Thomas John Barnardo was an Irish-born, Christian philanthropist and founder and director of homes for poor and deprived children. From the foundation of the first Barnardo's home in 1867 to the date of Barnardo's death, nearly 60,000 children had been taken in.
Thomas John Barnardo
Group portrait of children outside a Barnardo home
Ragged schools were charitable organisations dedicated to the free education of destitute children in 19th-century Britain. The schools were developed in working-class districts and intended for society's most impoverished youngsters who, it was argued, were often excluded from Sunday School education because of their unkempt appearance and often challenging behaviour. After a few such schools were set up in the early 19th century by individual reformers, the London Ragged School Union was established in April 1844 to combine resources in the city, providing free education, food, clothing, lodging, and other home missionary services for poor children. Although the Union did not extend beyond London, its publications and pamphlets helped spread ragged school ideals across the country before they were phased out by the final decades of the 19th century.
Ragged school and Working Girls Home doorway, Dantzic Street, Manchester
The statue of Thomas Guthrie on Princes Street, Edinburgh
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury
Charles Dickens, 1858