Did a Victorian charity save one of your family in 1869? Action for Children releases images of the first youngsters it took in to try and trace their ancestors
- Started as National Children’s Home, founded by Thomas Bowman Stephenson in 1869
- Rescued children sleeping rough and those in care
- Gallery of 30 images of some of the children between 1869 and 1919 available at: www.actionforchildren.org.uk/archive
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A charity set up to save vulnerable children from homelessness and the workhouses of Victorian Britain wants to trace the families of the first youngsters it took in – 150 years later.
Action for Children – which started life as the National Children’s Home in 1869 – has released images of some of the first children it rescued in the hope that their descendants will come forward to find out more about them.
Set up by Methodist minister Thomas Bowman Stephenson, it made sure that youngsters were fed, cared for and had somewhere safe to sleep every night.
As well as children sleeping rough, those taken into care included those whose parents had died or were living in abject poverty and wanted to give their children a better life.
The gallery of 30 images of some of the children who were cared for in the homes between 1869 and 1919 can be found online at www.actionforchildren.org.uk/archive.
These are the children the charity want to trace…
Left: Edward Maltby. Thirteen years old when admitted, father and mother dead. Left in the charge of a stepmother who constantly ill-treated him. He had slept on the streets for several nights. Went to Canada 15 May 1873, engaged by the Rev S Rose, to be employed in the Printing Office and board with Bob Self in the family, Mt Wilson fireman. Centre: Mary Ann Annett called ‘Annie’, admitted to Bonner Road, London, in 1871 Born 2 December 1863 an illegitimate child. Father’s name William Sale, by occupation silk dyer, has gone to America. Mother died 28 March 1867. Went to America with father, 1875. Right: Mary Anne Leigh 1871-1880 Bonner Road, London
Left: Annie Augusta Barfield, called ‘Augusta’, admitted to Bonner Road, London on June 8 1871 aged 12 months, then Edgworth, Lancashire, in 1876. Up for adoption in Leicester on June 15 1881, returned because ‘not suitable’ 22 August 1881. Centre: Billy Buster, Harpenden, Harpenden, 1918