Formed by Chad Varah at St Stephen Walbrook Church to befriend the suicidal and despairing.
The gives a good history of the organisation including how it was named: "Chad Varah had achieved a lot of publicity for the service by telling his newspaper contacts about the new service and The Daily Mirror gave it a name which was quickly adopted by other media and the public. On December 7th, 1953, it coined the term, "Telephone Good Samaritans" and although Samaritans is not a religious organisation, the name has stuck and become synonymous with the idea of people being there for others in emotional distress."
Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in to see them