The History of Queen Alexandra Charity, Birmingham

The Queen Alexandra Charity can trace its history back to 1847 when the General Institution for the Blind was founded by Mary Badger and Elizabeth Bache-Harrold.

The first pupil was a small boy named John Dale, aged ten, the son of a tobacco-pipe maker living near Holloway Head, who lost his sight through smallpox.  QAC started its life as a school, it became a technical College in the 1950s and is now well known for being a specialist College of further education. 

The charity has undergone significant growth over recent years and now has distinct service areas that continue to thrive and develop, and these are: College, Community, Residential and Enterprises. QAC maintains the ethos and the passion for the work started back in 1847 and remains to this day, responsive to and supportive of the educational, support and independence needs of young people in Birmingham and wider community.

Queen Alexandra Charity's history is interwoven with the work of the BRIB charity (Birmingham Royal Institute for the Blind)  www.brib.org.uk.  For over 25 years, QAC has been a separate charity, independent of BRIB, but to this day QAC still celebrates and continues the work started by BRIB and continues to benefit from its ongoing generosity and support. 

Over the years, thousands of people with a visual impairment and more recently, wider disabilities, have benefitted from the BRIB charity and the charities that grew from its distant beginnings: Queen Alexandra Charity, Birmingham, Focus and New Outlook.