Thomas John Barnardo (4 July 184519 September 1905) was an Irish-born
philanthropist
Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...
and founder and director of homes for poor and deprived children. From the foundation of the first
Barnardo's
Barnardo's is a British charity founded by Thomas John Barnardo in 1866, to care for vulnerable children. As of 2013, it raised and spent around £200 million each year running around 900 local services, aimed at helping these same group ...
home in 1867 to the date of Barnardo's death, nearly 60,000 children had been taken in.
Although Barnardo never finished his studies at the
London Hospital
The Royal London Hospital is a large teaching hospital in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is part of Barts Health NHS Trust. It provides district general hospital services for the City of London and Tower Hamlets and spe ...
, he used the title of 'doctor' and later secured a licentiate.
Early life
Barnardo was born in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
, Ireland, in 1845. He was the fourth of five children (one died in childbirth) of John Michaelis Barnardo, a
furrier
Fur clothing is clothing made from the preserved skins of mammals. Fur is one of the oldest forms of clothing, and is thought to have been widely used by people for at least 120,000 years. The term 'fur' is often used to refer to a specific i ...
who was of Sephardic Jewish descent, and his second wife, Abigail,
[ ] an Englishwoman and member of the
Plymouth Brethren
The Plymouth Brethren or Assemblies of Brethren are a low church and non-conformist Christian movement whose history can be traced back to Dublin, Ireland, in the mid to late 1820s, where they originated from Anglicanism. The group emphasizes ...
.
In the early 1840s, John emigrated from
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
to Dublin, where he established a business; he married twice and fathered seven children. The Barnardo family "traced its origin to
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
, followed by conversion to the Lutheran Church in the sixteenth century". Barnardo wrote that, as a child, he was selfish and thought that everything that was not his should belong to him. However, as he grew older, he abandoned this mindset in favour of helping the poor.
Barnardo moved to London in 1866. It was during this time that he became interested in becoming a missionary.
Philanthropy
![Group portrait of children outside a Barnardo home](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Group_portrait_of_children_outside_a_Barnardo_home._Wellcome_L0000901.jpg)
Barnardo established 'Hope Place'
ragged school
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. Ragged schools were intended for society's most destitute children ...
in the
East End of London
The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...
in 1868, his first attempt at aiding the estimated 30,000 'destitute' children in Victorian London. Many of these children were not only impoverished, but orphaned, as the result of a recent
cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
outbreak. For those unable to afford private education, the school offered education which although Christian-based in nature, was not exclusively religion-focused, and worked to provide tutelage on various common trades of that time (for example,
newsboys
Newsboys (sometimes stylised as newsboys) are a Christian rock band founded in 1985 in Mooloolaba, Queensland, Australia, by Peter Furler and George Perdikis. Now based in Nashville, Tennessee, the band has released 17 studio albums, 6 of which ...
and
shoe-shiners).
In 1870, Barnardo was prompted to form a boys'
orphanage
An orphanage is a Residential education, residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the Childcare, care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parent ...
at
18 Stepney Causeway after inspecting the conditions within which London's orphaned population slept. This was the first of 122 such establishments, caring for over 8,500 children, founded before his death in 1905. Significant provisions were available to occupants; infants/younger children were sent to rural districts in an attempt to protect them from industrial pollution, and teenagers were trained in skills such as carpentry and metal work, to provide them a form of basic financial stability.
Barnardo's homes did not just accommodate boys; in 1876 the 'Girls' Village Home' was established, and by 1905 accommodated 1,300 girls, who were trained for '
domestic occupation'. Another establishment, the 'rescue home for girls in serious danger', aimed to protect girls from the growing tide of
child prostitution
Child prostitution is prostitution involving a child, and it is a form of commercial sexual exploitation of children. The term normally refers to prostitution of a minor, or person under the legal age of consent.
In most jurisdictions, child ...
.
In addition to the various homes and schools established by Barnardo and his wife, Sara Louise Elmslie, a seaside retreat and hospital were also founded.
From the foundation of the homes in 1867 to the date of Barnardo's death, nearly 60,000 children had been taken in, most being trained and placed out in life. At the time of his death, his charity was caring for over 8,500 children in 96 homes.
Personal life
In June 1873, Barnardo married Sara Louise Elmslie (1842–1944), known as Syrie, the daughter of an
underwriter
Underwriting (UW) services are provided by some large financial institutions, such as banks, insurance companies and investment houses, whereby they guarantee payment in case of damage or financial loss and accept the financial risk for liabilit ...
for
Lloyd's of London
Lloyd's of London, generally known simply as Lloyd's, is an insurance and reinsurance market located in London, England. Unlike most of its competitors in the industry, it is not an insurance company; rather, Lloyd's is a corporate body gov ...
. Syrie shared her husband's interests in evangelism and social work. The couple settled at Mossford Lodge,
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
, where they had seven children, three of whom died in early childhood. A fourth child, Marjorie, had
Down syndrome
Down syndrome or Down's syndrome, also known as trisomy 21, is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of all or part of a third copy of chromosome 21. It is usually associated with physical growth delays, mild to moderate intellectual dis ...
.
One daughter,
Gwendolyn Maud Syrie (1879–1955), known as Syrie like her mother, was married to wealthy businessman
Henry Wellcome
Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome (August 21, 1853 – July 25, 1936) was an American pharmaceutical entrepreneur. He founded the pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wellcome & Company with his colleague Silas Burroughs in 1880, which is one of the fo ...
, and later to the writer
Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...
, and became a socially prominent London interior designer.
Barnardo died of
angina pectoris
Angina, also known as angina pectoris, is chest pain or pressure, usually caused by insufficient blood flow to the heart muscle (myocardium). It is most commonly a symptom of coronary artery disease.
Angina is typically the result of obstru ...
in London on 19 September 1905, and was buried in front of Cairns House,
Barkingside
Barkingside is an area in Ilford, in the London Borough of Redbridge. It includes the major road junction of ''Fullwell Cross'' which also gives its name to the locality near that roundabout. The area is situated 10.6 miles (17km) north east of ...
, Essex. The house is now the head office of the children's charity he founded,
Barnardo's
Barnardo's is a British charity founded by Thomas John Barnardo in 1866, to care for vulnerable children. As of 2013, it raised and spent around £200 million each year running around 900 local services, aimed at helping these same group ...
.
[ ] A
memorial
A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of a ...
stands outside Cairn's House.
Alleged Jack the Ripper suspect
At the time of the
Whitechapel murders
The Whitechapel murders were committed in or near the largely impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London between 3 April 1888 and 13 February 1891. At various points some or all of these eleven unsolved murders of women have ...
, due to the supposed medical expertise of
Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in the autumn of 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer wa ...
, various doctors in the area were suspected. Long after his death, Barnardo was named a possible suspect, by Donald McCormick (1970) and Gary Rowlands (2005). Rowlands proposed that Barnardo's lonely childhood and religious zeal led him to kill prostitutes to clear them from the streets and to encourage them to place their children into his care.
Only because of an accident in a swimming pool that left him totally deaf shortly after murdering Mary Kelly did he stop killing, as being deaf left him more vulnerable to capture.
There is no evidence that Barnardo committed the murders, and critics of this theory have also pointed out that his age and appearance did not match any of the descriptions of the Ripper. Barnardo was well known in the East End, however, and would visit cheap boarding houses to talk to the penniless customers. During one of these visits he talked to a group at 32 Flower and Dean Street, Whitechapel, during the period of the murders. One of the women, worse for drink, cried 'We're all up to no good and no-one cares what becomes of us, perhaps some of us will be killed next.' He later viewed the body of
Elizabeth Stride
Elizabeth "Long Liz" Stride ( Gustafsdotter; 27 November 1843 – 30 September 1888) is believed to have been the third victim of the unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated at least five women in the Whitecha ...
, Jack the Ripper's third canonical victim, at the mortuary and confirmed that she had been among those present.
Legacy – Barnardo's
After Barnardo's death, 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. Barnardo was the author of 192 books dealing with the charitable work to which he devoted his life.
Barnardo's work was carried on by his many supporters under the name ''Dr Barnardo's Homes''. Following societal changes in the mid-20th century, the charity changed its focus from the direct care of children to
fostering
Fosterage, the practice of a family bringing up a child not their own, differs from adoption in that the child's parents, not the foster-parents, remain the acknowledged parents. In many modern western societies foster care can be organised by th ...
and
adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...
, renaming itself ''Dr Barnardo's''. Following the closure of its last traditional orphanage in 1989, it took the still simpler name of ''Barnardo's''.
Controversies
There was controversy early on with Barnardo's work. Specifically, he was accused of kidnapping children without parents' permission and of falsifying photographs of children to make the distinction between the period before they were rescued by Barnardo's and afterwards seem more dramatic. He openly admitted to the former of these charges, describing it as 'philanthropic abduction' and basing his defence on the idea that the end justified the means. In total, he was taken to court on 88 occasions, usually on the charge of kidnapping. However, being a charismatic speaker and popular figure, he rode through these scandals unscathed. Other charges brought against him included presenting staged images of children for Barnardo's 'before and after' cards and neglecting basic hygiene for the children under his care.
The charity today
The official mascot of Barnardo's is a bear called Barney.
H.M. Queen Elizabeth II was Barnardo's Patron from 1983 to 2016, when she handed over the role to HRH The Duchess of Cornwall.
Its chief executive is Lynn Perry.
See also
*''
The Likes of Us
''The Likes of Us'' is musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Tim Rice, and a book by Leslie Thomas. It is based on the story of Thomas John Barnardo, a philanthropist who founded homes for destitute children.
Background
Altho ...
''
*
Charitable organization
A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good).
The legal definitio ...
*
Orphanage
An orphanage is a Residential education, residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the Childcare, care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parent ...
*
Ragged School Museum
The Ragged School Museum is a museum in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The museum was opened in 1990 in the premises of the former Dr Barnardo's Copperfield Road Ragged School. The school opened in 1877 to serve the children of Mile End w ...
*
List of Freemasons
This "List of Freemasons" page provides links to alphabetized lists of notable Freemasons. Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation which exists in a number of forms worldwide. Throughout history some members of the fraternity have made no secre ...
Notes
References
;Attribution
*
External links
British Home Child Group International – research site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnardo, Thomas John
1845 births
1905 deaths
19th-century Irish people
Adoption, fostering, orphan care and displacement
Founders of orphanages
Irish evangelicals
Irish Protestants
Irish Freemasons
Irish people of Italian descent
Irish people of German-Jewish descent
Irish people of English descent
Philanthropists from Dublin (city)
Child welfare in the United Kingdom
Freemasons of the United Grand Lodge of England
19th-century philanthropists
Irish Protestant missionaries
Protestant missionaries in China
People of Sephardic-Jewish descent