2. Batt, John Herridge, Dr Barnardo: the Foster Father of "Nobody's Children." London: S. W. Partridge & Co., 1905

A small-sized, but thick, hard-covered faded-brown volume with the title imprinted in gold, on both front cover and spine, beneath which is a black-imprinted symbolical tree, presumably the one referred to on page 62 where Barnardo is quoted, from an Annual Report, as having "never forgotten the significant fact that the whole of the widespread work for God now in my hands took its rise, in 1866, from a Ragged School. There the seed-thought was sown, which, under the Divine smile and blessing, has sprung up into a tree, whose leaves are for the healing of the waifs and outcasts. That tree has grown in a distinctly spiritual atmosphere." The analogy is developed in a somewhat horticultural direction and the printed symbol says much about both subject and author. Beneath the symbol, in black, is 'Appreciation by the Duke of Argyle, K.T.', presumably an important and well-recognised patron in the early 1900s.

Immediately inside is a fly leaf printed with "Dr. Barnardo: the Foster-Father of "Nobody's Children" facing, and on the verso two italicised short quotes from eminent ecclesiastics succinctly extolling Dr. Barnardo's Homes.

The next page, which is slightly glossed, has a fine photographic portrait of Barnardo, showing him well posed, attending the camera closely, with an open book balanced on the back of a chair before him, and signed 'Yrs Faithfully in the Children's Cause. Thos.J.Barnardo.'

The title page has 'Dr. Barnardo' followed by the already introduced subtitle, and a further one: 'A Record and an Interpretation'. To the author's name is added 'Author of "Dwight L. Moody," etc.' indicating his association with the Christian Evangelists. The Appreciation by the Duke is again stated, the portrait and seventeen illustrations listed, and the foot of the title page is occupied by the publishers name and their London address in Paternoster Row over the date 1905. These last have inserted at the back of the book an extensive catalogue of their 'Popular Illustrated Books' on historical and religious subjects, many of which are aimed at young readers, and are akin to the pamphlets and magazines written or compiled by Barnardo in support of his work during earlier years and published by J.F.Shaw and Co. also of Paternoster Row, London

Preliminary pages v and vi contain the Duke's appreciation written from Kensington Palace and dated 1903, which presents Barnardo's work as 'practical benevolence' whereby saved children have been taught useful knowledge from which 'every parish in London, Britain and the great Colonies have benefitted'. The final paragraph indicates that the fact of Dr. Barnardo's Homes being by then no longer under the Founder's 'unwearying care only', but are now 'Incorporated and with careful Trusteeship', justifies their financial support. The Duke makes no mention of Evangelical Philanthropy or Christianity.

The author's 'Prefatory Note' begins "It is a delight to tell in connected and continuous form the story of the Great Work ...." which is similar to Barnardo's own words quoted in a later biography (see Notes 3). He also explains that 'a prominent journalist, who has the ear of the most vigorous working philanthropists of the day, has said, as the result of his own investigation of the Homes, that "it renewed one's confidence in one's country and countrymen to find that the land still produced such men as the Father of 'Nobody's Children'" and subsequent research has confirmed that the term first appeared in the writings of W. F. Stead in The Times around the 1870's and was subsequently used in reference to Barnardo by many other writers. This author's modification is presumably made to remove any ambiguity from the expression.

The List of Contents includes 14 chapters occupying 203 pages and the List of Illustrations includes the portrait and nineteen other small but valuable photographs of Barnardo's work.The preliminary pages finish with number xii on which is a paragraph stating 'Most Recent Statistics' and containing such facts as 8,493 Boys and Girls under care in 121 Branches, 10,905 totally maintained, an income of £187,509 in 1904, and throughout the 40 years of their existence 58,600 "unwanted" destitute children had been cared for, 17,264 emigrated, of which less than 1.5 % have proved failures.

Comment:It would appear that the book was being compiled as early as 1903, when it had the Duke's support, as well as that of Barnardo himself, his sympathetic publishers, and other important people in the Evangelical Movement. At the time of Barnardo's sudden death on September 19th. 1905, the book must have been near enough to completion to include that event and the funeral in detail and to make the publication date in the same year.

In the Introduction, subtitled 'Work for the Waifs', the philanthropy as a 'broadening humanity' is compared with New Testament evangelical view of it as a sign of the 'coming of the Kingdom', and both included in the phrase 'service of man to man'. There follows a biblical exegesis of the role of the child, culminating in presenting Barnardo's work as 'Obedient faith and ministering love come to descry under the thin, scanty covering of worn and threadbare garments, "a little child" of Christ's warm circle and of angels' care.'

Chapter 1 is an account of the growth of the work in relation to Barnardo's commitments, faith, and fortuitous donations, in which his Helpers League played a major part; much of this is based upon Barnardo's own words in the various weekly magazines that he edited and wrote in.

The origin of the work is described in Chapter 2, using Barnardo's own account of the rescue of Jim Jarvis under the title "My First Arab: or, How I began my Life-Work" and is followed by a list of no less than twenty-two Societies for child care that admittedly owed their existence to Barnardo's work. The use of the term 'Our Founder' reflects the author's position in writing the book. This is further demonstrated in Chapter 3 wherein, under the heading the 'Next Step', the impromptu talk on his work given by the young student Barnardo in the Agricultural Hall - a well-known venue of Evangelical Revivalist attendance - is recounted. At that early stage, in 1867, Barnardo's own participation was within the Ragged School movement, indicating his early commitment to education in association with compassionate care, and the talk that he gave is presented as the means whereby he came to the notice of Earl Shaftesbury and other philanthropists of standing within the society of London of the 1870s; an association of great value to the evangelical philanthropists.

Chapter 4 is headed 'One who heard "the children weeping"' and makes the striking association of the young man who 'heard the cry of the children with the hearing of the heart' with Elizabeth Barrett Browning writing: Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers,
Ere the sorrow comes with years?
. . . . .
They look with their pale and sunken faces,
And their looks are sad to see,
For the old man's hoary anguish draws and presses
Down the cheek of infancy.

There follows a long quote from what is referred to as the 'Children's Treasury' (one of Barnardo's in-house magazines) at one point, and 'Dr. Barnardo's journal' at another, accounting for his move from medical student/future China Missionary to erstwhile medical student presently caring for destitute children.

The author portrays Barnardo as a sole striver against the evils of the city of London and it is this chapter that contains the interesting photographs of Barnardo, as a young student in 1866, and in the year of his marriage, 1873, all suggesting sources very close to Barnardo, if not Barnardo himself.

The author next dwells briefly on Barnardo as a man carrying an unenglish name with a father born in Germany, of Spanish pedigree, and a mother of English Protestant origin, who gave birth to Thomas John in Dublin, within a family believing strongly in Evangelical Christianity. His youth included a conviction of personal sin and conversion to Christ, following which he acquired a missionary zeal. He is described as having a warmth of devotion and a great love and pity on behalf of little children who, he believed, should be led to Christ under the plain evangelical teaching of the New Testament.

His entry as a student to the London Hospital was determined by the fact that one of his brothers was already a medical man and enabled his younger brother to pursue his aim of becoming a medical missionary in China. The occurrence of the cholera epidemic in East London in 1866, and his voluntary service in it, determined Barnardo's subsequent role there.

The overwhelming assertion is of Barnardo's passionate love for children. It is to this, with the addition of the conviction that God would stand by him, that he attributes Barnardo's sucessful struggle to rouse the nation to the plight of children at that time, to organise their care, to withstand both opposition within the organised Christian missionary world, and the outdated assertions of parental rights, to use his literary skills to promote the cause of Child Rescue, to arrange for the Boarding Out with Christian families nearly three thousand of his seven thousand boys and girls, to initiate Youth Labour Houses in England, to integrate cripples with his other children rather than segregate them, to organise the emigration of orphan children to the colonies on a large scale, and qualify as 'the busiest man in London'.

In chapter 5, concerned with the spiritual and regenerative side of Barnardo's work, is the interesting quote from a late Cabinet Minister, the Right Honourable A. J. Mundella, who had at an earlier stage presided over the Departmental Enquiry by the Local Government Board investigating the condition of the Poor Law Schools of the Metropolis, and they concluded that if there was a Department of the Poor Law Children of the Country, they would wish to have a Dr Barnardo at the head of it.

Batt asserts that Barnardo depended much upon the power of prayer, and this is extended to Dr. Barnardo's Council Meetings. Barnardo is presented as a believer in spirituality for children, regardless of sectarian interests, parental interests, or physical disability. He then describes, in the remaining chapters, various of Barnardo's works in detail, including the Girls Village Home, Emigration, some Home Notes on the Stepney House, the many Institutions, and the Watts Naval Training School in Norfolk, which Barnardo had planned and greatly looked forward to, but did not live to see its official opening.

He concludes this section with the anguishing tale of the rescue of some children by Barnardo who then arranges for their expeditious departure to Canada before they can be reclaimed, later specified as the Gossage Case.

He finishes the book with a factual and moving account of Barnardo's death and funeral.

Comment:This is clearly a detailed and supportive book, sympathetic to the evangelical compassionate work that fulfilled the aims listed by Barnardo in his own 1890 book (see Notes 1).