The history of RAB
Reading Association for the Blind, Reading Association for the Welfare of the Blind, and the Reading Blind Aid Society.
RABs Reading roots are over 130 years old. The first iteration of the charity was established in the nineteenth century by Hugh Edward Walford, who lived in ‘Pattingham’, 92 London Road in Reading and who was himself visually impaired. The University of Reading are currently researching Hugh Walford as part of their Reading Old Cemetary project and the Friends of Old Reading Cemetary hope to publish an article about him on their website www.readingoldcemetary.uk.
To learn more about Hugh Walford click here
The Blind Aid society trained visually impaired people and then employed them as home workers. They ensured that everyone with a visual impairment in the town had a decent standard of living and an income. Press reports in the early 20th century noted that even before the Blind Persons Act of 1920 directed local authorities to make arrangements for the welfare of people with significant visual impairments ‘an indigent blind person was rarely seen in [Reading]’ thanks to the work of the Reading Blind Aid Society. The work was funded by subscriptions from local residents and carried out by volunteers.
Mary Gordon Burnett joined the Reading Blind Aid Society in 1912. For more information about Mary Burnett click here. Mary died after a short illness in the autumn of 1925 and Hugh Walford, who was by then elderly, felt unable to continue the charity’s work without her. This series of articles from April 1926 chart how the Reading Blind Aid Society was replaced by the Reading Association for the Welfare of the Blind, which became the Reading Association for the Blind (RAB) when it was incorporated in 1997.
Paddi Lilley, a past Chair of Trustees of RAB, wrote a history of the charity from 1926 to 1987 and Josie Stacey, a member of staff, recorded her thirty years with the charity in 2011. By 2023 many of the people supported by RAB were also accessing services with Berkshire Vision and the charities were increasingly co-producing sight loss support in Reading so the Members of RAB voted to formally join forces with Berkshire Vision.
Although there have been name changes over the years and the focus of the charity has shifted from home working and pensions to outreach support and social activities, the same principle of support and enablement has informed our work from 1893 to the present day, and just as when Hugh Walford was inspired by his experience of living with a visual impairment to set up the Reading Blind Aid Society to support other visually impaired people, people with visual impairments not only use our services but are instrumental in devising and delivering them.
