The First Annual Dinner

In 1891 an annual dinner was inaugurated at the Hotel Metropole in London to celebrate the success of the, by now, well-established charity; royalty, the elite of society, and the cream of the theatre were invited. At this glittering occasion Irving is reported as saying that in the eight years of the existence of the Fund £18,000 had been distributed to more than seven thousand people in distress, phenomenal figures proving the necessity of the ABF. The programme for the evening set out the Fund’s aims “… to relieve distress in the Dramatic profession, to discourage professional mendicants, detect imposture, and, above all, to see that the generosity of the profession reaches those whose need is urgent, whose misfortunes are inevitable, and whose characters are deservedly respected”.

The guest of honour, Charles Dickens, in proposing a toast to Irving declared that “a better president for an institution like the Actors’ Benevolent Fund the ranks of English actors could not produce. He brought to the work a spirit of devotion and kindness”. At any gathering of actors, anecdotes and jokes proliferate, and this affair was no exception: one actor told how, while touring in the provinces he overheard a group of gossiping women, one of whom warned, “The players are coming, take the linen off the hedge!”

Entertainment was threaded through the evening. First the Comus Glee Club sang “in a very humorous fashion” the part-song “Franklynn’s Dogge”, then Madame Antoinette Stirling took the stage and gave her rendition of the folk song “Caller Herrin’ ”, and in response to a vociferous encore, “ We’re All Noddin’ ”, and as if that was not enough, a further encore called “The Garden of Sleep”. An appropriate selection for a meal that would have consisted of eleven courses, several fine wines, champagnes and port! These annual dinners came to be held with great success at the Savoy Hotel until the outbreak of the Second World War.

Other money-making activities in those early days included matinees given by Lady Wyndham, at her theatre, when she became President of the Fund. All proceeds were donated to the ABF. Another example was the Sunday Cinema Fund, which existed from 1935 to 1960. This gave to the Fund a proportion of all box-office takings at Sunday matinees from cinemas licensed by the London County Council.

Initially the charity derived its income from these events and from subscriptions, donations and legacies. It has benefited most notably from the estates of Sir George Alexander, Sir Barry Jackson, Sir Godfrey Tearle, Harold French and W.S.Gilbert, who left his leasehold on the Garrick Theatre to the Fund. The trustees sold Gilbert’s legacy in 1938 for £30,000.

During its early history the ABF incorporated two other charities: The Royal Dramatic College Pension Fund and The Covent Garden Theatre Fund. The first was founded in 1858 “for securing a home and pensions in old age for well deserving members of the Dramatic profession in reduced circumstances”. Its trustees were Charles Kean, Ben Webster, Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray. The second was formed “for relief of Indigent Persons belonging to the Theatre Royal Covent Garden”.