Thomas Barnardo: A great legacy
– posted June 17th, 2009 by Elizabeth Browne No comments
Our charity auction in aid of Barnardo’s at last week’s iQ Boot Camp raised a total of €1,555 for the charity. We’d like to thank everyone who took part.
Where it all began
Thomas Barnardo was born July 4th 1845 in Dame Street, Dublin. He finished school aged 16 with few academic successes to his name, but his life was soon to change.
In 1862, aged 17, Thomas decided to become a medical missionary. After being introduced to Hudson Taylor (a pioneer missionary to China), he volunteered and went to London for training.
An outbreak of cholera shortly after he arrived introduced him to the suffering of poor people: 5,548 died in the epidemic caused by poor sanitation and drinking water in East London.
Finding his calling
Thomas gave up his plan to go to China as a missionary, and stayed in London to set up a ragged school in Limehouse, London, where poor children could get a basic education – in what had been an old donkey stable.
One evening, a boy at the mission took Thomas on a tour of the East End, showing him children sleeping on roofs and in gutters. This so affected him, he decided to devote himself to helping destitute children.
Homes for the homeless
In 1868, banker Robert Barclay agreed to support Thomas’s first home for homeless children. That same year – still aged just 23 – Thomas began training at the London Hospital in Whitechapel as a full-time medical student.
Putting students everywhere to shame
During the 8 years it took Thomas to qualify as a doctor, he:
• Earned a small income from writing and preaching
• Bought Edinburgh Castle, a large building in Limehouse
• Turned this into a coffee house and mission church that could house more than 3,000
• Received important support from rich evangelicals
• Married Syrie Elmslie - they later had 7 children, 3 of whom died young
• Opened the first in a network of ‘Ever Open Doors’ - the first all-night homeless refuge
• Adopted the slogan ‘No destitute child ever refused admission’
• Started his own magazine, The Children’s Treasury
In those 8 years, Thomas also set up a photographic studio - children were photographed when they first arrived at the homeless refuge, and again months later after they had recovered from their experiences of living on the streets.
These ‘before’ and ‘after’ cards were sold in packs of 20 for 5 shillings or singly for 6d. each – a great way to publicize and raise money for Barnardo’s work.
Thomas finally qualified as a doctor in 1876.
Later, Thomas set up a council of trustees to govern charity policy and look after its money. As the charity grew in fame, it received more and more donations, and by 1878, Thomas had established over 50 orphanages.
Thomas’s legacy
When Thomas Barnardo died in 1905, aged 60, his charity ran 96 homes that looked after more than 7,998 children, with over 4,000 more boarded out, and 18,000 sent to Canada and Australia.
At his death, tributes poured in from across the globe, and the world’s press united in praising a man who had transformed the lives of nearly 60,000 children.
We’d like to thank you for helping to continue his work.
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