Railways a National Industry 439 



was over 358,000, and there were then 250 members and 

 widows in receipt of life allowances amounting to ^4758 per 

 annum. 



Further provision either for railway-men themselves in times 

 of distress or for their widows and orphans is made through 

 various organisations which are supported by the contributions 

 alike of railway servants, of the railway companies and of the 

 general public. 



At the head of these excellent bodies stands the Railway 

 Benevolent Institution, which attained its jubilee in 1908. 

 The objects in view, as summarised by Lord Claud Hamilton 

 at the fifty-third annual dinner on May 4, 1911, are : (i) To 

 grant permanent annuities to railway officers and servants in 

 distressed circumstances ; (2) to grant permanent pensions 

 to widows in similar circumstances ; (3) to educate and main- 

 tain orphan children between six and fifteen years of age, and 

 then give them a start in life ; (4) to give by gratuities and by 

 contingent annuities temporary assistance until permanent 

 relief can be secured from the funds of the Institution ; (5) to 

 grant gratuities from the casualty fund to injured servants 

 and to widows of deceased servants ; (6) to enable officers 

 and servants to insure their lives in the best approved com- 

 panies on special terms ; and (7) to relieve distress whether 

 arising among subscribers or non-subscribers. 



No fewer than 157,000 railwaymen of all classes are sub- 

 scribers in one form or another to the funds of the Institution, 

 which, apart from amounts given as gratuities, conferred its 

 benefits in 1910 on 2,672 annuitants and children, the total 

 outgoings for the year under all heads being 55,396. To 

 particularise only one phase of this varied activity, the number 

 of children mainly orphans of railwaymen killed in the 

 service who have been educated in the great Railway 

 Orphanage at Derby (a branch of the Institution) has been 

 over 2000. 



Another leading railway charity, the United Kingdom 

 Railway Officers and Servants' Association, founded in 1861 

 to grant assistance in time of distress and necessity to railway 

 officers and servants, their widows and orphans, held its 

 jubilee festival on April 28, 1911, when Viscount Castlereagh, 

 M.P., who presided, announced that since the establishment 

 of the Association the relief afforded had been as follows : 



