London's Forgotten Children by Pugh Gillian

Author:Pugh, Gillian
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2012-02-03T16:00:00+00:00

VI

THE END OF AN ERA: THE FOUNDLING HOSPITAL IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Whilst the nineteenth century may have been a period of relative calm and continuity in the affairs of the Foundling Hospital, the twentieth century was to see significant change. There would be two moves for the Hospital and the children; the sale of the London site; the gradual shift from residential to family based care; a broadening of focus in the charity’s activities; two changes of name; and the establishment of a separate charity to care for and display the art treasures. This Chapter looks at the changes during the first half of the twentieth century. The following two Chapters describe first-hand experiences of growing up in the Hospital, and look at the current activities of what is today known as Coram Family.

The Foundling Hospital Report and Accounts for the year 1913 illustrates the situation of the Foundling Hospital just before the outbreak of the First World War. This document is nearly identical in layout, and in much of the content, to annual reports produced during most of the nineteenth century and up until 1943.

The report starts with a summary of the history of the organisation, quoting at some length from the Charity Commission Report for 1836 which was noted in the previous Chapter. Readers are then reminded of the rules of admission:

• Children can only be admitted upon the personal application of the mothers

• No application can be received previous to the birth of the child, or after it is 12 months old

• No child can be admitted unless the committee is satisfied, after due enquiry, of the previous good character of the mother, and that the father has deserted it and the mother, and that the reception of the child will, in all probability, be the means of replacing the mother in the course of virtue and the way of an honest livelihood

• No money is received for the admission of children. [Their italics].

The statistical summary of children for whom the Hospital was caring during 1913 gives an interesting breakdown of children entering and leaving the Hospital, and conveys a similar pattern to other years:

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