he volunteered for the force causing concern among his customers of the wellbeing of his wife and family so they set up a fund called the Cheerful Sparrows to care for his family. The idea took off and several branches of the Cheerful Sparrows were set up in the South East. Of these only the Margate branch is still operating and have opened a ward in the QEQM Hospital called Cheerful Sparrows ward. Will have the exact story soon as the history is on the wall of the ward and my mother is being admitted tomorrow and was telling me as I used to live in Honor Oak Park |
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18 Nov 09 - 10:15 AM (#2768415) Subject: RE: BS: Anyone heard of 'The Cheerful Sparrows'? From: GUEST,Brenda Mann Cheerful Sparrows held fetes in Preston Park, Brighton in the 1920's. In 1926, it was proposed to remove the railings on the boundary of the park. This was discussed at a Council meeting recorded in the Sussex Daily News on 17.12.1926: '....Councillor J.Lord Thompson remarked that if Preston Park had no railings it would be impossible to shut it up for a single day for the Cheerful Sparrows or any other fete. Alderman Carden asked what was to prevent the Cheerful Sparrows putting up an awning(Oh! Oh!). Exactly the same argument was used against the big wall and railings round the Pavilion Lawn. Today, awnings were fixed and Mayors' parties were still held. The scheme provided for new railings of much slighter structure for Preston Park, sufficient to allow the use of the park for sports.' |
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01 Dec 09 - 06:31 AM (#2777381) Subject: RE: BS: Anyone heard of 'The Cheerful Sparrows'? From: GUEST I am currently the Treasurer of The Cheerful Sparrows (Thanet) which was set up during the Boer War to support widows and children of said war, and named after a Porter (Mr Sparrow)on Victoria Station who was reknowned for his cheerfulness, and went to fight in South Africa. Over the years it has evolved and many years ago gave a large sum of money locally to help build Margate Hospital (now Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital) which still has a ward named after the Charity. We still support this ward with gifts of equipment not funded by the NHS and gifts to patients and staff at Christmas. We also donate to local people in need and subsidise an annual day outing. Funds are raised by organising events and from local bequests. I believe there were originally several branches of the Charity, but I think this is the only one remaining today. Hope this helps your enquiry, although from the date it was made some years ago - I found it while "browsing"! Dorothy Collins (Mrs) |