The Death of Dr Barnardo

The idea that people who do great works of charity must be kind and soft-hearted is far wide of the mark. Thomas John Barnardo helped thousands of destitute children precisely because he was a power-hungry, aggressive, self-righteous dynamo, utterly determined to have his own way. Born in Dublin in 1845, to a Prussian father and an ailing Irish mother, Tom Barnardo was a sickly child who threw tantrums whenever thwarted, ‘found Christ’ in his teens and trained in London as a missionary to China, but his disdain for authority upset his superiors. He took some medical training at the London Hospital in Whitechapel, started teaching in a ragged school and found his true mission when he discovered the number of abandoned, homeless and impoverished children in the East End. To impress, he appropriated the title of ‘doctor’ without being entitled to it, and his pushiness enabled him to raise money which he put to excellent practical use in organizing foster homes and making sure his children got a good schooling and learned trades. The less promising ones were packed off to Canada in four shipments a year.