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WHITE STICK AS A SYMBOL OF BLINDNESS
Various people across
the world have claimed to have originated the idea of issuing
white sticks to the blind. In 1921 a blind English photographer,
James Biggs of Bristol, as he claimed in an article in “New
Beacon” in December 1937, thought of the idea of painting his
stick white. He wrote to various institutions, among them the
Police and the Press but the idea does not seem to have become
universal at that time.
There is, however, a
reference in the same issue of “New Beacon”, the monthly
magazine of the British Royal National Institute for thee Blind,
to a French initiative. This says that, “In 1930 in Paris, the
Prefect of Police is supporting the idea that blind persons
shall carry white sticks”. In February 1931, Mlle Guilly
d’Herbemont, with the assistance of one of the editors of l’Echo
de Paris launched a national white stick movement in France.
This was reported widely in the British press. The same year,
the wife of E.J. Johnson, a Past President of the West Ham
Rotary Club, suggested that the club should offer to supply
white sticks to all 450 blind people in the area of East London.
This would enable them to find walk more safely in both day and
night.
The Club immediately and
enthusiastically took up the idea and their offer was accepted
by the local associations for the blind. Other Rotary Clubs
began to copy the idea and the entire London district soon
adopted the policy. In May the BBC broadcast the suggestion that
all blind persons should be provided with a white stick, which
would be nationally recognised by the public, and a year later
the Royal National Institute for the Blind began to produce and
distribute these sticks. By 1935, 116 Rotary clubs across
Britain and Ireland had “white stick” community service
projects, and the idea soon spread around the world. In America
about the same time, the Lions took on a similar role of
distributing white sticks.
The original West Ham
Rotary Club no longer exists but information has been supplied
by PDG Alan Coleman, via DG Colin Mathews of District 1130 and
from “A Century of Service”, the RI Centenary Book.
Adapted from an article
by
RGHF Senior Historian Basil Lewis, England
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