Did Victorian charity save one of your family in 1869?

A CHARITY set up to save vulnerable children from homelessness and the workhouses of Victorian Britain wants to trace the families of the first youngsters it took in – 150 years later.

Action for Children – which started life as the National Children’s Home in 1869 – has released images of some of the first children it rescued in the hope that their descendants will come forward to find out more about them.

Set up by Methodist minister Thomas Bowman Stephenson, it made sure that youngsters were fed, cared for and had somewhere safe to sleep every night. As well as children sleeping rough, those taken into care included those whose parents had died or were living in abject poverty and wanted to give their children a better life.

The gallery of 30 images of some of the children who were cared for in the homes between 1869 and 1919 can be found online at www. actionforchildren.org.uk/archive.