The League of Mercy

www.leagueofmercy.co.uk

Grand Dinner
September 2010, Armourers' Hall, London

  

The League of Mercy was first founded by the then Prince of Wales (later King Edward WI) in 1899. Subsequently, George, Princes of Wales (later King George V) and Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) became its Grand Presidents. They were followed in that role by HRH Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and later by Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester. The object of the League was to establish a large body of volunteer workers who would assist with the maintenance of voluntary hospitals and ‘otherwise relieve sickness and suffering’.

Wlhen the 1948 National Health Act abolished these hospitals, the League was quietly wound up, after performing its task extraordinarily well for half a century.
Central to the activities of the League was a notable annual ceremony at which some dozens of people received a decoration known as THE ORDER OF MERCY. This was bestowed as a recognition of ‘personal services gratuitously rendered in connection with the purposes for which the League was founded’.

The League of Mercy was re-founded on 30 March 1999, one hundred years to the day after its first establishment. Its central aims, as in the past, are the encouragement and recognition of distinguished voluntary work within areas of care which include: the sick, injured or disabled, young people at risk, the elderly, the homeless, those impaired in mind and the dying.

Each year from many nominations made by individual charities, the Trustees of the League, after carefully examining supporting evidence, choose up to thirty outstanding volunteers and invite them to receive THE ORDER OF MERCY.  This is a silver gilt representation of the original 1899 design depicting Sir Joshua Reynolds’s figure of Charity. The names of recipients appear in the London Gazette.