HOSPITAL LEAGUE of FRIENDS (health service volunteers) - an enamelled pin badge (1980s / 1990s)

Postage is extra.

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For sale is a Hospital League of Friends (HLF) badge made by Dial A Style Ltd of Edenbridge in Kent. The emblem on this badge shows a serpent entwined around a staff surmounted by a cross and enclosed within a pair of wings joined by a pair of hands clasped in friendship. This badge may have been originally sold as a fund-raiser.

The HLF were regional based teams of health service volunteers organised to serve local hospitals in their areas. Hospital Leagues run by volunteers had been numerous during the inter-war years of the 1920s and 1930s and the war years (1939-1945) such voluntarism increased rapidly.

With the formation of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948, it was expected that the state would provide all needs for a comprehensive public health service and the need for volunteers within the NHS would lessen. But it was quickly realised that this was not to be the case and the role of volunteers would still be needed to provide patient comforts and support services to help in the running of the NHS. With the recommendation of the British Hospital Association, 175 League of Friends groups gathered together to hold a conference on 24th March 1949 and the National Association of Leagues of Hospital Friends came into being. This National Association and its Leagues held charitable status and its volunteers provided a wide range of services such as providing comforts (any items that would make a patients stay in hospital more comfortable), running of hospital shops, fund-raising activities to raise money for hospital equipment, etc.

In 2006, The National Association of Leagues of Hospital Friends officially changed its name to 'Attend'

https://www.attend.org.uk/about-us (Attend website).

https://academic.oup.com/shm/article/36/3/433/7190740 (Article about voluntarism within the NHS ... click on the PDF link to read the full article).

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DESCRIPTION:
Size: badge about 5/8" diameter (16mm).
Material(s): diecast metal alloy with 1 enamel.
Finish: gilt. This badge has a textured surface.
Fitting: tiepin.
Imprint: DIAL A STYLE EDENBRIDGE Dial A Style (Emblems) Ltd opened in the early 1980s and ceased trading in 1997.
Approximate age: 1980s to 1990s.

CONDITION:
Excellent condition. No damage. Pin in working order.
Please see photograph(s), these form part of the description.

POSTAGE:
* Postal costs are extra, additional to the Asking Price
* I always get a proof-of-posting certificate.
* I combine postal costs for multiple items when these are paid for and posted the same time.

RETURNS:
* Return accepted if the item(s) is returned in same condition it left me, then the full Agreed Asking Price will be refunded. Postal costs are not refundable.
* Buyer pays the return postal costs - unless agreed otherwise.

B.44

No offers under the asking price