On This Day, 12 January 1918

Birmingham Daily Post

Saturday 12 January 1918

BIRMINGHAM POOR CHILDREN’S CHRISTMAS PARTY.

Through the agency of Uncle John’s Charities, started 13 years ago by young readers of the “Birmingham Weekly Post,” between 1,200 and 1,300 poor children of the city were last night provided with tea and a miscellaneous entertainment in the Town Hall. This was the fourteenth annual gathering of the kind, and proved highly successful. In addition to the Christmas party the funds raised by the Busy Bees of the movement provide for summer holiday 200 children annually. A “Weekly Post” cot has also been established at the Children’s Hospital. The entertainment consisted of songs, comedy interludes, dances, banjo selections, and a magic lantern show, the contributors to the programme including several artists from the Alexandra pantomime. Prizes were presented by the Lord Mayor of Birmingham (Alderman A. D. Brooks) to the most successful collectors for the fund. Master Douglas Bland, with £100 record, becoming the King Bee, and Miss Doris James (£40) the Queen Bee. Other prize-winners were:—Eileen Wood, Madge and Gladys Danbrooke, Wilma Dalton, Mabel Osborne, Mrs. Brown. Mrs. White, Mrs. Smith, Leslie Reynolds, Hilda Fox, Doris Kirk, Dorothy Franks, and Marjorie Gosling.