H.R.H Princess Louise to Open Children's Home at Bexhill, July 1911

This announcement will cause the greatest pleasure throughout Bexhill, where the visit of a member of the Royal Family is a rare event, especially in connection with a ceremonious occasion. To what extent the visit of her Royal Highness will partake of a public character we are unable to state at present, but it may be taken for granted that should anything in the nature of a public reception meet with the approval of the Princess, and those in charge of the arrangements, Bexhill will rise to the occasion and give a demonstration of loyalty worthy of her distinguished visitor. In any event, the function coming, as it will do, just prior to the commencement of the summer season is calculated to be of the greatest possible advantage to the town.

We understand that the Major (Alderman J. A. Paton, J. P.) is meeting the authorities of the Home in London next week, when the question of her Royal Highness's reception will be discussed.

The 'Little Folks' Home, which Princess Louise is coming to open, is an institution, the enlargement of which is approaching completion at Little Common. It will be carried on as the seaside branch of the Queen's Hospital for Children, Hackney-road, Bethnal Green, E., which was established by two Quaker ladies in 1867 as the North Eastern Hospital for Children, and renamed in 1908 by special permission. In 1901 a fund was opened by the juvenile journal, "Little Folks," for the establishment of a ward in the new building which was then about to be commenced. This new building, including the "Little Folks" ward of twelve beds, was brought into use in September, 1903. It raised the number of hospital beds from 57 to 114, and subsequently 134 were provided. A sum of £3,000 having been collected for the establishment of the "Little Folks" ward, the attention of readers was drawn to another direction in which they could give very valuable assistance to the poor children of London, namely, by providing funds for a convalescent home for the patients of the Hospital. The "Little Folks" Home at Little Common is the results.

The Home will start with 30 beds, and will be open only to children from the wards of the Hospital. Two thousand sick children of the poorest classes in North-East London receive treatment at the Hospital. Hitherto they have had to be sent back from the hospital to the their homes in the slums and alleys of London, cured so far as the Hospital could cure them, but by no means restored to that condition of health which only a holiday in the pure bracing air of the country could bring about. Now, for many of them, at least, there will be a period of convalescence by the sea at Cooden, together with an enjoyment of all the rural delights which the neighbourhood of Little Common has to bestow.

The Home has already claimed the sympathies of Bexhill people, through the interest of Mr G. R. Sims, whole "Referee" Children's Fund has endowed one of the wards.

On July 13th, when the Duchess of Argyll will open the Home, and on the two following days, it is intended to hold a "Grand Shilling Fair" in marquees erected in the grounds of the Home, with the object of raising funds (1) to pay the expenses of furniture and fittings, for which £800 is required; (2) to pay off some part of the mortgage of £2,070 on the property; and (3) to increase the Maintenance Reserve Fund. It is intended to arrange the bazaar after the style of an old-fashioned country fair. The assistants will be dressed as nurses. On the first day the fair will be opened by Princess Louise, and it is expected that the ceremony on the two following days will be performed by some well-known persons.

It will be seen, therefore, that the inauguration of "Little Folks" Home will be the occasion of a local event of the greatest importance and public interest, and we have no doubt that, should the opportunity by afforded, Bexhill will unite with the Home authorities in rendering the visit of her Royal Highness a most pleasing and successful one from every point of view.

Princess Louise is the aunt of King George V, being the sixth descendant of her late Majesty Queen Victoria.