The late 19th century was a time of social deprivation and great
hardship for many children. The Reverend George Staite summed up the inhumanity
of the era in a letter to the Liverpool Mercury in 1881: “…whilst we have a
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, can we not do something to
prevent cruelty to children?”
However, social attitudes made a very clear distinction between the
public and private lives of Victorians. Even the famous reformer Lord
Shaftesbury said to Staite: “The evils you state are enormous and indisputable,
but they are of so private, internal and domestic a nature as to be beyond the
reach of legislation.” Liverpool banker, Thomas Agnew, on a trip to New York in
1881, visited the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
He was so impressed by the charity, that on his return he set up a similar
venture in Liverpool in 1883, the 'Liverpool Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Children'.
All who have read Oliver Twist will know, Victorian Britain was a
pretty bleak place for a child not born into money. Widespread deprivation
meant children were often forced to work long hours in hazardous
occupations. Working in factories, down
mines and up chimneys. Poor diet, healthcare and sanitation coupled with
overcrowding also meant disease was rife and mortality high. Large numbers of
children were also orphaned and ended up living on the streets. Some were
forced into prostitution, while others sought shelter in sewer pipes.
Following the creation of the Liverpool Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Children (LSPCC). Other towns and cities began to follow Liverpool’s
example, leading in 1884 to the founding of the London Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Children (London SPCC) by Lord Shaftesbury, Reverend
Edward Rudolf and Reverend Benjamin Waugh. After five years of campaigning by
the London SPCC, Parliament passed the first ever UK law to protect children
from abuse and neglect in 1889. The London SPCC was renamed the National
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in 1889, because by then it
had branches across Great Britain and Ireland.
The NSPCC was granted its Royal Charter in 1895, when Queen Victoria
became its first Royal Patron. It did not change its title to "Royal
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children" or similar, as the name
NSPCC was already well established, and to avoid confusion with the Royal Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), which had already existed for
more than fifty years.
The Liverpool Society was based
at a building in Islington Square, which still stands to this day
Today, the NSPCC works in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the
Channel Islands. Children 1st – formerly the Royal Scottish Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Children – is the NSPCC's equivalent in Scotland. The
NSPCC's organisation in the Republic of Ireland was taken up by the Irish
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC), founded in 1956 as a
replacement for the NSPCC. The NSPCC is the only UK charity which has been
granted statutory powers under the Children Act 1989, allowing it to apply for
care and supervision orders for children at risk.
For more information on the work of the NSPCC today visit
