Little League of Kindness

The Little League of Kindness run by the Hastings Observer’s Children’s Corner ran for decades and was written by a variety of “uncles,” some of whom were actually aunties. One of its roles was to encourage children to express kindness by collecting farthings, the smallest currency in circulation at the time, for the Observer Cot Fund.

Enamel Badge presented to contributors

The 1933 end-of-year letter from “Uncle Tom” that was printed in the paper noted how much the children had contributed to the cause of endowing infants’ cots at the Hastings Royal East Sussex and Buchanan Hospitals’ childrens’ wards. The latter hospital was opened in 1884 with 15 beds and a children’s wing was added in 1908, the gift of a Mrs Thomas Mason, after whom it was named. The Royal East Sussex hospital, opened in 1927 once stood on a site opposite to the White Rock Gardens. Mrs Angie Quinnell of Ore remembers that as a small child she had a dark green enamel badge that bore the letters LLK in gilt. It is believed that the nickname for the young fundraisers was Elkins. During 1933 local children had raised a total of 52,599 farthings, worth almost £55, a considerable sum in 1933. Uncle Tom, not knowing of the seismic upheavals that would shake the country’s health system, hoped that, “the Cot Fund would go on forever.”

Per I. Shiner:

The LLK also collected silver paper, cigarette and Christmas cards."Uncle Tom " became "Uncle Jim" who was in fact Doris Swaine, a journalist of advancing years in the1950's and 1960's. All her copy was handwritten in reporter's shorthand and notoriously difficult for the production staff to read. One of the attractions of children's corner was that your name and sometimes your picture would appear in the Observer.