Comprehension

SELLING THE FLAG

How do you react to a flag-seller in the street? Do you hurry past on the other side? Do you buy a flag simply to avoid embarrassment? Or are you among the minority of willing buyers? Whichever category you fall into, the attitudes and enthusiasms which marked the birth of the British flag-day have changed radically over the years.

The flag-day had its beginnings in 1912 and grew rapidly during the First World War, when £15 million was raised by this method. Today, perhaps in response to adverse public criticism about being bombarded on all sides by too many charities, the Metropolitan Police try to limit flag-days in Greater London to four major combined onslaughts each year. Local authorities are permitted six weeks in any one year for such work. Generally they give preference to local causes. Charity still begins at home. Many charities, such as the Princess Elizabeth Day Committee, combine their Greater London flag-day appeals with those of other children's societies.

It was Queen Alexandra, anxious to help London hospitals, who introduced Britain to the concept of selling emblems in support of charity. She got the idea from a Danish priest who sold roses from his garden in aid of local orphans. Queen Alexandra decided to sell artificial roses in the streets every June and the first Alexandra Rose Day was on June 26, 1912.
The roses were made by crippled and blind girls of John Groom's Crippleage. Under the instruction of Miss Christine May Beeman, they produced 10 million pink linen roses, each with a capital 'A' stamped on a petal to discourage imitators. Then 15,000 society ladies went into the streets of London in white muslin and organdie, wearing Gainsborough hats and carrying baskets of roses supported on red and cream sashes. On that first day £18,326 was collected. John Groom's Association for the Disabled (as it is now called) still supplies linen roses, for which it receives nearly £10,000 each year.
The first day on which flags were sold was in August 1914. Mrs George, wife of a Monmouthshire engine driver, had the novel idea of selling flags in aid of the Prince of Wales's National Relief Fund for the dependants of soldiers and sailors. The flags were to be of red and white and blue ribbon, stitched to matchsticks. She wrote to Sir Arthur Pearson, joint Secretary of the fund, to discover whether she needed special authority to sell them. Sir Arthur assured her that there was nothing illegal about her enterprise, which was held in Pontypool and raised £10.
Many flag emblems of the First World War period were made from paper, cardboard or silk. Silk flags were expected to produce a more lavish contribution. The flags were originally fastened with pins but increasing shortages of metal made new methods necessary; for instance, a paper emblem with a slit to fasten over a button. Today, further economies have encouraged the development of adhesive emblems, which cost 50 per cent less to produce than the pinned variety, don't require so much storage space and dispense with hand assembly.
The rapid growth of flower and flag days gave rise to new regulations concerning street collections from 1915 onwards. The Metropolitan Police regulations quickly established 16 as the minimum age for collectors - perhaps reflecting a protest by the Headmistresses' Association in a letter to 'The Times' about the exploitation of children on flag-days. Permits to collect were granted to societies rather than to individuals. Animals were banned from accompanying collectors because they were said to cause obstruction, a regulation that may well have frustrated Nell, the champion Sheffield collie, who collected £60 for the Belgians.
Today, alternative forms of sponsorship and fund-raising schemes are increasingly being sought. Oxfam, for example, sells direct to the public from shops stocked with home-produced and recycled goods. Ironically, a small batch of charity emblems was recently given to Oxfam, and items which originally cost only a few pence were offered for sale as collectors' items ... still in the cause of charity.