Physician and philanthropist, the founder of homes for destitute children, born in Dublin, Ireland. A clerk by profession, he was converted to Christianity in 1862 and, after a period spent preaching in the Dublin slums, moved to London in 1866 to study medicine with the aim of becoming a medical missionary. Instead he founded in 1867, while still a student, the East End Mission for destitute children in Stepney and a number of homes in Greater London, which came to be known as the Dr Barnardo's Homes. The present-day organization is responsible for over 140 schools, hostels, and youth centres, with branches in such countries as Australia, New Zealand, and Kenya.
Thomas John Barnardo (4 July 1845 — 19 September 1905), Irish philanthropist, and founder and director of homes for destitute children, was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1845. From the foundation of the homes in 1867 to the date of Barnardo’s death, nearly 60,000 children had been rescued, trained and placed out in life. He married Syrie Elmslie and they had seven children, three of whom died young, and one of whom had Down's syndrome which influenced him into setting up homes for children with physical and learning difficuties.
Dr. Barnardo's Homes
His medical work in the east end of London during the epidemic of cholera in 1866 first drew his attention to the great numbers of homeless and destitute children in the cities of England. The first of the "Dr Barnardo’s Homes" was opened in 1870 at 18 Stepney Causeway, London. From that time the work steadily increased until, at the time of his death, in 1905, there were established 112 district "Homes," besides mission branches, throughout the United Kingdom.
The object for which these institutions were started was to search for and to receive waifs and strays, to feed, clothe, educate, and, where possible, to give an industrial training suitable to each child. girls above fourteen years of age are sent to the industrial training homes, to be taught useful domestic occupations; boys above seventeen years of age are first tested in labour homes and then placed in employment at home, sent to sea or emigrated; Besides the various branches necessary for the foregoing work, there were also, among others, the following institutions:a rescue home for girls in danger, a convalescent seaside home, and a hospital for the sick.
In 1876 on the 9th July The Girls Village Home was officially opened with twelve cottages by the then Lord Cairns, In the same year a modern steam laundry was opened. The Girls Village Home had become a real "garden city"; Watts, a naval school was opened in 1903 at North Elmham, near Norwich, to which boys were drafted from the branch homes to be trained for the navy and the mercantile marine. Watts Naval Training School closed 1949
In 1899 the various institutions and organizations were legally incorporated under the title of "The National Association for the reclamation of Destitute Waif Children", but the institution has always been familiarly known as "Dr Barnardo’s Homes."
Emigration system
What was considered the most useful of all the varied work instituted by Barnardo was the emigration system, by which means thousands of boys and girls have been sent to British colonies, chiefly to Canada, where there were distributing centres at Toronto and Winnipeg, and an industrial farm of some 8000 acres (32 km²) near Russell in Manitoba. The fact that in Canada less than 2% of the children sent out proved failures confirmed Barnardo’s conviction that "if the children of the slums can be removed from their surroundings early enough, and can be kept sufficiently long under training, heredity counts for little, environment for almost everything."
Death
Barnardo died of angina pectoris in London on 19 September 1905.
A national memorial was instituted to form a fund of £250,000 to relieve the various institutions of all financial liability and to place the entire work on a permanent basis. William Baker, formerly the chairman of the council, was selected to succeed the founder of the homes as Honorary director.
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