BACKGROUND: Born in Dublin in 1845, Barnardo left school at 16 and was briefly apprenticed to a wine merchant. In 1862 he joined an evangelical sect, the Plymouth Brethren. After meeting Hudson Taylor, the pioneer missionary to China, Barnardo volunteered for missionary services and went to London to begin his training.

As a result of the industrial revolution, when he arrived in London’s East End, Barnardo found a massively increased population living in overcrowded accommodation, struggling
with unemployment, poverty and disease. Seeing so many people destitute, Barnardo decided to give up his plans to go to China.

He used his evangelical connections to help raise money for his work in the East End. He received financial help from a number of high-profile supporters, including the banker Robert Barclay and Lord Shaftesbury, who was president of the Ragged Schools Union for 40 years.

CHARITY: In 1867 Barnardo set up a Ragged School for Boys in the East End to provide them with a basic education. Jim Jarvis, one of the boys at the school, took him on a tour of the East End, showing him the poor children sleeping on roofs and in gutters. It had a profound effect. From then on, he devoted himself to helping destitute children.

With Barclay’s help he opened a home for homeless children on Hope Street, Stepney, in 1868. He also began training as a medical student at the London Hospital.

In 1870, with the support of Lord Shaftesbury, he opened his first home for boys, in Stepney Causeway. One night, an 11-year-old boy was turned away because the home was full. Two days later he was found dead from malnutrition and exposure. From then on, Barnardo decided never to limit the number of children that would be admitted and a sign was put up that read ‘No Destitute Child Ever Refused Admission’.

There were to be many more homes, including the Girls Village Home, which he set up at Barkingside with his wife.

The couple had seven children. His daughter Marjorie was born with Downs Syndrome and it was this that prompted him to set up homes for children with physical and learning disabilities.

In 1878, with more than 50 London orphanages bursting at the seams, Barnardo sought a way to relieve the situation and considered sending children abroad. An emigration
programme to send children to Commonwealth countries was begun in 1882, when 51 boys were sent to Canada. Barnardo believed children would flourish, given a fresh start away from the crowded East End slums.

He expanded into East Anglia, creating a home for destitute children at Hazelbrae, Peterborough in 1883. On October 1, 1886,

Barnardo’s made history when the first recorded legacy, of £50 (£3,475 in today’s money), was received.

INNOVATION: Barnardo hired a photographer to take ‘before’ and ‘after’ photographs, showing the children as they arrived in the homes and, again, six months later. The photographs were sold as cards, allowing Barnardo to publicise his work and raise money. At this time he began a magazine, The Children’s Treasury, upon which he depended for a great deal of his income. The magazine ran from 1874 until 1881, when it began to lose money.

Barnardo saw the value of homing children with families and in 1887 he established the first fostering scheme, when he boarded children with respectable families. This was followed by a similar scheme for the babies of unmarried mothers.he mothers worked nearby and were able to see their babies during their time off.

In Victorian England prostitution was considered a sin, but Barnardo understood it to be part of a larger system of economic and social exploitation of women. In 1888 he opened two refuges for children of prostitutes.

LEGACY: In 1891 Barnardo was partly responsible for a change in law, putting the welfare of the child above the rights of the parent.

At the time of his death in 1905, Barnardo’s charity ran 96 homes, housing 7,998 children. A further 4,000 were boarded out. The charity was £249,000 in debt, but Barnardo had transformed the lives of 60,000 children. William Baker took over as honorary director of the Dr Barnardo’s homes.

Sue Mennell is editor of TJ Online. If you would like to nominate a ‘Great Thinker’, please send your nomination to her at sue@trainingjournal.com

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