One of the best known of British orphanage founders, Barnardo began his career as a medical student in London with the intent of going to China as a missionary. While still in training, he assisted in medical work in the East London slums during an 1865 cholera epidemic. This experience convinced him to work toward the rescue of street waifs. He opened the East End Juvenile Mission in Stepney Causeway, London, in 1867, and this became the headquarters for the institution still familiarly known as the ‘Dr Barnardo Homes’. Homeless children taken off the streets were fed, clothed and given training so that they could later seek employment. Care was taken that they also received Christian education. The motto of the homes was, ‘No destitute child ever refused admission’. Barnardo believed, contrary to popular opinion, that environment was more important than heredity in bringing up children.
John Thomas Barnardo was a practising Christian, a born leader, and a man who devoted his life to alleviating suffering. By the time of his death in 1905 he had founded 112 district ‘homes’, and some 60,000 children had been rescued from the streets by his organization. While orphanages are a thing of the past today, the work of caring for orphaned children still goes on in his name.