Merseyside Record Office: League of Welldoers

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THE LEAGUE OF WELLDOERS

Catalogue in Full

Creator(s):

League of Welldoers, Lancashire

Access Condition(s):

Access will be granted to any accredited reader, although M364 LWD/6/7 and M364 LWD/6/14 contain sensitive personal information and are closed until Jan 2053 and Jan 2007 respectively.

40 series

Administrative History

This collection is the archive of both the League of Welldoers (LWD) itself and of its founder, Lee Jones.
H Lee J Jones (LJ) was born in Runcorn in May 1869 to Anglo-American parents. His early ambition to become a clergyman was thwarted when the family suffered financial difficulties and he was forced to enter the printing business. His desire to help those less fortunate than himself led to the setting up of the Liverpool Food Association in May 1893, which provided school-children with low cost dinners - an idea that was soon copied by other cities.
By 1898 the work had expanded to improve the quality of life for the poor as well as to feed them. Alley concerts and trips to New Brighton were among the treats organised by the newly christened Food and Betterment Association. The staff of the Association were known as the League of Welldoers and in 1908 the organisation became known by this title.
LJ devoted the rest of his life to helping others both through the League and personally. He led campaigns, such as the movement to exempt charities from paying rates, and the greater use of corporal punishment for children. He put forward strong personal opinions through his own publications, The Welldoer and Straight Talk, and Liverpool papers, using the pen name of "Delphian". His funeral procession in October 1936 went along streets that were lined by thousands who wanted to acknowledge their gratitude and respect for LJ and his lifetime of caring.
After his death the organisation was incorporated and continued under the new warden and secretary, WJ Horn, until his retirement in 1980. A new centre was completed in Limekiln Lane in 1972 and the work continues today, concentrating on youth services and care of the elderly.
LJ's interests were varied and this is reflected in the records. As well as a very large amount of personal papers and correspondence to friends, those he helped, and officials, there are original mss of writers whom he befriended and many press cuttings about varying subjects. Official LWD papers are mixed in with his personal papers and it is often difficult to separate the man and his work.
The archive was deposited on 2 main occasions - on 7/2/1977 (1977-7) and 1/6/1977 (1977-34) by WJ Horn, Warden and Secretary, League of Welldoers, Limekiln Lane, Liverpool, on permanent loan. There ia a total of 43 boxes.
NB: The first deposit appears to have been fully listed, but the second seems to have been listed by box only and not in any order. This new list is based on these two originals but has been made more accessible mainly by providing a more detailed summary of contents (see next page). The detailed list of personal correspondence (/11-/20) from the old list has been retained within the body of this new list and should be used in conjunction with the LWD personal name index in the Searchroom.
An appendix of major collections of press cuttings, leaflets and articles, publications and official reports (i.e. printed or published material) within the archive can be found at the end of the list.
Abbreviations
LJ H Lee J Jones.
LFA Liverpool Food Association.
FBA Food and Betterment Association.
LWD League of Welldoers

Contents

This summary is a guide to what is contained under each heading - see full list for details.
1 Administration
Minute books, 1895-1918; 1955.
Pocket books and letterbooks, 1892; 1896-1911.
2 Legal, including
Lodging house licences, 1905.
Membership letters, 1937.
3 Finance + annual reports
Annual reports, 1893-1993;
Balance sheets, 1898; 1916-1923.
Accounts, 1905-1916.
Legacies and trusts, 1916-1946.
Subscribers book, 1910-1912.
Cashbooks, 1895-1908.
4 Buildings
Deeds, plans, valuations, etc, c1906-1941. (For correspondence re alterations see 14/75-?)
5 Investments, 1903-1960.
6 Operational records, including
Case notes
Records of collections, donations, vists, etc, etc
Sick cases
7 LWD Publications
Collection of LWD publications, 1894-1938.
The Social Beacon, 1894-1896
Scholars LFA Record
The Welldoer and Straight Talk, 1907-1923; 1956-1968.
Our Fellow Charities. 1907-1910.
8 Publicity, 1893-1979
Appeal pamphlets
Illustrated handouts
Misc. information leaflets
Tickets for events
Theatre programmes
9 Staff
Letters of application and appointment, 1928-1938.
Details of duties and hours, 1933-1938.
Menus, 1930s.
10 Miscellaneous, including
Police reports re vagrants, 1901-1902.
Official reports, incl. meals for schoolchildren, artizans and labourers' dwellings, 1900s.
National Savings documents, 1944-1957.
Liverpool Co-op society information.
11-20 Correspondence
(see index in Searchroom)
21-23 Correspondence, publications, press cuttings, 1892-1924
24 Correspondence
Diaries and letterbooks of LJ, 1887-1920.
25 Pamphlets and press cuttings
Mainly re drink and poverty, 1895-1906.
26 Illustrated London News re loss of Empress of Ireland, 1914
27 Press cuttings and correspondence, 1905-1917.
28 Correspondence, press cuttings re bogus charities on Merseyside, 1906-1918.
29 Photographs and other memorabilia.
30 Miscellaneous, including
Christmas cards, 1890-1914.
Pamphlets
31 Personal belongings and papers, 1869-1936.
32 Miscellaneous
Correspondence re De Roma case; Ministry of National Service
Press cuttings
Booklets
33 Miscellaneous correspondence, 1920-1922; 1931-1947.
34 Memorial plaques for beds in Shelters; slides, c1935-1940.
35 Photographs, press cuttings, articles, c1880-1920.
36 Town Hall Relief Fund; pamphlets on social issues, 1892-1919
37 Press cuttings, 1898-1912.
38 Scrapbooks/sketchbooks, 1878-1889.
39 Non-LWD publications, 1899-1936.
40 Press cuttings books; Great Thoughts magazine, 1899-1924.
41 Miscellaneous, including
Liverpool Police Inquiry Report 1909
Leeds Police Reports, 1912-1916.
Leaflets
Publications re WW1
42 Journal of Commerce
Appendix
Press Cuttings (major collections)
There are numerous collections of newspaper cuttings within the collection. This list gives the reference number, general subject matter, and date of each.
3 Appeals 1899
15/80 Attacks on LJ and his defence Nov 1904
16/113-198 Homeless in Birmingham
Belgian Refugees
Princess Louise
Ex-Serviceman's plight
Death and Will of LJ
17/10 Kirkdale Child Charities Bazaar 1898
18/2 Princesses Christian and Louise, Death of J Harvey Farmer 1898-1917
21/1-34 Early work of LWD, vegetarianism, open air slum concerts, spread of ideas to other cities, causes of slum poverty, drink map of Liverpool, Poor Children's Society and dubious nature of its financial dealings. 1892-1912
21/135-238 LJ's refusal to pay rates 1895-1913
22/819 Horatio Bottomley scandal 1912-1922
23/3-5 Delphian 1914-1933
32/2 Marconi failure
35/6-13 FBA; underfed school children, sick poor Princess Louise's visit to Liverpool, LJ's nights with the homeless, rates 1892-?
35/17 LWD children caught by tide at New Brighton 1913
35/19 Peeps into Penury (series of articles) 1909-1910
37/1 LFA, FBA, Alley concerts, New Brighton outings, Liverpool housing scheme 1898-1912
40/1 Bound, re current events 1905
40/2 Matters of interest to LJ and FBA 1892-1898
List of Publication/official reports,etc, except those listed in 364 LWD/8
7/2 The Social Beacon (12) 1894-1896
7/3 The Scholars LFA Record (9) 1896-1904
7/4 The Welldoer and Straight Talk (bound) 1907-1923
7/4a Our Fellow Charities 1907-1910
7/5 The Welldoer (44) 1956-1968
10/3-4 Report of Inter-Departmental Committee on Medical Inspection and Feeding of Children attending Public Elementary Schools (2vv) 1905
10/5 Artizans' and Labourers' Dwellings, description and particulars as to rents,etc 1905
10/10-13 National Savings booklets 1947-62
10/14-16 Liverpool Co-op Society Ltd booklets 1954
10/17 Programme - The Happy Marriage, LIverpool Playhouse 1954
10/18 Lourdes Summer 1963
19/17 The Torch, vol 2, no. 1 (revolutionary journal of Anarchist-Communism)
21/253 An Enquiry into the causes of poverty and how every man and woman may be relieved from want, of the fear of want, by George Stirk 1890
21/268 The Vegetarian Messenger and Health Review 1925
21/269 La Propiedad Territorial 1919
22/816-818 The Free Thinker (3) 1915
23/84 The Liverpool News (for Liverpool men in the Forces) 1916
24/2 The Hellenic Herald 1910
25/1/1-4 4 drink and poverty pamphlets 1885-1906
26/3 11 issues of the Journal of Commerce 1914-1915
26/3a The Whitehall Gazette 1926
26/4 Illustrated London News special issue on the loss of the Empress of Ireland 1914
30/46 Is Religion Growing or Decaying? by F Gould 1917
30/47 The supreme subject in the instruction of the young, by FJ Gould 1918
30/67 The Union Magazine, official organ of the National Union of Ships Stewards, Cooks, Butchers and Bakers 1910
36/75 Five days and five nights as a tramp among tramps, by a Lady 1904
36/76 Conditions of Dock Labour, by J Sexton c.1892
36/77 The Poor of Liverpool, by William Grisewood 1897
36/78 The Poor of Liverpool and what is being done for them, by W. Grisewood 1899
36/79 Workless and starving 1906
36/80 The Murdering of British Seamen, by HM Hyndman 1913
36/81 Slavery Ancient and Modern, by J Kenworthy nd
36/82 Sweated Industries, by Allan Tracy 1907
37/2 The Positivist Review, no. 160 1906
40/3/1 Great Thoughts from Master Minds
40/3/2 Great Thoughts 1920
41/6 City of Leeds, Reports on the Police Establishments and the state of crime with tabulated returns for 1912-1916
Publications of WW1
41/20 Conscript em! cartoons by Will Dyson
41/21 The war in a new light, by Arthur Trepins 1915
41/23 The Child and the War, by Cecil Leeson 1917
41/24 If the Kaiser governed Britain. The lesson of Germany, by William Stepen Saunders 1918
41/25 The Bystander's Fragments from France, cartoons by Bruce Bairnsfather c 1915
41/26 Memorial of the German East Coast Raids and Bombardment by Sea and Air (illustrated with intro by H Hood, FRPS 1915
41/27 Raemaekers' Cartoons c 1915
42/1-2 Journal of Commerce and Shipping Telegraph 1926
42/3 Illustrated review of 100 years of shipping in honour of the centenary of the Journal of Commerce 1926
12/158 Size of the Phrenological organs of the Brain nd
12/212 Liverpool Vegetarian Annual 1915-16
13/232 The Agnostic Journal 1906
13/266 The Dangers of Venereal Disease 1914
14/113 Religious Opinion 1914
17/11/49 Homeless, magazine of Father Berry's Homes 1908
17/11/54-65 St Vincent's Record, monthly journal of Father Berry's Homes (12 issues) 1902-1905
(including information on child emigration)
19/5 The Vegetarian Messenger and Health Review 1921
21/253 An Enquiry into the cause of poverty and how every man and woman may by relieved from want, of the fear of want 1890
List of leaflets, reprinted articles, handouts, etc, not in 364LWD/8 and 21/1-35
21/135-228 Press cuttings, articles 1895-1913
21/229-238 Reprints on rating of charities 1900-1904
21/253 Article re. Rev Herring's attack on LFA 1898
21/253 Another night on the streets with the homeless 1901
21/269 "How Bolshevism wrecked Russia - is Britain also to be wrecked?"
21/269 "The Unspanked Generation" 1924
22/536 "A Plea for a Juster Estimate of the Poor", by FE Reiss nd
22/725 Reviews, etc, including "Is the charity spirit waning?" by Dixon Scott
22/819 Press cuttings re. Horatio Bottomley, MP 1912-22
24/2 Articles re. LIverpool Housing 1901-1916
London's Gleaners nd c. 1900
30/59 LFA and its Critics nd
30/60 The Rev RF Herring and the LFA 1898
30/66 "Ring up interviews. Good man Lee" 1904
35/7 "Liverpool Slum Life. The Brighter Side" 1899
35/13 Reprints from Liverpool papers re. LJ's dispute over rates 1900, 1910
35/15 "Liverpool Slums 60 years ago", by JF Snape c1900-1910
35/19 12 articles - "Peeps into Penury", from the Methodist Times 1909-1910
35/20 "Among Belgian Refugees in Liverpool" 1914
36/74 "Our Slums (illustrated)" 1906
41/4 "The Strike, Charity, and Drink" 1911
41/13-14 Corporal Correction League c.1920
41/15 "Why you should be temperate", leaflet of the True Temperance Association nd
41/16 "Social Services", by H Barnes c.1922
12/118 National Federation of Individuals, aims of
12/89 "Derelicts of Humanity" 1920
12/1 Circular of the Ancoats Brotherhood 1891
12/167 Leaflet of the Liverpool Socialist Party 1892
12/168 Handbill - basis of the Fabian Society nd
12/211 Handbill - Liverpool Vegetarian Society Dinner 1893
13/269 Vegetarian Society Syllabus 1905/6
13/270 Vegetarian Society Syllabus 1904/5
13/278 Handbill - "A meeting of Vegetarians" 1916
18/5 Published address - "The Primary Fallacy in the Policy of Free Imports", by JH Farmer 1904
19/6 Simultaneous collections for local charities, information sheet 1891
19/7 "If insurance were voluntary", by Margaret Douglas nd
36/6 "Medical Inspection and Hungry Children" 1905

Index Term(s):

Jones, H Lee J, 1869-1936