1849 – Koning Willem III is installed as King of the Netherlands. During his reign he champions the poor, deprived and neglected in the population. He becomes very popular with the Dutch people. Nevertheless, many penniless Dutchmen and women emigrate to the UK in search of a better life.
1874 – Koning Willem III marks his Silver Jubilee. In the City of London, the prosperous Dutch business fraternity holds a dinner in the King’s honour at which the plight of the less fortunate Dutch immigrants in London is raised. An impromptu collection raised substantial funds to help alleviate their suffering and the King donates generously. A fund is set up to oversee the efficient distribution of these monies named after the King. The Royal family become generous donors from this time.
1895 – Young Prinses Wilhelmina, aged 15 years, visits London to meet Queen Victoria and is introduced to the work of the KWF. She donates a fair sum of her pocket money and accepts the royal patronage of the Fund. Royal patronage of the Fund continues to this day.
1895 – 1945 – Sick and unemployed Dutch immigrants form the best part of applicants approaching the KWF. During World War I many Dutch sailors become marooned in England and need support with housing and groceries. The Great Depression results in an alarming rise in unemployed Dutchmen, particularly among the elderly. In 1936 the Fund acquires charitable status. In World War II Dutch women, married to British husbands, increasingly rely on the Fund for financial support, as men left home to enlist. One day before a monthly meeting, the Dutch Church is raised to the ground by bombing; Trustees carried on with ‘business-as-usual’ and holding their meeting instead at the Café Royal.
1945 – 2000 – After World War II the job market for women and older people opened up and the financial pressure on the Charity eased somewhat. The Beveridge Report led to improved social care and National Insurance payments resulted in the widening of medical care for all. In 1950 for the first time, the Fund employed a paid social worker to evaluate the applications for assistance before presenting them to the Trustees. Over the 1960s and 1970s rapid social change led to rising divorce rates and female employment. By the 1980s the Charity was permitted by the Charities Commission to expand its operations to the entire United Kingdom.
2000 – 2020 – The focus of the Charity remained to provide aid to those requiring re-housing and moral support; an increasing number of people started to come forward stating domestic violence as the main reason behind their application. Help was also given with repatriation of older Dutchmen and women, particularly those without families, and the sick, who requested help to return to their homeland. Around the turn of the century the number of Dutch people moving to the UK had doubled so during the financial crisis of 2008, applications soared by 17%, whilst donations fell by 40%. Another feature of these times was the jump in debtor cases. Often these debts were caused by usurious interest rates charges for initially very small sums loaned. Case load numbers averaged around 50 per annum.
2020 onwards – Digital technology has played a major part in the surge in demand for help. In addition, Brexit (the need for correct identity documentation), Covid (impacting every level of society), and the Cost-of-Living crisis have meant applicant numbers soared. As an immediate response the Charity raised its pension payments to the elderly as well as the average supermarket voucher grant by 20%.
Getting to know the applicant has been the primary focus of Trustees in the past decade, with visits to applicants undertaken wherever possible. At monthly Board meetings Trustees consider the most effective way to help an applicant. Indeed, an Emergency Group of Trustees is constantly available to deal with the most urgent requests for help. In the globalised world of today, our work remains at the individual person’s level, to improve the life of those in the Dutch community, residing in the UK who face economic and social disadvantage. All the Trustees have throughout the Charity’s existence given their time entirely free of charge.
2024 – Celebration of the 150th anniversary of the KWF in Trinity House, on Tower Hill, London in the presence of H.R.H. Princess Beatrix of The Netherlands, the Patron of the Charity.