| Biography | The British Wireless for the Blind Fund was founded by war hero Captain Sir Beachcroft Towse, VC, KCVO, CBE, who lost his sight in the Boer War in South Africa in 1900. Captain Towse was awarded the Victoria Cross for two acts of gallantry. For the first, in 1899 at the battle of Magersfontein, he supported a mortally wounded comrade until help arrived, and for the second, in 1900 on Mount Thaba, he and his force of 12 men succeeded in driving off 150 Boers despite being vastly outnumbered.
It was during this attack that Captain Towse received the serious injury that cost him his sight.
His brilliant military career behind him, Captain Towse turned his energies to the service of the blind community. In the years that followed he travelled the length and breadth of the country to help the British and Foreign Blind Association and foster public interest in the welfare of the blind.
The idea for the Fund was born in 1928 when Captain Towse received a visit from two close friends while on a long stay in hospital. Eager to help relieve the monotony of his hospitalisation, they rigged up a makeshift wireless set earthed to a nearby radiator. This revelation transformed the Captains life and inspired him to create the Fund.
The Fund was officially launched on Christmas Day 1929 by Winston Churchill who broadcast an appeal, live, from his home in Chartwell with an impassioned appeal for money to buy wireless sets. |