Seeing stars

IN the article ‘By order of the King’ (March 29), I was sad to note that the British Red Cross wasn’t mentioned in the history of Royal Star & Garter Home on Richmond Hill. The Star & Garter hotel was given to Queen Mary by the Auctioneers & Estate Agents Institute in 1915 and she charged the British Red Cross with establishing a ‘permanent haven’ there for the disabled and paralysed young men who were casualties of the First World War.

The Star & Garter charity became independent of the British Red Cross in 1922, but a British Red Cross appointee to the Board of Governors has maintained the connection between the two charities since that time—a situation that pertains today. Evelyn Pegley, Appointee of the British Red Cross to the Board of Governors, Royal Star & Garter Homes charity, 2006–2013