A unique collection of historic photographs and papers relating to Sir Winston and Lady Clementine Churchill and other famous figures of the 30s and 40s has been uncovered by a Maidstone charity.

British Wireless for the Blind, which gives specially adapted radios and tablets free to visually impaired people, will be celebrating its 90th anniversary this year.

But when its communications manager Saul Watson began digging through the organisation’s archives he found a treasure trove that included an original gramophone recording of King George V’s first Christmas radio address to the Empire in 1932, which had been presented to the charity’s founder, Captain Beachcroft Towse VC by the King himself.

Tucked away in cardboard boxes at the back of cupboards and in the charity’s safe were notes from Lady Clementine Churchill, a patron of the charity, a Christmas speech to the charity typed for Sir Winston Churchill and with corrections in his own hand, numerous photographs, as well as a note from Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden, from the editor of Churchill’s speeches Charles Eade and from the Attorney General from 1945 Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe.

Mr Watson said: “It was amazing. I’d pull out one astonishing find, reach in and find another!”

Lady Churchill was a patron of the charity, which was originally set up in Great Portland Street in London.

Mr Watson’s discoveries include the minutes of the charity's first committee meeting from June 10, 1928, which reads like a who’s who of the great and the good from the time.

Based in Albion Place, Maidstone, the charity today employs 17 full time members of staff and around 40 volunteers who take its services to visually impaired people across the country.

Mr Watson said: "It's fascinating to discover how the history of our charity has been so closely interwoven with the history of our nation."