Alexandra Rose Charity was founded in 1912 by Queen Alexandra, who came from Denmark to marry the Prince of Wales in 1863.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of her arrival and wedding, Queen Alexandra wanted to celebrate in a meaningful way and help support Londoners on low incomes to access health care. As a result, Alexandra Rose Day was born.
Borrowing an idea from her native Denmark, women were recruited to make and sell artificial roses to raise funds. The first ever Alexandra Rose Day event raised £32,000 (the equivalent of almost £2.5 million today!). The funds raised greatly benefited hospitals, and the annual event became an institution. By 1920, nearly £25 million in today’s money had been raised for London health care facilities.
As we reflect on 110 years, we’ve dived into the Alexandra Rose photo archives and wanted to share with you some of our favourite photos from as far back as 1916.
110 years later, we’re still focused on supporting the health and wellbeing of those on low incomes through our Rose Vouchers for Fruit and Veg Projects supporting families to buy fresh fruit and veg and helping them give their children the healthiest possible start.
We aim to be just as innovative today as we were in 1912. We’re constantly evolving to realise our vision of everyone having access to healthy and affordable food.
Our Rose Vouchers project in Liverpool has innovation at its heart. In 2017, it became our first project to use a bus to bring fruit and veg to families in areas of the city that are food deserts where there is limited access to affordable, fresh fruit and veg. The fruit & veg bus visits children’s centres weekly, meaning families can easily shop locally and spend their Rose Vouchers on the fruit and veg of their choice.
In honour of our legacy started by Queen Alexandra, we’ll be celebrating our 110th anniversary by running a fundraising campaign to raise a much needed £20,000 for our Liverpool Rose Vouchers for Fruit and Veg Project during September.
We’ll share all the details with you next week, but we hope you will join us in celebrating our legacy and help us support families in Liverpool who are benefiting so much from the project.
Do you have a special memory of Alexandra Rose Day? Did you help to sell roses with your mum or grandmother? We would love to hear your stories! If you’d like to share a memory, you can email eloise@alexandrarose.org.uk.