John Passmore Edwards

Victoria Home for Crippled Children

History page 2

	The cost of the maintenance of the Home was met by the Ragged School Union but the people of Bournemouth were ready contributors, providing £100 per year whilst local ladies gave of their time, teaching, visiting or generally amusing the children. Sometimes the children were invited out to tea in Bournemouth homes and many gifts of clothing or cakes were received. An annual concert was held in the Bourne Hall with the proceeds going to the Home.
An additional wing was added in 1905, opened by the Lady Ashley, providing accommodation, on the ground floor, for children unable to be taken upstairs to the original dormitories. Previously the ground floor playroom had been converted into a dormitory for these children and a temporary playroom established upstairs
In November 1916 the winter gales wrecked the beach shelter that had been the gift of readers of the "Sunday Companion" A new appeal was launched by the magazine to replace the shelter the following summer.
Recognising the need to provide an education during the lengthy stays, part time teachers had been appointed but at the end of 1916 the Home was registered as a "residential school for crippled children". At the beginning of 1917 Miss Amy Bradbury was appointed as the first full time teacher. The School log for 18 Jan 1917 records that there was no school during the afternoon in view of the opening ceremony by the Lord Bishop of London,
At that time the Shaftesbury Society had more than 7000 names of handicapped children on their register, from 5 to 10 years of age, suffering from "tuberculosis or other diseases of bones or joints, crippling from infantile paralysis or accident".
The Home and school continued to grow, an open air School House being erected in 1920 and in August 1925 the adjacent property, Hope Lodge, was purchased, to be used entirely for sleeping quarters, increasing the accommodation from 30 to 52 children. Miss Gertrude B Dyer replaced Miss Bradbury as head teacher in 1919 and remained at the school until her retirement in 1944. Some 1168 pupils had passed through the School during her time. Classes were often conducted out of doors or on the beach and in September 1931, "38 of the best walkers were taken to Studland Bay".
Charles Irwin was one of the many children who passed through the home during this time. His account does not, however, paint the rosy picture given in the official files. The account of a young woman who went to work at the home in 1932 similarly paints a more rigorous life for both staff and pupils.

© Dean Evans 2004

January 7, 2007