A medium-sized hard-covered black book of 335 pages, 15 chapters, extensive references for each chapter, a number of groups of interesting and relevant illustrations from the Barnardo Photographic Archive and a Foreword by HRH Diana, then Princess of Wales and President of Barnardo's. This fine book, written by an author of earlier books with sociological subjects and who was clearly aware of Gillian Wagner's two books on Barnardo's, worked closely with the Barnardo staff and both previous and contemporary Barnardo's children in the production of this book. Her easily-read account of Barnardo's family, childhood, conversion, and youth is based, with acknowledgement, upon the early version published by his widow, the most recent fully researched version by Gilian Wagner, and other previously published sources in between, all under the chapter heading 'Origins'. 'The Opportunity' summarises the previous accounts of his East London work up to the establishment of the East London Juvenile Mission at Stepney, and the Girls Village Home at Barkingside.

The Arbitration Affair is well summarised in chapter 3, which concludes with the official recognition of 'Dr. Barnardo's Homes'.

The following chapters are given to The Girls Village Home, Emigration, Boarding Out, and the care of Disabled Children respectively. Her method for each well-chosen topic is to start with Barnardo's own written account in such publications as the Annual Reports of his own time, mostly authored by him, to judge by their text and presentation, and to follow with other published sources before reaching observations and evidence obtained in situ. In this way A Start in Life goes from the original Stepney Home of the 1870s, to the Labour House of 1882, includes emigration to Canada, girls costumes, training of servants, the use of music in the Homes, and the establishment of Watts Naval Training School in Norfolk, for the training of boys to enter the Royal Navy. This is followed by a detailed description of the school derived from later staff, ex-residents, and external reports. She gives a similar treament to the Russell-Cotes Nautical School, founded in 1919, for the training of merchant seamen; the Boys Garden City and the William Baker Technical School then follow.

A Passport for Life starts with vivid extracts from Barnardo's dramatised accounts of his collection of 'street arabs' followed by his detailed reception procedures at Stepney, and elsewhere, with mention of their continuation well beyond his time. In this chapter the Home for Children, known as Babies Castle, figures in detail from Barnardo's own particular methods, through the period of conservatism, until modernisation and the time of her writing is reached.

Whose Children ? is a studied account of the changed role of homeless children in the 1950s and '60s from the institutionalised 'nobody's children' to the children of family misfortune who were the responsibility of the state, and required improved care by local authorities and such organisations as Barnardo's, and the relationship between the two is examined with respect to the practice of child care, and funding. It is here that the support of children within families as opposed to admission to institutions is emphasised. Similarly, the Years of Flux and The Rock Foundation describe the changes in Barnardos from basic Christianity and Evangelical fervour to a wider insitutional ethical position and emphasis upon family life.

The New Jerusalem is a somewhat odd title for a chapter starting with the removal of the Stepney Headquarters to Barkingside, and the wax effigy of Barnardo himself to Limehouse Library, especially when the great internal re-organisation and enthusiastic re-grouping around the family emphasis, and some new Special Care Homes and other plans were cancelled through a financial crisis, but the account moves on to the care of designated difficult children through specialised teamwork, project leaders, limited residential care, and placement with particular families, making in all a domestic image rather than a citadel, and emphasising this, as throughout much of her account, by reported interviews with both givers and receivers of this more individualised care.

Comment: This book is a widely-based account of child care in Barnardo's from the time of the founder to that of fifty years ago. It retains its thorougness and objectivity throughout, and well justifies its title.

Return to Barnardo Bibliography (click)