19 September: Boreham on Dr Barnardo

A Maker of Men
This is the anniversary of the death of Dr. Thomas John Barnardo. When we remind ourselves that about 150, 000 young men and women have passed out from the homes that he established for the waifs and strays of the English slums; when we attempt to conjure up the family groups that these graduates have since gathered about them; and when we reflect that the majority of these Barnardo proteges knew the doctor intimately, it becomes obvious that this commemoration must be far more than a mere academic or historic one. In every part of the world there are Cabinet ministers, clergymen, doctors, solicitors, manufacturers, directors of mercantile houses, and the like, who cheerfully acknowledge that, but for Dr. Barnardo's succour and direction, they would never have had the shadow of a chance. And, in the same way, there are thousands of good women in all the professions, and adorning happy and prosperous homes, who can never think of Dr. Barnardo, and the service that he rendered them, without the deepest emotion. In June, 1921, the Federal Parliament of Australia adjourned as a mark of respect to the memory of, the Hon. James Page who had held several Government posts, including that of Chief Whip; and who was never tired of telling how, as a small boy, Dr. Barnardo had rescued him from the gutter and made a man of him.

Dr. Barnardo was one of the most idealistic and one of the most realistic philanthropists of all times. His idealism was rooted in his sense of the divine; his realism was rooted in his sense of the human. After making a somewhat ludicrous parade of his scepticism as a youth, he was caught in the sweep of a great religious revival in Ireland in 1862. Convinced, even then, that religion, to vindicate itself, must be not only pietistical but practical, he at once cast about him for some means of helping his fellowmen to better things. Falling under the influence of Dr. Hudson Taylor, he conceived the idea of becoming a medical missionary in China and embarked upon a course of study with that end in view. But a staggering discovery almost on his own doorstep relegated the thought of China to the dim background of his consciousness.

Squalor That Becomes The Seed Plot Of Crime
Almost as soon as he had commenced his medical studies, a violent epidemic of cholera raged through the more squalid districts of East London. With a number of his fellow students, Barnardo devoted himself to the task of stamping out the plague. People were dying in hundreds; the conditions were loathsome beyond description; the horror of it stamped itself indelibly upon Barnardo's sensitive mind. The pestilence having been conquered, he continued to interest himself in the people whom he had been struggling to save. He started a ragged school in a donkey shed. He soon found out that most of the urchins came to his class, not to be taught, but because he provided a fire and a certain amount of comfort. In closing the rude building one cold night, he found one boy fast asleep in a corner. "Here, you young rascal," he cried. "Wake up and run home to your mother!" "Ain't got no mother!" "Well, then, scamper off to your father!" "Got no father neither!" "Well, go to your friends at home, wherever you live!" "Ain't got no friends and Oi don't live nowhere!"

Impressed by the ring of sincerity in the boy's voice, he asked him if there were many children in the same plight. "Heaps of 'em, mister!" replied the boy. Barnardo asked where they all slept. At first, the boy would not say, but, plied with a little hot food and drink, he undertook, later in the evening, to betray one of the communal resting-places. When everything was quiet, he led the way in the darkness, through an evil-smelling yard, to a walk from which bricks had been extracted here and there to provide footholds. The boy scaled the wall like a cat, reaching back every now and again to assist his friend to mount. And when they arrived at the top, the young medico beheld the iron roof smothered with sleeping boys, none having the slightest protection from the bitter cold but the rags and tatters that they had worn all day.

Awakening Of A Nation To Cry From The Abyss
At a great meeting at the Agricultural Hall, at which young Barnardo was supposed to be speaking about China, and his prospects of evangelistic service in that vast land, he found his mind too full of his recent discoveries in the slum to talk of anything else. Vividly and with evident emotion, he described the miserable boys huddled on the iron roof. The story was given prominence in the Press next morning; and among those who read it with amazement and incredulity was the great Lord Shaftesbury. The Earl at once sent for Barnardo, and, frankly avowing his scepticism, challenged the student to conduct him to any spectacle of the kind. Barnardo had no difficulty in satisfying him. Lord Shaftesbury could scarcely credit the evidence of his own senses. "Sir," he exclaimed, grasping the young man's hand, "you have set your heart on missionary work in China. That is a noble ambition. But it seems to me that you have found your life-work here!" And so it proved.

Encouraged by the Press, and by many people of high standing, Barnardo set to work. From the most modest beginnings, his activities grew and expanded until their ramifications became worldwide. Taking as his motto the words: "No Destitute Child Ever Refused Admission," Barnardo retrieved thousands of the most hopeless outcasts in the country, training them for useful avocations and settling many of them in distant colonies. Six thousand Barnardo boys served in the Great War and still more in the second. He died at sixty, having rescued sixty thousand waifs and transformed them into useful citizens.

This anniversary is a day to honour the memory of one whom the London "Times" described as one of the greatest public benefactors whom the Empire has ever produced.

F W Boreham

Image: Dr Barnardo