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British Wireless for the Blind Fund is a UK charity and a private company limited by guarantee. Founded by Sir Ernest Beachcroft Beckwith Towse in 1928, the organisation now provides adapted radios and audio players on free loan to registered blind and partially sighted UK residents over the age of eight where hardship circumstances can be demonstrated by receipt of a means-tested benefit. ==History== The British Wireless for the Blind Fund (BWBF) was founded in 1928 by Ernest Beachcroft Beckwith Towse, who had lost his eyesight in action during the Boer War. He was awarded the Victoria Cross. for two acts of bravery, the second of which cost him his sight. At the time of foundation, radios were then commonly known as wirelesses. Although concession had been made in the 1926 Telegraphy (Blind Persons) Act,〔http://www.postalheritage.org.uk/page/disabled〕 waiving the license cost for a wireless, the cost of a radio set was still prohibitive for many blind people. The BWBF aimed to remedy this situation. Winston Churchill broadcast the first BBC radio appeal〔http://gasdisc.oakapplepress.com/cb1929r.htm〕 for funds for the newly formed BWBF on Christmas Day, 1929,〔http://www.devonheritage.org/stentiford/Issue_48/Article3/05Dec3art1.htm〕 starting a tradition of broadcast appeals that continued until the 1980s. He said 〔Churchill - A major new assessment of his Life in Peace and War. Edited by Robert Blake and Wm. Roger Louis. pg 217. Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-820626-7〕 Following the appeal, the first 100 crystal radio sets made by Burne-Jones & Co. Ltd were issued to blind people at a cost of 31/6d per set. Headphones cost 7/3d a pair. :File:Crystal radio for the Blind.tif/thumb/right/Crystal radio issued early 1930's〔http://www.bbceng.info/Information/eng_inf_top.htm〕 Winston Churchill made another Appeal at Christmas in 1930 asking for a further £20,000 to provide another 10,000 people with radios. He reminded listeners that it had been a year since he first appealed for the cause and wondered whether the year had gone quickly for blind listeners. He said that wireless brought the blind each night a pageant before their mind's eye. "That mysterious lamp of inner conscientiousness will be continually fed by your unfailing care. The blind will hear, and by hearing, see".〔http://archive.org/stream/newbeacon1415193031unse/newbeacon1415193031unse_djvu.txt〕 By 1931, £37,000 had been raised and 17,000 radio sets provided to blind listeners. In 1932 Lord Snowdon made the appeal, asking for donations to provide 2,000 more blind people with sets.〔http://archive.org/stream/newbeacon161932unse/newbeacon161932unse_djvu.txt〕 James Ramsay MacDonald, Labour Prime Minister between 1931 - 1935 continued the tradition and appealed for additional funds on behalf of British Wireless for the Blind Fund from his home in Lossiemouth on Christmas Day 1933.〔http://archive.org/stream/newbeacon171933unse/newbeacon171933unse_djvu.txt〕 Legislation, passed in 1945, exempted blind people from having to pay purchase tax on radios.〔http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/11-12/29/section/41/enacted〕 BWBF has had many distinguished chairmen since Towse. Of note is Sir John Wall 〔http://www.braillechess.org.uk/obituaries/johnwall.html〕 who was chair from 1977 to 1991. A distinguished lawyer and high-court judge, Wall did not consider his blindness an impediment to his career and outside of his professional life, served the blind community in a number of roles. The first president of the Fund was H.R.H The Prince of Wales.〔http://www.biography.com/people/edward-viii-9542031〕 later to become King Edward VIII. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「British Wireless for the Blind Fund」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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