Letter from Robert Davies, founder of Voluntary Community Service (VCS), to Charles Coombes, a VCS volunteer, Cardiff, 5 April 1973

Disgrifiad

Handwritten letter dated 5 April 1973, from Robert Davies, founder of Voluntary Community Service (VCS), to Charles Coombes, a VCS volunteer. The letter is in reply to a letter received from Charles Coombes and discusses Robert Davies’s move to a new job with Cardiff Corporation, his relationship with VCS Cardiff, work on the VCS Committee, and arranging two window displays at the VCS premises on 38 Charles Street, Cardiff. He also provides a brief update in regard to the people they both know and have worked with in the past.

Transcription:

"Dear Charles,
I was very grateful for your lengthy letter some while ago and have re-read it with much interest. By the way I trust you received my post-card acknowledgement!
Since then, a good deal has happened to me which has kept me a little preoccupied and which I hope will excuse me for not giving you the earlier reply your letter deserved.
This week for example I have started a new job – or rather moved from the Glamorgan County Council to the City Architects Department. It may not seem very spectacular but it was quite a strain for me after eighteen years in one place. Naturally I had many loose ends to tie up and I have a lot to learn of slightly different methods etc. with Cardiff Corporation. The main reason for my moving is due to local government reorganisation – the old Glamorgan is now being wound up and will be split into three, Cardiff being a “district” within the new South Glamorgan Authority. I am hoping that by moving at my own initiative I will not have to work in an office based at some distance from Cardiff which could be the case if I were directed to Mid or West Glamorgan. It is of course promotion which I would not be likely to achieve in the dying months of the old authority – I have obtained a Principal Officers Grade: I think I shall be happy in the new office: a lot of the people I already know and they all seem very friendly. It seems very strange to hear references to Grangetown, Butetown etc. and various things that hitherto to I only heard mentioned in VCS circles!
I was pleased to hear of your successes both in domestic matters and at work. Do I know Wendy? I sometimes feel that many of the friends have thus become more mature and respectable than myself!
It is strange that you should have taken an interest in the Council of Social Service post for Training Officer. The current Chairman of VCS, John James, had just got the job! He was previously doing similar work with the Cooperative Union but having being transferred to Loughborough wanted to move back to Cardiff. It will be useful once again to have the excuse to look in on the CSS.
I suppose if you know anything at all about psychology you might always have suspected that VCS was my “baby” and a substitute for a flesh & blood child. I am still in close touch although it does not need me any longer which perhaps extends the analogy. When YVF came in for the two year period it was polite for me to take a back number in my case and I did not sit on the committee for that period. My father was seriously ill and this was a good excuse if any was needed (he died 2 years ago). I’ve since returned to the committee but try to act more as a volunteer than in my directing capacity. One thing I particularly enjoy is the display work – especially setting up the two shop windows from time to time.
Due to pressure of work the VCS staff had a bit of lapse in producing bulletins recently. You are still on the mailing list but I enclose the latest anyway (the standard I’m afraid has deteriorated). The Annual meeting you may note is on April 28 so they are quite busy now getting out the final reports etc.
A lot of the people you mention have disappeared from the scene, except Allan Baylis – he still has the beard and has matured well. Abdul I know is working under the direction of Mike Hayzell from first CSV in Trevor Hamlet’s Criminal Social Services Dept. Colin Pass & Patti are married and living at his place of work “Ty Gwyn” Cardiff City Council, Training Centre, Ty-Gwyn Rd, Penylan, Cardiff. He is a house-father there and I understand Patti is now studying full-time for a social service qualification. The last I heard of Alun Davies (of Rhondda CVS fame) was that while working as a GPO Engineer he was living at Taynbee Hall.
Back to myself, I have learnt to drive but hate motor cars and have reverted to a bicycle. I moved from Laudon House, when Abdul’s wife & child came over to join him - and seem still to be unsettled. I’m regularly in VCS and use it for most of my correspondence, (mark it PRIVATE if you wish).
With the possibility of Institute of PM. Exams, may I wish you every success. And perhaps I can conclude with the hope that we may meet again in the not too distant future.
Kindest regards – Robert"

Robert Davies, who actively volunteered with VCS, UNA, and many other organisations, is currently VCS Honorary President. He founded Voluntary Community Service (VCS) in Cardiff in October 1964. The organisation's main aim, as stated in its constitution, is to promote any charitable purposes, advancement of education, and relief of poverty, distress, and sickness in the City of Cardiff. Originally VCS co-ordinated a team of volunteers involved in activities such as helping elderly people with gardening and decorating, running summer ‘work camps’ for children and young people. Its mission today is to enable people who are most disadvantaged to engage with rewarding volunteering opportunities, facilitating their personal development and employment prospects.