|
1845 |
Born 4th July, Dame Street Dublin,
Ireland, the fourth of six children born to John and Abigail
Barnardo. |
|
1861 |
Thomas finished school at the age
of sixteen with few academic attainments, Thomas was
apprenticed to a wine merchant, which his father procured for
him. Here his innate abilities began to appear, though an
increasing love of reading made the discipline of business
life irksome to the young man. |
|
1862 |
Thomas joined an evangelical sect called the Plymouth Brethren,
a religious group. Thomas gave up reading any books except the
Bible. He decides to become a medical missionary. |
|
1866 |
Thomas was introduced to Hudson
Taylor, the pioneer missionary to China. Enthralled by
Taylor’s description of the limitless opportunities for the
gospel in that far-off land, Barnardo volunteered for
missionary service. At Hudson Taylor’s suggestion, Thomas went to London to begin training.
April of this year Thomas arrives
in London to train as a medical missionary. Thomas settled
close to the hospital in east London (his first lodgings were
at 30 Coburn Street, Stepney. An outbreak of cholera shortly
after he arrives introduces Thomas to the suffering of poor
people: 5,548 people die in the epidemic that is caused by the
sanitation and drinking water in the east end of London. He
gives up his plan to go to China. |
|
1867 |
Thomas set up a ragged school in
what had been a old donkey stable in Limehouse, (but had not
been used as such for quite some time) where poor children could get a basic
education. One evening a boy at the Mission, Jim Jarvis, took
Thomas Barnardo around the East End showing him children
sleeping on roofs and in gutters. The encounter so affected
him he decided to devote himself to helping destitute children. |
|
1868 |
The
banker, Robert Barclay agreed to support
Thomas 2nd March of this year to able Thomas opens his first home for
homeless children in Hope Street, Stepney. which consists of
two cottages, one for boy and one for girls. He starts his
training at the London Hospital in Whitechapel as a full-time
medical student aged 23. |
|
1870 |
He
opens his first home for boys in
Stepney Causeway, in the East End of London on a 99 year
lease on the property. One evening, an 11-year old boy, John
Somers (nicknamed 'Carrots') was turned away because the
shelter was full. He was found dead two days later from
malnutrition and exposure and from then on the home bore the
sign 'No Destitute Child Ever Refused Admission'. Thomas decides not to limit the number of
children he helps. Thomas employs a
photographer to make a photographic record of every child
admitted. The photographs were kept in albums and case-history
sheets. |
|
1872 |
Thomas had begun to earn a small income from
his writing and from preaching. His evangelical efforts also
started to be on a large scale. In the summer of this year he
set up a huge tent outside the Edinburgh Castle public house, a notorious local gin palace and reportedly some 200 people a night would
profess conversion. Attendances at the tent affected the
numbers using the public house and it was put for sale.
Thomas buys the
Edinburgh Castle, a large building in Limehouse. He turns
it into a
coffee house and mission church accommodating more than 3,000
people at one time
He receives important support from rich evangelicals. |
|
1873 |
Thomas marries Syrie Elmslie, they
are offered some land on a rent-free lease for 15 years as a
wedding present at Barkingside, Mossford Lodge. This is where
he set up the home and took on forty girls. In October of this year
sixty girls now reside in the converted
coach house next to the Lodge.
They have seven children, three of
whom die young. His daughter, Marjorie, has Down's Syndrome
and influences Thomas to set up homes for children with
physical and learning disabilities. |
|
1874 |
Thomas opens the first in a
network of "Ever Open Doors" the first all night refuge at
Hope Place and adopts the slogan No destitute child ever
refused admission. Sets up a photographic studio, Children
were photographed when they first arrived and again several
months later after they had recovered from their experiences
of living on the streets. These 'before' and 'after' cards
were then sold in packs of twenty for 5 shillings or singly
for 6d. each. This enabled Barnardo to publicize his work and
raise money for his charitable work. also starts
his own magazine, The Childrens Treasury. |
|
1875 |
First Committee of management set
up, Thomas became the director of the Homes. The Organisation
becomes known as Dr. Barnardo's Homes. The Night and Day
Magazine starts. |
|
1876 |
Thomas qualifies as a doctor. He sets up a council of trustees
to look after the charity's money and to make policy. The
charity becomes more famous, and receives more and more money.
In the same year, Thomas and Syrie open the
Girls' Village Home in Essex plans are drawn up for
30 more cottages Based on French and German models of
care, the Village was very different from the large scale
institutions of the time. |
|
1877 |
Thomas was involved in a bitter
personal dispute with fellow evangelists in Stepney. This led
to a trial, mounted by the Charity Organisation Society, where
Barnardo was accused of financial malpractice, cruelty to
children, lack of moral and religious training and of keeping
children against their will. After four months and the
testimony of 112 witnesses, Thomas was acquitted of all
charges. As a result of the case, he became a public
personality and his supporter base broadened considerably.
The arbitrators, pronouncing their verdict,
stated: "This use of artistic fiction to represent actual
facts is, in our opinion, not only morally wrong as thus
employed, but might, in the absence of a very strict control
grow into a system of deception dangerous to the cause on
behalf of which it is practised. Nor has evidence been wanting
in this inquiry, that in one or two cases it has been applied
to an extent that we....strongly reprobate." Thomas stops selling the before
and after photographs. |
|
1878 |
Thomas had established over fifty orphanages in London. The
ever open door was now causing concern for Thomas,
he would have to find a way to relieve the situation. He thought they would have better
prospects overseas. |
|
1879 |
Girls' Village Home in Essex all of
the thirty cottages proposed in 1876 have been completed. The
village had its own school, a laundry and church, and a
population of over 1,000 children, that eventually house more than
1,500 girls. |
|
1881 |
The Childrens Treasury magazine
was loosing money, Thomas stops the publication on which he
depended to a large extent for his income. |
|
1882 |
Thomas sends the first 51 boys to Canada as part of an
'emigration programme'. The programme is to settle children in
colonies overseas. The programme is not a success. He believed
that the child would benefit from a fresh start, away from the
overcrowded slums of the East End also it cost about £12 a
year to look after a child in Britain. To send one child
overseas was a one-off payment of £15 |
|
1883 |
The summer of this year Peterborough millionaire George A Cox offered
Thomas Barnardo his choice of various homes he owned in
Peterborough to establish a home for the destitute children of
England. Having selected Hazelbrae he began preparing the home ready
for the children. Today a Heritage plaque recognising the home
stands on the grounds of the former Hazelbrae
Home. |
|
1886 |
The first officially recorded
legacy of £50.00 (today £3,475.00) was received 1st October of
this year. |
|
1887 |
Thomas begins a scheme of
'boarding out', sending 330 boys, to 'good country homes' -
well away from the slums and pollution that he believed was so
injurious to physical and moral well-being. |
|
1888 |
Thomas opens two refuges for the
children of prostitutes. Most people at the time saw
prostitution as a sin, but Thomas understood it as part of a
lager system of economic and social exploitation of women.
Thomas is questioned by H division police regarding him
fitting the profile of
Jack The Ripper
but there is no evidence against Thomas. But two facts, one of
him being a Doctor and the second he is seen late at night in
his private carriage, but if he did need a alibi the one he had was sound. He
writes a letter to
The Times |
|
1889 |
Thomas begins another scheme, boarding out the babies of
unmarried mothers. While the mothers live and work in one
family, their babies are looked after by a fostering family
nearby. |
|
1891 |
Thomas partly responsible for a
change in the law, which put the welfare of the child above
the rights of the parent. |
|
1894 |
The Children's
Church Barkingside is completed |
|
1900 |
Thomas insisted that all Children applicants
for emigration must reside for two to three months in one of
his homes before departure. |
|
1903 |
The charity opens
Watts
Naval training school in Norfolk. to hold 320 places |
|
1905 |
Dr. Thomas John Barnardo dies of angina
aged 60 at his home, St Leonards Lodge,
Surbiton.. At the time of his death,
the charity runs 96 homes and looks after more than 7,998
children in his residential
homes, more than 4,000 were boarded out, and 18,000 had been
sent to Canada and Australia. The organisation was £249,000 in
dept.
Tributes poured in from across the globe and the world's press
united in praising a man who had in forty years transformed
the lives of nearly 60,000 boys and girls. The Times wrote:
'It is impossible to take a general view of Dr Barnardo's
life‑work without being astonished alike by its magnitude and
by its diversity, and by the enormous amount of otherwise
hopeless misery against which he has contended single‑handed
with success.'
William Baker takes over as
Honorary Director of Dr. Barnardo's Homes. |