Music is a good way to cheer everyone up, particularly if you are spending Christmas in a hospital bed.
This young brass quartet from the City of Oxford Silver Band visited the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford to put a smile of everyone’s face in 1968.
The four, Elaine and Marilyn Wolff and Robert and Edward Ferriman, performed at a Christmas party in Robert Jones Ward with guitarist Janek Skulski and a conjuror.
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The party was organised by a group called the Mystery Uncles, whose members all worked at Nuffield Press at Cowley.
The group was formed in 1963 when a worker’s daughter was in hospital and five work colleagues, without the father’s knowledge, delivered fruit to her every week.
Other children in the ward kept asking her who her ‘mystery uncles’ were - and the name stuck.
The original five uncles proved so popular that other workers joined in and eventually, there were not only uncles but aunts as well.
They organised regular fundraising events, including running a series of stalls at the annual Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre fete.
It wasn’t only children in Robert Jones Ward who benefited from their generosity.
As income grew, retired personnel from Nuffield Press and the elderly in Cowley also received gift parcels.
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The Mystery Uncles and Aunts remained mysterious - they kept their names secret throughout.
The Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre is in Windmill Road in Headington and has been treating patients with bone and joint problems for more than 80 years.
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