Frank Field: A Christmas concert and the importance of Clatterbridge Hospital’s League of Friends

Dec 14 2011 Birkenhead News

I WENT with the Mayor to a Christmas concert in aid of the Clatterbridge Hospital League of Friends.

As many of you will know All Saints’ Church in Thornton Hough is part of a rather beautiful village, much of which is the creation of the first Lord Leverhulme.

I was surprised by two aspects of the concert. The first was the quality of the music. One expects good singing and organ playing. But here, too, was the Rock Ferry Salvation Army band.

It was of stunning quality.

Brass bands, I am told, are dying out.

There is no sign of that in Rock Ferry.

The age range of the band varied from teenagers right up to senior citizens. I wonder how many other organisations continue to present opportunities for youngsters to learn instruments?

And isn’t this particularly important when schools are having to cut the range of music activities they can provide?

Then a second, double, surprise. The Mayor, speaking at the end of the concert, talked of the importance of, when she was a nursing sister, the purchases that the Friends made of quite basic things – curtains between beds – as well as making sure that those people who had no relatives received Christmas presents.

Ken Edwardson – a retired surgeon who operated at Clatterbridge – then talked of the Friends providing some of the basic equipment for operating theatres.

I somehow think we will be hearing more about the importance of the League of Friends in the years to come.