FOUNDER OF CHILDREN'S HOUR

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 80, 1 October 1931, Page 22

FOUNDER OF CHILDREN'S HOUR

Somewhere there is a young• woman who, when she was a child, achieved unconscious fame as the founder of the Children's Hour, one of the most popular features of broadcasting in Britain, says a London paper. » Mr. Percy Edgar, director of the British Broadcasting Corporation station in Birmingham, is anxious to find her to offer, her life membership of the Kadio Circle, the great un3cen organisation of children. It was'early in 1923, when broadcasting was,in its infancy, that this child, as she then was, wrote to Mr. Edgar asking him if he could send something ovnr the wireless that little girls could uiulrrsfand. She was fascinated by the novelty of,

sounds and words coming through the air from some strange source; but she could understand very little of-it, so she wrote to the "Big Man Who' Spoke Thrpugb the Air." Her childish letter put an idea into Mr. Edgar's mind, and ho began the Children's Hour. Mrs. D. E. Barcroft (Aunt Dorothy), who arranges the Children's Hour ai. Birmingham, has a wall of her room plastered with photographs and messages from children, members of the Eadio Circle, all over the world. "The little, girl who wrote to us in 1923 and who must now bo a grown woman, js virtually responsible for this wonderful organisation," said Mrs. Barcroft. ■