Thomas John Barnardo, His Life, Homes & Orphanages
A Short History
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The London that greeted Thomas John Barnardo in 1866 was a filthy, disease ridden, overcrowded city, although it was a city of great contrasts. To the west of the city was a place where the rich ladies wore the large hooped skirts and dresses known as crinolines and the gents wore the latest fashions of the day with top hats and spats and whose children received a proper education. Compared to the East End, where there had been a massive influx of people to the newly industrialised capital. The city was struggling to cope with the sudden flood of humanity brought on by the effects of the industrial revolution. Much of the overcrowding was concentrated in the East End where the children were uneducated, malnourished, poorly dresed and dirty and where slums, lack of employment, poverty, disease and crime and prostitution were rife. Gangs of pickpockets went up 'west' to operate where the rich pickings were to be found. They were probably managed or seen over by a gang master and fence much in the guise of Dickens' Fagin, to whom they would return back 'east' with their loot. Down by the river Thames and the docks, 'mudlarks' would scavenge in the low water, tidal mud for any riches that they could find and hope to sell for a few pence. Smuggling and pilfering was part of everyday life There were more illegitimate children born in the capital than anywhere else in the world.
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About the Book
The book is not just a biography of Dr Thomas John Barnardo, the Irish philanthropist who set up a national chain of Homes and orphanages for destitute and under-priviledged children. The book also contains vignettes of the people around Dr Barnardo; people that influenced him and helped him, people such as his wife Syrie and Lord Shaftesbury, Benjamin Disraeli, James Hudson Taylor and others that had a bearing on the man and his ideas. The book describes the trades learnt in the homes and gives an insight into the Naval Training Schools and the boarding out and emigration of children to the British Colonies. it also has a chapter on the way Barnardo's is run today and how the charity faces different challenges in the modern world
About the Author
The Author of this book is Dennis Burnier-Smith. Dennis has built up an interest in Barnardo's mainly because his late father was a Barnardo's boy during the late 1920's and early 1930's. Dennis is not new to writing and has had 2 books published previously under the pseudonym of Laurie Driver. Dennis is a Manchester born author who spent his working life as a long distance lorry driver and took up writing after early retirement due to ill health