Children at the Victoria Institute and Industrial School for the Blind

The Victoria Institute and Industrial School for the Blind was established in 1900 by Edgar Walter Hamer and H.D Holmes as a permanent memorial to Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. 

The institution was intended to provide the pupils with skills that would enable them to be employed in paid positions. Initially they were instructed in brush-making but by 1920 some students were preparing for university matriculation exams and others were being educated in playing musical instruments, Braille shorthand or typing.