The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund was founded in 1919 by the man who, more than any other, was responsible for the creation of the RAF, Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Trenchard. The Fund offers assistance to all past and present Royal Air Force members who entered productive service and their dependants who are in financial distress, regardless of rank, job or length of service.
Eligibility lasts for life.
Its remit then was to provide direct welfare assistance to those of the extended Royal Air Force family in need or distress. Today, the Fund's purpose remains the same. The Fund has come a long way from its beginnings in 1919, when, for its first year, welfare expenditure was 919. Assistance then might have been a modest shilling for a night's lodging to seek work, the provisions of tools of a trade or the repair of boots. These by today's standards may seem modest in the extreme, but they served the needs of the time.