Change text size
The Army Benevolent Fund (ABF) was founded under the War Charities Act 1940 on 15 August 1944 under the patronage of His Majesty King George VI.
The demobilisation of the vast Army raised in Word Wars One and Two put an incredible strain on the Regimental and Corps charitable funds, and the need for a national charity for the British Army was realised.
By the late 1950s, our resources were stretched to their limits and we were finding it increasingly difficult to meet our objectives. It was decided that the Fund should adopt a policy of conserving capital and living on the income, which would accrue annually together with any additional amounts from other sources.
So in 1961, an appeal organisation was set up to cover the whole of the UK, made up of regional fundraisers and volunteer committees. An Appeal Secretary was subsequently appointed in 1962 and a new approach to fundraising was launched. Our regional fundraising staff and volunteer committees still exist today.
In October 1964, the Day's Pay Scheme was introduced - encouraging the serving Army to assist the previous generation of soldiers through annual donations. These donations were paid direct to parent Corps and Regiments, reducing the financial dependency on the ABF.
By the late 1960s, we expanded our support to Regiments and Corps by introducing the Individual Major Rehabilitation Grant (MRG) - now called the Individual Benevolent Grant (IBG) - and adopting a case-by-case approach.
The Fund also introduced children's bursaries, supplementary allowances for older people, holiday schemes, and resettlement loans for serving soldiers.
Read about different ways in which the ABF helps individuals.
In 1998, we carried out a Strategic Review, which confirmed that the partnership of Army charitable funds could expect a continuing high level of demand for support from those in need until the end of the first decade of the 21st century at least.
This emphasised the need for the ABF to develop its role as the Army's National Charity and to co-ordinate with Regimental and Corps Charitable Funds and other Service charities to target assistance to those in great need.
