Graphical version

London Metropolitan Archives

HELP YOURSELF SOCIETY


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0074 CLC/143

Held at: London Metropolitan Archives

Title: HELP YOURSELF SOCIETY

Date(s): [1951]-1986.

Level of description: Collection

Extent: 1 production unit.

Name of creator(s): Help Yourself Society | fundraising charity

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

In 1923, the London Stock Exchange Dramatic and Operatic Society decided to put on additional performances to provide funds for hospitals. In order to augment the money raised, a Christmas Draw was organised and people and businesses in and around the Stock Exchange were invited to donate prizes. A separate organisation, the Help Yourself Society, was formed in 1927 to run these fundraising activities. Subscribers to the Society were entitled to a draw ticket for each subscription paid (originally half a crown). The funds raised were distributed amongst institutions and organisations nominated by the trustees of the Society. Many of the gifts donated for the draw were deliberately of a comic kind and from 1926 details were published in a catalogue. This became the Help Yourself Annual which was published until 1950 when it was replaced by a gift list, later by a newsletter and subsequently by a list of prizewinners. After the Second World War, with the creation of the National Health Service, the Society shifted its support from hospitals and large institutions to smaller charitable organisations which relied on voluntary contributions for the bulk of their income. The Society was wound up in 1986.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Printed material and circular letters relating to the Help Yourself Society, a fundraising charity.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

One file.

Conditions governing access:

Available for general access.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright to these records rests with the City of London.

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Given to the Manuscripts Section of Guildhall Library in October 1993 and catalogued shortly afterwards by a member of Guildhall Library staff. The whereabouts of the archives of the Society are unknown. The Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section merged with the London Metropolitan Archives in 2009.

ALLIED MATERIALS

DESCRIPTION NOTES Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: June to August 2010.


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Budget contributions | Financing | Finance
Charity records | Documents | Information sources
Fundraising | Financing | Finance
Hospitals | Health services
Medical charities | Charities | Charitable organisations | Associations | Organizations
Fundraising x Budget contributions
Medical institutions
Nonprofit organizations

Personal names

Corporate names
Help Yourself Society | fundraising charity

Places
City of London | London | England | UK | Western Europe | Europe