Distinguished Churchmen and Phases of Church Work/Edward de Montjoie Rudolf
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Photo by Copyright The Rev. E. de M. Rudolf Brown, Barnes & Bell |
CHAPTER X
THE REV. E. DE M. RUDOLF
Founder of the Church of England Homes for Waifs and Strays.
RESCUING THE CHILDREN FROM DESTITUTION, IGNORANCE AND CRIME.
“All my heart grows as weak as a woman's,
And the fountain of feeling will flow,
When I think of the paths steep and stony,
Where the feet of the dear ones must go—
Of the mountains of Sin hanging o'er them,
Of the tempest of Fate blowing wild;
Oh! there's nothing on earth half so holy
As the innocent heart of a child!”
Chas. M. Dickinson.
“Suffer little children to come unto Me.” It was the Master's injunction to His followers after He had departed from Galilee, and had come into the coasts of Judæa, beyond Jordan. Many right-thinking people of all ages have sought to put that injunction into execution; but surely none have placed a broader interpretation upon it than the Church of England Society for Providing Homes for Waifs and Strays—the Society which has been instrumental in obtaining comfort, hope and a fresh start in life for nearly 10,000 children during the last twenty-one years.
The Society affords another instance of good work conceived and established by representatives of the laity. The founder, the Rev. E. de M. Rudolf, who was ordained Deacon by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1898, was born in 1852, the second son of the late Major Rudolf, who served under Wellington in the Peninsular War, and was present at Waterloo as aide-de-camp to Field-Marshal Blücher. For nineteen years Mr Rudolf was in Her late Majesty's Office of Works, acting as Private Secretary to the Earl of Rosebery and to Mr Shaw Lefevre. It is gratifying to record that the idea which finds effect to-day in the Waifs and Strays Society was during those years being gently nursed and gradually developed. Meanwhile, Mr Rudolf was conducting on Sunday mornings mission services in connection with St Ann's, South Lambeth, in the neighbourhood of the Vauxhall Gas Works, and these services and the Sunday Schools appealed most to the poorly-clad and under-fed children there abounding. The story of how the Society originated is told modestly enough. “Twenty-one years have elapsed since the superintendent of the Sunday School in one of the poorer districts of London had brought to his notice a case typical of hundreds of others daily occurring in all large cities—a father, suddenly removed by death, leaving a widow and seven children under eleven years of age to battle out an existence, with nothing whatever upon which they could regularly depend for support. The mother naturally objected to sacrifice her independence by entering the workhouse, and the result was as might be expected. From being the well-cared-for children of a respectable artizan, the little ones were, by the necessity for begging their daily bread, forced to swell the ranks of our waifs and strays, or street arabs, with an almost certain prospect of eventually drifting into the criminal class. As the little fellows had been brought up in the faith of the Church of England, the superintendent, as in duty bound, made every inquiry, in order to obtain admission for some of them into a Church Orphanage. Unless, however, he was prepared to pay a certain sum about £12 or £15 a year for each, which his means would not allow of his doing—there appeared to be no way of providing a home for them, where they would continue to receive the religious teaching to which they had been accustomed. The only course left open was to step outside the borders of the Church, by making application to some unsectarian institution, and consent to sacrifice for a few years the distinctive Church teaching which the children had hitherto received. The result was, that two of the little fellows were at once provided with a home without any payment whatever. This episode naturally awoke in the mind of the superintendent the thought that it was very strange, and looked almost like neglect on the part of the National Church, that there should be no central organisation or society to which parish clergymen and others could at once refer such cases with a certainty of a home being provided, without payment, for the orphan and the outcast. Certainly, the Church was in a far better position to do so than any other existing body or society, with the admirable parochial machinery at her disposal, coupled with the wealth and zeal of her members. At all events, there was not the least doubt that this course would not only benefit our little neglected ones, but also strengthen the hands of many a hard-working clergyman in a poor parish, to whom the widow and the orphan rightly look for support and comfort in their hour of trial.”
The idea was ventilated, and, singular as it may seem, the first subscription, the foundation-stone so to speak, of this benevolent organisation consisted of thirteen postage stamps sent by one of the superintendent's old scholars. The idea was to provide the Church with some machinery similar to that established by Dr Barnardo for dealing with outcast and destitute children of both sexes and of all ages. A committee of churchmen met in the house of Mr Mark Beaufoy, afterwards M. P. for Lambeth, and it was resolved, in the first instance, to obtain the sanction of the Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr Tait). The Rev H. B. Coward, Vicar of Holy Trinity, Knightsbridge; Mr Robert de M. Rudolf, of the War Office, Pall Mall, and Mr E. de M. Rudolf, are the only members of the original committee attached to the existing executive. The Archbishop, with commendable prudence, consulted both the President of the Poor Law Board and the Secretary of the Home Department as to the possible usefulness of a scheme like that suggested if carried out; and, after waiting for a period of nine months, a letter was received from the present Bishop of Winchester (Dr Randall Davidson), who was then acting as Dr Tait's chaplain, conveying the pleasing intelligence that the Archbishop had been assured by both the high authorities whom he had consulted that such a work would be a most useful adjunct to that being done by the Poor Law Board and the State for destitute and neglected children.
Obviously the work of the Society constitutes a very necessary phase of the Church's work. Moreover, it is capable of great extension. There are still thousands of waifs and strays needing to be taken from the gutter, so to say, and placed upon a higher plane in social and religious life, and the fact cannot well be lost sight of that in the promotion of this estimable cause much is being added to the future strength of the nation.
Mr Rudolf accorded the interview at the headquarters at Savoy Street, on the Victoria Embankment.
“Yes,” he said, “the Society was launched about twenty-one years ago, and I remember that the first year's income amounted to £700. A small home was opened at Dulwich for the reception of a few little girls. It was decided at the outset to have a family life for them in preference to the institutional, and therefore boarding-out with properly recommended foster parents was one of the methods for providing homes for these little ones. For the older children, small homes containing about twenty or thirty inmates were established, and, year by year, the work has grown, until now there are over 3000 children under the Society's care. In 1885 fourteen homes were scattered all over the country, and there were one or two industrial homes. By this time there are homes in every Diocese of the country, and two of those recently opened are in Northumberland and Cornwall. That will give some idea of how the Society covers the length and breadth of the land. In the case of these homes, certified as Industrial Schools by the Home Office, there is to a certain extent institutionalism, as industries have to be taught and proper premises provided. Two of these Industrial Schools are for boys. There are farms attached where the lads learn the elements of agriculture, and are fitted for colonial life. In Canada there are receiving homes, one for girls at Niagara, which was carried out for a great number of years by Miss Rye, who has now transferred it to the Society. The other is at Sherbrook, in the Province of Quebec, managed by a responsible committee, with the Bishop as president. To these homes boys and girls are sent who have been rescued from bad surroundings, and who, it is feared, if kept in England, would return to those surroundings after their training under the Society is over. Mind! the Society recognises most thoroughly that there is work for all respectable and properly-trained boys and girls in the mother country. You see, it is in extreme cases that emigration is resorted to, so that the tie may be boldly cut between the children and their bad old surroundings and disreputable relations.”
“How do you work in co-operation with the Boards of Guardians?”
“Well, besides working in co-operation with the State by having some of its homes certified as Industrial Schools, to which magistrates can commit children in danger of becoming criminals, the Society is working in co-operation with the Local Government Board and Boards of Guardians, by having Cottage Homes certified for the reception of pauper children. Many Boards of Guardians are arriving at the conclusion that the best training for a child is not in a workhouse, or even in large district schools, and are seeking to dissociate as far as possible the pauper children from the Unions, so that when they are grown up they will not return thither, and become adult paupers. I should also mention that our Society works hand in hand with the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which, as is well known, has no permanent homes of its own, and therefore has to depend upon the Waifs and Strays Society, and similar organisations, when it requires a permanent home for a child whose legal custody has been transferred from its cruel parents to others. Besides this general classification of homes there is a more particular one which depends upon the age of the children. Some are for children of school-age, and, in most instances, the inmates attend the national school in the village or town where the home is situated, and are to all intents and purposes of some larger family than usual, mixing with the children of their neighbours. They wear no uniform, and, in appearance, they are certainly not like charity children.”
“What happens after the children have finished their schooling?”
“When the children have done with school they are transferred to homes where they obtain industrial training, the girls being for the most part trained for domestic service, either as laundry-maids, housemaids or nursemaids, and the boys for various occupations, such as farming, printing, shot-making, carpentering, etc. There is always a great demand for the boys and girls brought up in these homes. Some idea of the seriousness of the servant problem may be formed from the fact that at one of these girls' homes there were no less than 674 applications received for young domestic servants in the course of one year, although there were only twelve girls ready to be placed out. Another class of homes is for girls and boys who are physically disabled through having been crippled by some accident, or, sad to relate, the wilful neglect of those who ought to have looked after them. There is one home near Leeds, for instance, where girls who are physically unfit for domestic service are trained to earn their own living by knitting hosiery by machine, and if they have some intellect and the use of their hands they can be taught a trade by which to support themselves in afterlife. In fact, several girls have already gone out from the homes, and are in regular employment in factories in various parts of the country.”
“Where are these homes for cripples situated?”
“At Byfleet, near Weybridge, there is the St Nicholas Home for young crippled children of both sexes, and this home, as well as two others for older cripples—one at Surbiton, the other at Croydon—are maintained almost entirely by the offerings of children in happier circumstances throughout Great Britain. There are something like 10,000 members of the Children s Union belonging to the Society, whose sole aim and objects are to support their crippled brothers and sisters in these homes.”
“What particularly interesting features of the work can you recall at the moment?”
“Here is one. To show that the children are not unmindful of what has been done for them by the Society in early years, many of those now in domestic service have enrolled themselves in what is called a Guild of Gratitude, undertaking to give and collect what they can towards the support of the children who are at the present time being sheltered as they were. As an interesting incident you might care to record that one of the first homes opened was in Old Quebec Street, Hyde Park. It was the result of an anonymous donation of £250, given by a lady who had been disappointed in her intention to purchase a picture described as ‘Waifs and Strays’, and priced in the Academy catalogue at the sum named. This home has since been removed to more commodious quarters in the Marylebone Road, affording shelter for thirty girls. Another very important part of our work is the establishment of homes for children rescued from immoral surroundings under the Industrial Schools Act Amendment Act. Of these the Society has three—at Shipton-under-Wychwood; Cold Ash, near Newbury; and the Beckett Home, Meanwood, near Leeds, intended to meet the wants of Yorkshire and Lancashire. The latter was built specially for the Society through the energetic exertions of the Ripon Committee and the liberality of friends in Yorkshire. These, I should explain, are havens of safety for the young people, from which they cannot be removed by unworthy relatives until they are of an age to take care of themselves. To give an instance of the industrial side of our effort, at Standon, in Staffordshire, the Society, aided by a special donation of £2000, has established a Farming and Gardening Home for eighty boys, and this is certified as an Industrial School. This, by the way, is under the management of a body of Governors, including the Bishop of Lichfield and the Lord-Lieutenant of Staffordshire. During the past twelve years it has trained over 350 boys in agricultural pursuits. The work here carried out is one of the most satisfactory departments of the Society's work, as it not only lays the foundation of a healthy and vigorous manhood, but enables the Society to send out its quondam waifs and strays with a practical training which ensures them a ready career of usefulness, either at home or in the Colonies. The accommodation at Standon, however, soon became quite inadequate for the ever-multiplying demands upon the Society, and a gift of thirty-six acres of suitable farm land at Walsham, Norfolk, was opportunely made to the Society by Bishop Wilkinson, and although there has been some considerable yet unavoidable delay, the Hall has at last been converted into an Industrial Home for lads to be trained for emigration. However, funds are still most urgently needed to complete the scheme. A Farm Home has also been established at Hedgerley, Slough, chiefly through the generosity of Mrs Stevenson of Hedgerley Park. She lets to the Society an excellent farmhouse and thirty acres of farm land at the nominal rent of five shillings per annum. The Bede Home for boys, at Wakefield, established in the autumn of 1892, is another home where gardening is taught. Other homes for boys are the home at Kingsley Hall, in the Chester Diocese; at Bognor, Bolton, Percy, Bournemouth, Bron Meirion, Cambridge, Chislehurst, Croydon, Dover, Frome, Hanley Castle, Highweek, Leicester, Lincoln, Natland, Reading, Rochdale, Rock Ferry and Seaforth. There are also Cottage Homes for small boys at Almondbury, near Huddersfield, Ashdon, Bowerchalke, Gislingham, Hunstanton, Knebworth, Messing, Pelsall and Warrington. The elder girls are provided for in the Fareham Industrial Home, which was taken over by the Society fifteen years ago. Since then the number of inmates has risen from seventeen to thirty-two, and the laundry business has increased considerably, the home having a good reputation for doing its work well and thoroughly. Another home of this class is Connaught House, Winchester, which was known as the Diocesan Home for Friendless Girls. The home for elder girls at Newark is the result of the liberality of friends in the Southwell Diocese. There are other homes for girls at Andenshaw, near Manchester, Bangor, Belbroughton, Brighton, Carnarvon, Cheltenham, Cullercoats, Darlington, Dickleburgh, Eastnor, near Ledbury, Exeter, Handsworth, Harrow, Hull, Kensington, Leamington, Lowestoft, Mildenhall, New Brighton, Marylebone, Penkridge, Shrewsbury, Southbourne-on-Sea, Torquay, Wavertree and Worsley. And there are Cottage Homes for little girls at Atherington, near Barnstaple, Hillingdon Heath and Mirfield.”
“What is the total number of homes, and how are they managed?”
“Well, there are altogether eighty-five homes belonging to the Society, situated in various parts of England and Wales. The clerical secretaries, besides preaching sermons and addressing meetings, pay occasional visits of inspection to the homes, which are managed by committees composed of the clergy and ladies and gentlemen of the district wherein they are situated; but they are controlled by the Executive Committee at the headquarters in London. At the outset I touched on another important undertaking which the Society is engaged in, viz., the boarding out of children of tender years in country villages, under proper supervision. There is no lack of homes waiting for them, nor of parish clergy and others who are prepared to accept the responsibility of seeing that the children are properly cared for; and the cost of their maintenance in these homes is considerably less than it would be if they were kept in an institution. Recently the Society has appointed a Lady Inspectress, who pays regular visits to the homes where the children are boarded out. We get interesting reports from time to time, and, by the way, some of these will show the progress they make under this arrangement.
“One lady writes:—‘Of one large party of little folks boarded out in our village, I can say that they are all bright, intelligent children, and are all thoroughly happy and well. Three girls and one boy have been in our choir for some time. The schoolmaster spoke in high terms of all who attend the day school…. The foster-parents are very fond of the children, and treat them quite as though they were their own in every way. As soon as they come to us we try to forget all their antecedents, and to make them believe they belong to us as much as our own village children, and there is no difference between them.’
“They are two typical cases, but here are a couple more rather different in character:—
“Another lady writes:—‘E. A. came to me in 1885, seven months old, a starved, crippled child; had evidently been kept very cold, and in a sitting posture. The legs were contracted so that the feet touched the body, but they could be stretched straight when held by the feet; but upon letting the feet free they sprang up to the body. I adopted the flannel clothing system, and that, together with good food and gentle rubbing, rendered her in a few months a straight, healthy child.’
“‘F. C. R.’ writes:—‘Another came to me in 1885, aged eight months, he was so terribly diseased that the doctors gave up all hopes of his recovery. He was sent to St George's Hospital, and was returned to me at the end of three months, a mere skeleton, and too weak to notice anyone. After careful nursing, however, he gradually gained strength and flesh, and is at the present time a robust, healthy boy, trots to school morning and afternoon, and is much liked by his teachers and schoolfellows.’
“You see in connection with our boarding-out system the physical advantages to neglected children are prominent. Yes, we have extended the system beyond Great Britain. In Ireland it was tried, in consequence of the appalling mortality amongst children in institutions, and the result was immediate and striking. We sometimes have cases of boys and girls who are beyond the age at which they can be properly trained. These are kept for a short time, provided with outfits, and then sent to sea, or domestic service, or emigrated.
“From those who have undergone our system of training, and gone out into the world to plod themselves, we get most encouraging and grateful letters from time to time. I recall several instances. There was one boy who tried to keep himself by sweeping a crossing, his nights being spent in a loft. His broom having been stolen from him, and his bread-winning in consequence becoming more difficult than ever, the Society went to his rescue, and placed him in one of the homes. After four years training, he was, at the age of fifteen, emigrated to Canada. A marked change came over the fortunes of that youth. Seven years after leaving England he wrote saying he was getting on very well, boarding with a family, the head of which is the organist and choirmaster of a church where the lad sang for three years and six months. ‘I left that church a month ago,’ he added, ‘and am now singing in, I suppose, the choir of the leading church in the Dominion, but still boarding with the same family. At present I get $6 or 24s. per week, upon which I am able to live comfortably and put a little by, a practice I learnt at the home.’ Having recalled the happy days spent in the home, he goes on—‘There's something in my throat keeps rising, and it is all I can do to keep it down…. Think of me as one of the boys who has endeavoured to improve himself in every way, not forgetting to spend the Sundays as I was wont to do under your care.’ Of course, many of these young men work themselves into comfortable positions in life, and being sober and provident, marry, and settle down respected members of the community. In the case of the girls, some have come to us from the workhouse, undergone training, left to enter respectable situations, and are now respectably married. Not a few of our boys have entered the army or navy, and several have been wounded whilst fighting for their country. Yes; comparisons between past and present condition in the case of our young people invariably form pleasing contrast.”
“And increased support is needed to cope with the demand made upon the Society?”
“That is so,” was Mr Rudolf's response. At the present time the Society is responsible for the maintenance and upbringing of over 3000 children from the age of three months to sixteen years. At the time when the last return was made, there were in the Society's homes 971 boys and 1151 girls; in other Church homes and institutions, payments being made by the committee for the support of the children, there were 52 boys and 152 girls; while boarded out with communicants of the Church of England in the country, under proper supervision, there were 392 boys and 300 girls. During twenty years homes were found for nearly 9000 children. Nearly 700 cases were accepted during the year 1901. Yes; you may say the new century has dawned, presenting a larger field than ever for our exertions, and we need all the sympathy and practical help which the public can afford us. Our receipts for the general fund last year only amounted to £46,116—not nearly enough for the work before us.”
“Now a word about the character of the cases you do take in. A lot of careful discrimination must be necessary?”
“To begin with, the voting system is not adopted, nor has personal or other influence the slightest weight in the deliberations of the case committee. The most destitute, and therefore the most deserving case, has the best chance of being accepted; in fact, the great majority of the children under the Society's care have been so friendless that they have been accepted as entirely free cases. Wherever friends are interested who can afford to help the Society, it is only natural that the committee should look to them to make some monetary recognition of the Society's benefits. The maximum payment requested is 5s. per week, but many cases are received for a much smaller payment. No two cases are exactly alike, hence great care and discrimination are necessary. The committee meets once a fortnight, but very urgent cases—such as that of a child absolutely without shelter or in grave moral danger—are taken into the homes forthwith. Naturally, in this matter of selection, certain principles have to be adopted. The cases that commend themselves to the committee as deserving of serious consideration are those of total orphans, children who have lost one parent, illegitimate children, cases of cruelty, children in immoral surroundings, deserted children, crippled children, and pauper children. With regard to the illegitimates, the greatest possible discrimination is required. On the one hand, it is right in certain cases to help a young woman to redeem her character by taking charge of her child (thus giving her an opportunity of entering domestic service) on condition that she makes a payment out of her wages for the child s support. On the other hand, some would not deal with cases of illegitimate children at all, preferring to allow the sins of the parents to be visited on the children by relegating the latter to the workhouse. But by the adoption of such a principle the mother would have to enter the workhouse as well, and would be seriously hindered in securing an opportunity for amendment. It may be added that a case of this nature is not accepted unless there is reasonable prospect of amendment on the part of the mother. The obvious danger of offering a premium to sin, by making it easy for parents to get rid of their children, must be faced and prevented, and experience showed that when a child was taken, promises of payment were broken, and the mother not infrequently disappeared when she had got rid of her child. I know people are very sensitive as to the admission of this class of child; however, the Society feels that it is dealing on sound principles.”
“But what of children deserted before being handed over to the Society?”
“With regard to that type of case, the Poor Law Guardians alone have the power to put the requisite machinery in force for tracing the parents, and therefore, if the desertion be of recent date, the committee recommends that the child should be placed temporarily under the care of the Poor Law Guardians in order that they may use every effort to trace the parents. Should, however, these efforts fail, the Society treats the application as though it were one relating to an orphan. You will see that our Society is endeavouring to deal with every class of child requiring help, with the exception of the blind, deaf, dumb, weak-minded and imbecile. For these there appears to be sufficient special provision already; but should this not prove to be the fact, it would be quite within the province of the Society to establish special homes for such cases.”
“How are the cases reported to you?”
“Through the local committee—more generally through the parochial clergy, who are attached to the local committee. The parochial clergy afford us considerable help, too, in other respects. For instance, in one year offertories were received from 2,790 churches, and from ninety college, school, and foreign chapels, whilst considerable sums were received as proceeds of sales of work, concerts, and meetings of various descriptions. A large portion of our income is obtained from annual subscriptions and donations.
“Yes; striking testimony to the value of our work comes from clergy and laity alike. I will give you two examples. The present Archbishop of Canterbury, speaking at the twentieth anniversary of the Church of England Waifs and Strays Society, said, ‘I have been looking into the Waifs and Strays Society, and I am quite satisfied that its work is thoroughly good, and that it is exceedingly well organised. The children are got together through the clergy, and the clergy are, as it were, the officers of the Society; sometimes, perhaps, they are not aware they occupy that position, but the Society is getting more and more known, and without any solicitation whatever, they are becoming aware that, by applying for help, they can get the means of rescuing children that need rescue so terribly rescuing children from the beginnings of careers of ignorance and sin and afterwards crime, and restoring them to their natural positions as respectable members of the society in which they are born. The clergy are willing enough to assist in this, for it falls directly within the proper scope of their own ordinary duties. Is it not the duty of those who belong to the Church and who live in this country to take their share in rescuing little creatures and doing for them what their parents ought to do, what some cannot do, and what some parents will not do? It is a duty to rescue all that we can reach, whether they be children or grown-ups.’ On the same occasion the Earl of Leven and Melville delivered himself after this wise, ‘It was only as the children were brought up well that they could hope to diminish the number of criminals. He had had a very practical experience of the Society, which he would relate for the benefit of those who might like to follow his example. About ten or twelve years ago he had some money which he wished to devote to reducing the evils arising from over crowding in great cities, and he looked around to see what could best be done, and after much consideration he came to the conclusion that the right end to begin was with the children. On making inquiries he found that if a boy was delicate, consumptive, or an idiot or a little criminal, there were a good many places where he could go, but that if he were a healthy boy there was very little provision for him. It appeared to him that, looking to the future of the country, the healthy boys were just the ones that ought to be taken care of. Up to that time he had not had the pleasure of Mr Rudolf's acquaintance, but a friend who knew something about the Society recommended him to apply to him. He went to Mr Rudolf, and on his recommendation spent his small sum of money in building and furnishing a home, and asked the Society what they would undertake to maintain the boys for. He was astonished to find that for £15 a year those boys were educated, clothed, fed and trained up into good and useful citizens. Why, it was not the price of a new frock, or of a bicycle or a dozen or two of wine! Surely everyone must acknowledge the enormous claim which those children had upon them, when for a small sum like that they could save them from becoming criminals.’”
“Then, in conclusion, upon whom does the brunt of the work fall?”
“The Executive Committee. Of this the Bishop of London is President, and Lieut.-Gen. R. W. Lowry, C.B., the Chairman. The members comprise clergymen, magistrates, lawyers, business men, civil servants, C.O.S. workers and ladies, who have made it their special work to provide and care for the little ones of the Church's fold. The accounts of the Society are audited fortnightly by a chartered accountant. The expenses of obtaining income are slightly over nine per cent. of the gross receipts, whilst those connected with administration are under five per cent.”
The author left Mr Rudolf convinced that he and his Society are grappling, and grappling successfully, with the most serious of social problems, viz., the putting down of crime, and that by direct means, through the agency of the Church. Their maxim is “prevention is better than cure,” and their hope that future generations will benefit.