Sir – My thanks to Chris Koenig for his article (Weekend, November 18) on the beginnings of Oxfam.
My father Dick Milford was indeed Oxfam’s chairman for very many years, from the first committee meeting in 1942 — and was returning to Oxford for meetings at Oxfam House well into old age — but he would gently correct anyone calling him its founder; he always gave credit to the co-founders, in particular Cecil Jackson-Cole.
How delighted he would have been to see that blue plaque to CJC on the Broad Street shop. I once asked my father how the name Oxfam came about: he said it was the need to choose a telex address. Imagine if telex had not existed, the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief might have become known by its initials like so many other charities.
Auriol Milford, Oxford
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