History

A Brief History of the Kingston upon Thames Branch

The Kingston branch of Samaritans took their first call  on May 10th 1968 and were the 97th Samaritan branch to opens its lines and its door to those in emotional distress. Since that day, the Kingston Samaritan branch at 12 St. Andrew’s Road, Surbiton have provided a listening ear and support 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to telephone callers, and to visitors between 7.30am and 9pm.

In that time there has always been at least two people in the building and I wonder what other residential area building could claim that?

Over the years volunteers and callers may have come and gone, but the work of the Kingston Samaritans branch continues and some of the original volunteers are still with us.

The yellowing pages of old newsletters reveal that Samaritans have regularly talked and argued about many of the concerns on the minds of current Samaritans, primarily our callers and how we should treat them.

We may have more space and better facilities than the branch’s early pioneers, but many of the concerns are the same as we strive to attain the Samaritan mission, vision and values;
Samaritans mission is to be available 24 hours a day to provide confidential emotional support for people who are experiencing feelings of distress or despair, including those which may lead to suicide.

Our Vision is for a society in which; fewer people die by suicide, people are able to explore their feelings and where people are able to acknowledge and respect the feelings of others.

Our values are based on the belief of; the importance of having the opportunity to explore difficult feelings, that being listened to, in confidence, and accepted without prejudice, can alleviate despair and suicidal feelings and that everyone has the right to make fundamental decisions about their own life, including the decision to die by suicide.

On that first morning, May 10th 1968, the first two Samaritans on duty sat on hard kitchen chairs in the basement of 12, St. Andrew’s Road, Surbiton. On the kitchen table between them were two telephones; red for the emergency line, black for the office line. The décor consisted of a filing cabinet, a Zed-bed, and a folding bed-chair. Suddenly the red phone rang. One of the Samaritans picked it up “The Samaritans, can I help you?” The caller was a man who said that his friend thought he might have VD. That call opened the way for an unending flow of cries for help and support which have been reaching the Kinston Samaritan branch every hour of every day for the past forty years.

The initiative to start a branch in Kingston had come from the Church; the Rev. Roger Wild of St. Paul’s, Kingston Hill. Inspired by the Rev. Chad Varah, the founder of The Samaritans, in November 1953, decided that there must be a local branch.

He approached a group of local churchmen, who were to become four of his deputies; Rev. Christopher Blair-Fish of St. Mark’s, Surbiton; Rev. Arthur Holder of St. Andrew’s, Surbiton; Rev. Herbert Skeys of the United Reformed Church, Tolworth and the Rev. Wallace Jenkins of the Methodist Church, Chessington.

Clearly, some expertise was needed to organise recruitment and training, and the nearby Weybridge branch agreed help.

Local publicity, and a visit from Chad Varah himself, produced an excellent response; more than two hundred men and women of all ages were given training and became Samaritans.

About a month before opening day, all the Samaritans were involved in getting the premises ready; scrubbing floors, scrounging furniture, writing letters and publicity material, and flooding the catchment area with flyers – libraries, newsagents, GP’s surgeries and cinemas. Word seems to have got around, and there were local press headlines:

“Samaritans work spreads from Weybridge” (Esher Herald & News)
“New Life Line” (Surrey Advertiser)
“Phone Call opens Samaritan Centre” (Surrey Comet)

That phone call, which was taken by the Mayor of Kingston, came from Chad Varah, who sent his congratulations and best wishes.

The Kingston Samaritan Centre on opening day consisted of the two basement rooms at 12, St. Andrew’s Road, Surbiton.

The building belonged to the Girls Friendly Society, a charity which provided off-duty amenities for girls in domestic service. Three of the old ‘Girls’ had rooms on the first and second floors. It was through Christopher Blair-Fish, who was also a Director of the Society, that the branch was able to find a home at 12 St. Andrew’s Road. The conditions were spartan; no central heating and the loo was outside, neither lit nor heated. However, such was the enthusiasm that no one seemed to mind the discomforts very much.

The emergency telephone number had previously been used by the Royal Windsor Laundry, and many of the early calls were about items of missing washing!

In the first newsletter, one shilling a copy, issued in November 1968, Director Roger reported that the branch had already taken over 700 telephone calls, and that 200 ‘Clients’, as they were known, had been befriended by phone or in person. There were 178 volunteers.

In the first twelve years, training consisted almost exclusively of lectures, on such topics as Sexual Deviation, or Neuroses and Psychoses. New volunteers attended seven or eight of these, and were then interviewed by one or two Directors. If accepted, they were given appropriate training before being sent off on an observer duty in Weybridge. Then, with a tutor to help when necessary, they started regular duties. There on-going training in the form of regular Group Meetings and there were also regular talks by visiting experts on the kinds of problems which callers might talk about.

In 1980, it was decided that different forms of training were needed, and a new system introduced with lectures gradually being phased out in favour of experiential method of learning which have not changed greatly since then and indeed are still used today to good effect by the training team.

The Groups were re-organised and re-vitalised to make them more interactive forums for shared experience, debate and discussion.

The original Directors also acted as Leaders, as well as looking after the administration of the branch. If a Samaritan volunteer had any difficulty with a caller, they had to contact the Duty Director.

The strain on the Directors was enormous, and in 1973 Roger Wild had to step down. His successor, Frank Giles, decided to replace the “men of cloth” with four experienced Samaritans as Deputy Directors, both as way of easing the strain, and to give more support to the volunteers manning the telephones and meeting visitors to the Centre.

Directors, their deputies and Leaders, as well as all officers of the branch carry out their regular volunteer duties.

Until 1980, there was no fixed term of appointment for Directors, and each nominated his successor. Roger Wild was Director from 1968 to 1973. He nominated Frank Giles, who retired in 1980.

It was then felt that in view of the growing multi-ethnic nature of society, it would be sensible to have a Director who was not associated with any one religious faith, who would be appointed for a period of three years.

As you would expect, each Director has had their own style and influence in running the Kingston branch and those in turn were influenced by the policies developing in the Samaritans as a whole, and by the reaction of the public and callers to what the branch was trying to do.

For example, one-to-one befriending played a very important part in the early days. Samaritans would meet ‘Clients’ in a variety of places, often in the Client’s own homes, and would occasionally help in practical ways, such as doing the shopping.

Although befriending was later limited to defined periods of time, and meeting places restricted to restaurants or the Centre, the practice had virtually vanished by 1990, largely due to safety concerns.

Security considerations also meant that the branch had to change its policy of admitting visitors at anytime of the day or night to the current arrangement where visitors are only admitted between 7.30am and 9pm.

A short term initiative to give more practical help to callers was the running of a warden managed hostel for the homeless in New Malden. However, the project eventually had to be abandoned because of lack of revenue to keep it running.

Running the branch has always meant financial and logistical headaches for the Directors. When, in 1970 the Girls Friendly Society closed down, there was an opportunity to buy the freehold of the building, at a price of £4000. Volunteers were asked for a contribution of £20 each, and other donations and a bank loan made up the difference.

The house was rewired by a retired Government electrician who charged only £1.00 per hour, the crumbling front steps were rebuilt by a local builder, a loo was donated by a bathroom firm, the stair carpet was made from off-cuts from Buckingham Palace, for which the branch paid only the cost of fitting. Samaritans had become skilled in the arts of scrounging, a tradition that continues to this day.

From our humble beginnings through to this present day we rely upon the press and media to give coverage of our work on a regional and national level. From local papers and radio stations, to our website and posters campaigns, spreading awareness of our service to callers and potential volunteers is of vital importance. Our national awareness day 24:7 is just one of many ways the movement has evolved to bring our message of support (and need to be supported as a national charity) to the public at large.

It is perhaps the infrequent television programmes about Samaritans which draws most public attention to individual branches. A TV drama series called The Befrienders, which featured some very glamorous Samaritans at an imaginary Centre made a big impact on the public in the seventies; almost over night, calls to the Kingston branch increased by a factor of six, and two, resulting in extra manning to cover busy periods.

Publicity of a different sort has always been provided by those who give talks about Kingston Samaritans to schools, university groups, churches, Rotarians, and many others. While individual audiences for these talks may be small, when compared with newspaper readerships, the impact can be much greater as the information can be tailored specifically for the audience rather than the more generalist nature required for newspaper copy. The present emphasis in our Reaching Out, is to contact young people who are at most risk of suicide, and to visit prisoners at Latchmere and Wandsworth prisons.

Since 1996, we have also moved into an electronic form of Reaching Out with our e-Mail service. The number of contacts via e-Mail is rapidly increasing. The calls being from all over the world, a high percentage of them from young callers.

Following considerable study a new branding of Samaritans was introduced in October 2002, pitching ourselves as the emotional support charity, changing our colour scheme from “Emergency Service” black & orange to “Life Line” green & white.

Today, as in 1968, when we opened, the Kingston branch, as all Samaritan branches, has to be fully self-funding. We receive no grants from local or central government, we rely entirely on public donation. Self-help is very much the order of the day, with funds raised from events such as our recent ‘Auction of Promises’ alongside can shakes, sponsored walks and marathon runners whom represent the branch.

A Friends Group was formed and held its first meeting in January 1969, with a Whist Drive to follow in February. Its many and varied activities produced a very useful flow of money which helped to keep the Centre running over the years. For one reason or another, the group disintegrated, but new Friends have been found and are a welcome new source of funds.

In the mid 1970s, Director Frank suggested that the Kingston branch should open a part-time shop in the back garden. A proper shop would have rendered the branch liable to taxation, and staffing would have been difficult.

Ingeniously and economically, a site-hut used during the construction of the M1 was obtained, the only costs were for transportation and erection, and there the shop remained until the end of 2007, opening Tuesdays and Saturdays during the summer months, playing a valuable role in the funding of the branch.

If you would like to find out more about becoming a Samaritan volunteer please come along to one of our regular Information Evenings, or call 020 8399 6676.

If you would like to help with our fundraising events please write to Fundraising Coordinator, 12 St. Andrew’s Road, Surbiton, KT6 4DT or call 020 8399 6676.

If you need someone to talk in complete confidence please remember that Samaritans are always available 24 hours a day on 020 8399 6676, or on the National Number 08457 90 90 90.

You may visit the Kingston Centre, 12 St. Andrew’s Road, Surbiton, in person between 8am and 10.30pm each day. You may also contact Samaritans by e-Mail at jo@samaritans.org