A dark-brown, medium-sized, hardback book with, on the spine only, the title, in capitals, with serifs, and underlined, beneath which is the author, the same without underlining, and at the foot in small upper and lowercase, the publisher, all imprinted in gold.

The fly-leaf has the title only, and the Title Page has again the title, unadorned, with the author below, italicised, upper and lower case, and the publishers at the foot, from London. The reverse has the author copyright, year of publication, publisher's full address in Clapham High Street, and ISBN, followed by the printing and binding of this fine book attributed to Cox & Wyman Ltd, London, Fakenham and Reading.

The Contents are the List of Illustrations, Preface, Acknowlegements, seventeen chapters, beginning with Birth and Boyhood, and ending with The Legend and Legacy, followed by an Appendix, Notes, Bibliography, and Index. The Illustrations number 26, mostly from the Barnardo Archives, with three acknowledged exceptions. They are nearly all presented as a bunch of photographs between pages 144 and 145 of the text, but pages 58,63,64, and 85 have interesting scenes of East London, contemporary with Barnardo, and taken from old plates. Illustration number 5 is on page 185, and is a fine engraving of the Distributing Home for Girls in Peterborough, Ontario, and number 6, page 211, is from an etching of a 'scene in the kitchen of a Common Lodging House in Flower and Dene Street.' On page 258 is a dark engraving of that side of the Stepney Home abutting Bower Street.

In the preface the author, writing presumably after the presentation of her Ph.D. thesis entitled Dr. Barnardo and the Charity Organisation Society: A re-assessment of the Arbitration Case of 1877 to London University in 1977, and having been a Member of Council of Dr. Barnardo's Homes since 1969, states her difficulty in dissociating the real man, Thomas Barnardo, from the name that he gave to the organisation over a century beforehand; the true image of the former emerges only with difficulty from beneath the immense achievements of the latter.

The sections follow under headings that present important aspects of Barnardo's life, each with numbered references to notes from a wide range of sources listed at the back of the book, including a formal listed bibliography, newspapers, reports and pamphlets contemporary with the events, many of which are original contributions to this subject.

Under Birth and Boyhood 1845-66 the family background is traced as Ahskenazi Jewish, and his father's complex entry into a Dublin Protestant family detailed. Thomas John's emergence from a thoughtful youth to become a fervent evangelical protestant is described without as much introspective detail as that given in earlier accounts. More importantly, using new sources, including the Hudson Taylor letters, Barnardo's evangelical yearnings are set against a waiting period of some three years during which he met a number of influential missionary workers, and was also successfully employed in his father's business. Contrary to the latter's wishes, but aided by his brother and missionary associates, he left Dublin in 1866 and went to London, primarily to become a Missionary to China.

Early struggles as Evangelist and Mission Leader 1866-71. Although Barnardo had primarily gone to East London to prepare to be among the next batch of missioners to leave for the China Inland Mission, he was soon responding to opportunities for evangelising in the streets, taverns and public places nearby, initially in association with the Plymouth Brethren movement that worked outside formal church organisations and salaried ministers, and had a base in Sydney Street, Stepney. He also began to help with teaching in a small 'Ragged School' along the Mile End Road, at which he soon showed ability, but found himself too constrained. By July, 1867 his own letter of appeal for funds to enlarge the school work appeared in The Revival supported by its editor, and from thence onwards he had his own evangelical teaching and preaching work in East London.

The recommendation by Hudson and his other advisors that he obtain medical qualifications before going to China was followed somewhat slowly, and with the help of his brother he was registered at The London Hospital in November 1867, and according to his later recollections, had vivid experiences of the East London cholera epidemic of that time. During the next two years he attended the hospital at least sufficiently to be recollected by some of his fellow students years later, and he took and passed his preliminary examinations in 1869 but by then had founded the East End Juvenile Mission, and a year later was not only raising funds through The Revival but also writing reports of pastoral work, and relating incidents therein in a developing literary style in support.

The early reports were primarily of his evangelical work - the saving of souls - but by 1872, when the full account of his meeting with Jim Jarvis, the first destitute orphan, or so-termed street arab that he recognised as such, was published in The Christian, successor to The Revival, he had started the Boys Home in Stepney Causeway, and no longer considered going to China as a missionary. His medical studies had also lapsed.

The Evangelical Connection puts Barnardo's rapid philanthropic success in East London in relation to the evangelical philanthropic movement and millenianism as a whole, and his involvement with such figures of the time as Cairns, Shaftesbury, Moody, the Booths, and many more, all of whom recognised the necessity to feed and clothe the poor and destitute before converting them. To a greater or less extent they identified with Barnardo's mission to destitute children and considered it a valuable contribution to evangelical philanthropy.

The Fall of the Citadel of Satan, 1872 is an account of Barnardo's spectacular involvement in the purchase and take-over of a prominent Gin Palace called the Edinburgh Castle and its conversion to a fortress in the service of the Temperance Movement. Page 62 asserts Barnardo's need of successes such as this, quotes his mother's 1868 letter 'Are you seeking the praise of men?' and correlates this with his 'order' soon after the purchase that he was to be known as Dr. Barnardo although he had no entitlement to this. A letter stating that the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Giessen had granted him an MD diploma appeared on the scene during the dispute with the Charity Organisation Society that forms the core of this book, and this was clearly a forgery: it was written in bad German, on what was actually English notepaper, and dated 26 February, 1872, well before the successful sale of the Edinburgh Castle.

Marriage and the Development of his Work. His marriage to Syrie Elmslie is presented very much in the context of his ongoing work with destitute boys, and the pressing need to provide also for destitute girls. The marriage took place in the spacious Evangelist Spurgeon's Metropolitan Tabernacle in Newington Causeway and Grattan Guiness, another eminent Evangelical Preacher, officiated, and other prominent evangelicals were present. As a result of the accompanying evangelical support the newly-weds were offered Mossford Lodge, Barkingside, as a home, on a fifteen year lease, and were soon planning to share it with destitute girls. An attempt to institutionalise them in a similar fashion to the boys at Stepney failed, and was replaced by the plan to build a number of small Homes, in the form of a village, a concept already started by a Mrs Meredith as Princess Mary's Village in Addlestone, but given dramatic emphasis by Barnardo through what was apparently a vivid dream. It proved an outstanding success.

A Scandalous Controversy, Disaster Threatens, Arbitration, In Court, and Evangelical Triumph. These five sections, which dramatically present the crisis in Thomas Barnardo's life from which Dr. Barnardo's Homes was forged, are derived from the studious detail of the author's original Ph.D. thesis of 1977; they occupy eighty-six pages, represent an important section of English sociological history, and make good reading.

Barnardo's success in turning the Edinburgh Castle into a flourishing Mission Hall provoked opposition from other evangelicals working in that part of East London, who made accusations that began with charges of sexual immorality, that were successfully repudiated, but were followed by assertions of improper conduct of his institutions through the misuse of money, advertising photographs, disciplinary procedures, and the improper assumption of medical qualifications.

The two complainants with parochial interests were joined by the Charitable Organisation Society that had the mandate to control and the ambition to wrest charitable activities from the 'Evangelical Connexion' already discussed in an earlier section of the book. Exchanges took place through public pamphlets, and the regular small publications that Barnardo was by then producing with success in support of his work, followed by letters in the public press that became increasingly tortuous, and accusatory. On Barnardo's side missives lengthy enough to be termed diatribes appeared over the pseudonym Junius writing as a cleric, in withering style, ultimately compelling Barnardo to disown but never betray him. As actions for libel loomed large, those close to both the courts and evangelical interests moved an Act of Arbitration; this was granted and proceeded with full legal authority and thoroughness, limited by the reluctance of some witnesses to appear on the one side, and the refusal of Barnardo to disclose the real name of his 'Clerical Junius' on the other. No fault was found with Barnardo's financial administration of his Homes, and they were deemed to be valuable institutions. Their continuation had required the formation of a Board of Trustees, with control of Barnardo, the Honorary Director, and a Treasurer.

The accusation that he was not entitled to be called 'Dr' was justified, for he had no such degree, nor, indeed, any medical qualification, having discontinued his medical studies. Furthermore, the document stating that he obtained an MD degree from Guissen University was produced, embroiled with which was another forgery of obtaining a degree by an attendance at St. George's Hospital but these were not further pursued because, between 1872, when the accusation was first levelled, and 1877, the time of the Arbitration hearing, Barnardo had been to Edinburgh and studied sufficiently to meet the requirements of the Royal College of Surgeons there and to pass the examination that obtained the Licentiate - the LRCS. This entitled him to the title of surgeon only, and the use of terms such as 'medically qualified', and 'Dr' were incorrect, but prevalent at the time in Great Britain. Theoretically, Barnardo required to have a university MD to be addressed as Dr, or licence from a Royal College of Physicians to be called a Physician. The Arbitration accepted the 1876 qualification as proof of medical status, and although making some endeavour to remove the name Dr. Barnardo's Homes from that of the East End Juvenile Mission, singularly failed to do so, and the title entered into formal status, by legal Incorporation, and continued into history for the best part of a hundred years. More to the point, the institutions under Barnardo's direction had been so thoroughly investigated, and become so well known for so many reasons, their future was assured.

The use of photography for recording the state of children on admission to the various Homes was practised by Barnardo from the outset, thereby providing vivid evidence of a child's state on admission and thereafter, and although the Arbitration Enquiry had evidence that a degree of stagecraft had gone into some of the 'before and after' pictures, their value was appreciated, both as records and fund-raisers. Continuation of this practice has produced an outstanding visual archive, and, as stated in the author's Preface to this book, it was participation, with Valerie Lloyd, in The Camera and Dr.Barnardo Exhibition held at the National Portrait Gallery, July-November 1974 that initially provoked her study, and led to this comprehensive book.

The Years of Consolidation, 1878-86 The role of Cairns, the Lord Chancellor, behind the 'Evangelical Connexion' described in an earlier section, and in the legal complexities of the Arbitration Enquiry are traced with great perception, and his particular support of Dr.Barnardo's Homes, and Barnardo himself, in the following years, as Chairman of a committee of trustees full of evangelical friendship and fervour, is studiously presented in the context of the further development of the Homes in increasing numbers, and the organisation of the emigration of relativley large parties of children to Canada.

Private Interests and Public Good describes the complex relationship between his own domestic arrangements and his work, including his personal earnings, his wife and children, and the existence around him in East London of child prostitution, faced dramatically by W.T.Stead, the Editor of The Pall Mall Gazette with whom Barnardo developed a close relationship similar to that with R.C.Morgan, editor of The Revival and The Christian. The phrase 'Philanthropic Abduction' became another issue in which the place of conventional morality was lost in the greater good. The juxtaposition with this of the 1888 Whitechapel Atrocities, Barnardo's close involvement with which having been published in his own words as early as 1890 (Notes 2), is perhaps unsurprising. The added details of the Plymouth Brethrenism and Barnardo associations with Robert Anderson, the Head of CID specifically appointed to solve the crimes, followed by the 'personal information,' according to the author's reference note, that Barnardo's name was included among the suspects, and further relevant pathological details, all precede a full quotation of his own account of his proximity to the murders in the words of his letter to The Times September 1888. Most importantly, this ends with: 'Surely the awful revelations consequent upon the recent tragedies should stir the whole community up to action, and to resolve to deliver the many thousand children of to-day, who will be the men and women of tomorrow, from so evil an environment.' A month later Barnardo was able to announce that he had acquired two houses, adjacent to the sites of the murders, specifically for the immediate shelter of destitute children.

The Custody of Children Under this heading is given a very full account of inter-sectarian struggles, in the 1880s, over the placement of destitute children wherein morality is further confounded. Of Barnardo's ability to subjugate sectarian interests to the immediate welfare of the child, and, in this, to defend them against the demands of the sectarian churches, the parents, and the Law, there can be no doubt, and his persistence to the extent of long involvements in legal cases was remarkable.

Emigration - the Golden Bridge The image comes from Barnardo's own magazine Night and Day: 'Over the Golden Bridge - from the slums to the Fair Land of Hopes and Promises'. Barnardo was relatively late to turn to sending children from his Homes to live with families in Canada, but did so with such good choice of staff and attention to details of organisation that emmigration brought successful lives to thousands of them. He failed to develop similar schemes to other parts of the Empire.

The Financial Crisis Barnardo's inability to stop accrueing debt, primarily because the expenses of new development and restoration work always exceeded the income of the Homes, but also because he was unwilling to restrain the numbers committed to boarding out and emmigration, all resulted in a huge debt. In addition he continued his differences with the C.O.S. and other organisations, had dissensions from his management committee, and lost some of his evangelical attachments. Eventually, after much negotiation, the Institutions were incorporated under a very long name, designed to de-personalise them and acquire a national character, but the public disregarded the manouvre, and the name, Dr Barnardo's Homes - and popular appeal - remained.

The Last Decade, 1895-1905 saw Barnardo holding rallies to celebrate Founders Day, and the Annual Helpers League meeting, accompanied with displays by the Barnardo Boys and Girls that filled the Albert Hall, giving full scope for his theatrical inclinations and organisational ability, as well as boosting the funds. He achieved Royal Patronage, but no honours, established the Watts Naval Training School, continued to expand his work, and, by 1905, with eight and a half thousand children still directly under his care, measures to keep the doors open included a letter to The Times with fourty eight wide-ranging and distinguished signatures requesting a Founder's Birthday Fund of £120,000 to lift from the Council their responsibilities. The author then traces a tenuous link from the Charity Organisation Society to the Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour, that prevented the obtaining of his personal support.

His high level of work as he approached sixty was accompanied by a quite disabling deafness and bouts of cardiac disability but his death on September 14th, 1905, was relatively sudden, and followed by nationwide mourning and recognition of his services.

The Legend and the Legacy The author repeats the evidence of the rapid consolidation of the Barnardo legend following his death, particularly by the roles of his wife and Marchant in the production of the Memoirs and Memorial Appeal respectively, and his early biographers, some of whom had worked with him. Tributes to many aspects of his work and personality are quoted, and summarised on page 304: 'his common sense, his amazing and untiring energy and his ability to follow his ideas through down to the most minute detail that made him outstanding both as an administrator and as a leader.' '..at the time of his death Barnardo was maintaining the largest children's hospital in London........of the seven thousand, nine hundred and ninety-eight children in care, over one thousand, three hundred were crippled or handicapped.'

Barnardo's originality in declaring an 'ever-open door' admissions policy for destitute children, regardless of religious affiliations, ethnic origin, and state of health, has high priority among his fundamental achievements, followed by his adopting and developing well organised and successful boarding out and emigration systems for many thousands of destitute children, the price of which was confrontations with the law and critics in public during his lifetime, and a bequest of heavy financial debts to his followers thereafter. When placed in the context of subsequent social history and philanthropy, some fellow philanthropists saw him as failing in his evangelism, but the appraisal of his work by the Local Government Board under Mundella in 1894 was very positive. The additon of the successful residential and specialised medical care for crippled and otherwise disabled children, and the remarkable Training Homes for Trades, Domestic Service, and the Navy, ascribed to Barnardo's organisation and enterprise, combined with the many thousands of homeless children cared for, and sent out into the country's families, or abroad, during two World Wars, all well before the 1948 Childrens' Act had committed Local Authorities to the care of needy children, establish Barnardo as a great and outstanding philanthropist.

How successful was Barnardo? Pages 312-13 give the author's positive answer to this question, having posed it, and succeeded to the enduring legacy of his work by joining the organisation from 1969 onwards; she was Chair of the Executive and Finance committee in 1972, and chair of Council from 1994-97.

The Appendix adds further detail to the evidence of Barnardo's deception over his assumption of the title of Doctor - the point at which this book may be said to have started.

Comment:This magnum opus started with the task of separating Dr Barnardo, the person, from Dr Barnardo's Homes, his life's work. It finishes with two well-defined concepts: Barnardo and Barnardo's. History will doubtless evaluate them further.

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