Charity History

The Golden Lion Children’s Trust is a Gatwick based charity, which was founded in 1973 by the employees of British Caledonian Airways and others who worked at or were connected with Gatwick Airport.

The origins of the charity go back to the early Seventies when an aeroplane carrying only disabled children and their helpers from Ingfield Manor School at Billingshurst went to Jersey for the day. None of the children, because of the severity of their disability, had ever flown before or realistically could ever have expected to do so.

Since those early days, several thousand children have enjoyed a day out with the Golden Lion Children’s Trust. The airlines, mainly operating from Gatwick have enabled us to take children to: Aberdeen, Amsterdam, Brussels, California, Cardiff, Cologne, Colorado, Gambia, Glasgow, Jersey, Le Touquet, Newcastle, Orlando, Ostende, Paris, Prestwick, Rovaniemi, Shannon and Texas.

Flights are more difficult to arrange nowadays but the will of the charity continues in other ways, day trips by coach to UK places of interest are too numerous to mention but include ALL the major fun parks, zoos and activity centres in the South of England. Not to mention Horse of the Year shows.