|
Brunswick Boys club, Haldane Road, Fulham grew
out of the tedium of life at prisoner-of-war camp OFLAG 79. Prisoners trapped
behind barbed wire fencing were appalled by the idea of reunions and the
re-telling of camp stories and so decided instead to spend their time developing
and planning to form a boys club.
Brunswick Boys Club was born at a mass meeting
of camp inmates where laboriously created, hand copied brochures were given out
asking officers to promise money for " a club in which every officer would have
an interest and which would grow into a living denial of the futility of those
war years ". In a short time, organisers had a bundle of cheques and promissory
notes worth £13,000. Shortly after freedom had been obtained by the arrival of
an American jeep in 1945, an officer strode into NABC ( National Association of
Boys Clubs) offices and handed over a bundle of tatty cheques to very surprised
staff.
The Brunswick story captured the imagination of
post war Britain and as ex-prisoners-of-war fought for their share of the
country's building materials, the Club received the backing of the then Mister
Clement Attlee.
Two huts were built on an area of land near
Lillie Road in Fulham, which had been reduced to rubble in the blitz, and in
1949 Prince Phillip officially opened the Brunswick Boys Club.
The Club is now one of the capital's most
respected youth clubs. It has helped hundreds of young people escape the boredom
of inner city life and has seen international sporting figures such as Olympic
champion Daley Thompson and footballer Allan Mullery pass through its doors.
|
