The main subject of this web site is The Girls Village Home at Barkingside that has been collated by Frank Cooke and Johnny Leach who have both spent many hours researching information. They also run a web site on the history of their old school, The William Baker Technical School Goldings www.goldonian.org between them.

This web site as you see it is after collating many sources of information, some are still coming in so this site will be like an old jig-saw puzzle that will take a bit to find those missing pieces. The main source is from BARNARDO by Gillian Wagner 1979 Weidenfield and Nicolson which was the base of information. I would like to thank Dame Gillian Wagner for her permission to use any information from her book. I have taken the information contained within as the definitive in answering some questions on Dr. Thomas Barnardo. As Dame Gillian Wagner said "he was an extraordinary man"  This did bring a smile to my face as that is how Col Booth Tucker exactly described my mother, when she went to see him in 1959 but I fear he was describing the other end of the spectrum.

Other source came from The Guild Messenger that later was re-named The Barnardo Guild Messenger which  also held lots of information and photos of Barkingside. Some information was also gleaned from our old school magazine 'The Goldonian' We then obtained the book 'Barnardo of Stepney the father of nobody's children London' by A. E. Williams who was Thomas Barnardo's private secretary from 1898 This book was a sixth impression printed in 1966 as a centenary publication which came with 25 illustrations that were not in the original book. Some of the photos had been taken in 1966.

One book took some getting hold of as it was published in 1907 "The Memoirs of the late Dr. Barnardo" By Mrs. Barnardo, and James Marchant. It gives a fuller picture of Dr Barnardo the man. At the beginning of the book W Robertson Nicoll writes an introduction about Thomas Barnardo click here to view While this book held information, most of the memoirs were written down many years later so some information is wrong. some information Mrs. Barnardo did not want people to know, such as that Thomas's father was of Jewish extraction and talked of a Spanish connection to cover this fact. I will give you another example that is just a forgetful memory on the part of Thomas, Thomas Barnardo went to a Missionary Conference in about October of 1867 at the Agricultural Hall and was asked to stand in at the last moment, This was his first public speech in front of a large audience which Thomas chose to talk about his ragged school and an outing with Jim Jarvis. His talk was also published in the Times, which had been seen by Lord Shaftsbury who then sent a letter to Thomas. Thomas wrote: a week later I received a letter addressed to me at the London Hospital containing an invitation to dinner. The letter was from the late Earl of Shaftsbury. At that time I had never met his Lordship. This was a mistake as Thomas had met him in Paris on 19th April 1886. This Thomas had forgotten. While the date of the speech and the invitation is not recorded I have placed them both to have taken place in October of 1867that can be seen in a time line I have started. Can you correct any of the dates?

So who is Frank Cooke:

Frank was placed in the care of Dr Barnardo's The Village Home in 1958/9 and stayed there till 1964 when he was transferred to Goldings for trade training, in short like many others he had failed the eleven plus. He stayed at Goldings until he left in 1966 with a second hand set of carpentry tools all marked with the initials of J.A on each tool. This was going to cause a big problem a few years later on Bank Holiday.

Frank returned to Barkingside in January 2001 to get his records of the time he spent in Dr. Barnardo's care. Like most that we can see today were never going to see the light of day. While I found them confirming what I had said for many years the records were written to cover Barnardo's back.

In 2003 Frank took a place on the National Council of Barnardo's old Boys and Girls that meets three times a year at Barkingside. He is a Registered Plumber and Heating Engineer who is self employed and attends meetings when work allows. Frank had started looking into Dr. Barnardo in 1998 after he attended a meeting of Registered Plumbers at Wick Lane Pumping Station for a lecture and walk the sewer's of London. Dr. Thomas Barnardo got a mention in that if London had not had a cholera epidemic, Thomas Barnardo may have followed his mission to be a medical Missionary in China. Then while searching the internet he found a web site about Jack The Ripper and that Dr T was felt by some to be Dr. Thomas Barnardo. With this information and background he just had to find out more.

Frank resigned from the National Council of old boys and girls as of 09/09/08

To contact Frank Cooke click here

All information and photographs held within this web site are © copyright  and should not be copied or shared without express permission.

Please Note: Photographs on this web site are: 1. By the author. 2. From the author’s private collection (including those photos the author has purchased outright and own copyright to). 3. As provided by other old boys of Dr. Barnardo's one and private photographers. Credit is given to all contributors. However, there are some photographs sent to us without details of the photographer/owners concerned. We would therefore appreciate if owners of these photographs would make themselves known to me, that due credit may be given.

Please note this web site does not in any way speak for Barnardo's. Its purpose is purely for research and historical interest.