The Presbyterian Orphan and Children’s Society is a children’s society. It is the aim of the Society to help families and children of our Presbyterian Church in Ireland, by giving them the financial resources, to enable them to live their lives with dignity and with a sense of purpose. The main aim is to help children in need and the Society has been doing this successfully for 140 years and hopes to continue to do so for many years to come. It is good to place the Society in its historical context and see how it has evolved throughout the twentieth century.
This short history can never tell the individual stories of over 40,000 children who have been helped. It may however provide a glimpse of the past and an insight into the present work. Here are some quotes from applications in the mid-nineteenth century:-
“Father killed – mother died of consumption – friendless.”
“Father and one child died of typhus fever. Mother in bad health and
obliged to attend to infant. No-one else to work.”
“Child deserted by mother and cast for support on poor relatives.”
“Father killed at lime-works – mother striving hard to keep
her children out of the Workhouse”.
These give us some idea of the type of cases which came as applications to the Society in its infant years and they show some of the problems which the founders of the Society faced.
The Presbyterian Orphan and Children’s Society was founded in 1866 and was to have a Presbyterian as opposed to an interdenominational basis and was to be geared more toward the provision of families for orphans rather than the setting up of a Home. However, at its inaugural meeting the Very Rev. W. Johnston, D.D., who was the Society’s first Honorary Secretary, stated that, “whilst the committee have resolved to adopt the plan of placing the orphans in families, as the system approximating most to the Divine model, and, at the same time most conducive to economy, in deference to the wishes of not a few friends, they have resolved to receive donations for the establishment of an institute, where the orphans can be educated and enabled to support themselves”. The meeting had recognised it as a duty of the Church to look specially after its own orphans; and knowing the necessity which existed for some provision for the education and support of the orphans of the church, had looked to this service being provided at some time in the early years of the Society.
In 1866 the Society had 175 elected to the roll, of whom 27 had lost both parents. The Society thus formed, and having embarked upon its work encountered, as with any organisation, a number of teething problems. There were difficulties in arrangements made for orphans with families, there were problems with the elopement or drunkenness or re-marriage of women whose children were on the roll of the Society. There were also problems relating to the supervision of orphans and caretakers. Regular attendance at school was required and a number of annual reports record the numbers struck off the roll of the Society for “irregular attendance”. There were problems concerning children who were deserted. However, the principal problem, in spite of the tremendous financial success of the Society in its early years, was shortage of money to meet the need. And so in its early years the Society faced many problems, some of which are unfortunately as prevalent if not more prevalent today as they were then. However, in other ways the circumstances faced then were very different to those of today. It was the time of “the poor law”, “the workhouse”, “consumption”, and the numerous deaths of orphans.
The Society not only supported orphans but took a keen interest in trying to place them in good positions. This led to the foundation of the Johnston Memorial Orphan Training Home in 1887. This Home was to be for girls who would be trained for positions as domestic servants and in 1884 “40 orphan maidens applied for admission to the Home”. On 2 July 1887 the foundation stone was laid for the Home in Hopefield Avenue and the Home was opened in 1888, free of debt, built, furnished, enclosed, and grounds laid out at a cost of £4,193.3s.5d. The name changed in 1911 to the Johnston Memorial School, and after World War 11 in 1946, the School moved to 5 Green Road. The School was managed from the beginning by a Ladies Committee and although the basis of the idea of a Home in 1888 was the training of girls for domestic service, it was broadened out in later years to include provision for domestic science, academic, clerical and other studies which were suitable to the girls “according to their age, ability and inclination”. The Johnston Memorial School closed in 1985 in the wake of the change in emphasis in childcare policy employed by the DHSS. It had served its purpose admirably in its time but times had changed and so had the Society.
The Society had changed markedly with the advent of the Welfare State. Voluntary bodies found themselves in a role which was complimentary to the state’s role of welfare provision; but friction was to result, a major issue being the Society’s ability to meet the needs of its families without them suffering loss of state benefits. This difficulty continued until recently.
The type of people helped today has changed with the changing times. Today there are very few orphans on “the roll” because there are very few orphans. Nowadays the Society helps various types of families. However it would be wrong to think that the Society only supported orphans until recently. Single mothers were receiving grants in the 19th century! Suffice to say that with modifications and with adaptations, the Society has moved on from strength to strength. Throughout the twentieth and into the twenty first century, despite changes in its own personnel, its ways of helping, and in its relationship with the state, the Society has continued to help many thousands of children, this being made possible by very generous subscriptions from both congregations and individuals.
At present around 800 children within around 400 families are receiving financial help from the Society. Last year around £450,000 was distributed in the form of grants to families in our care.
There are a number of types of families we are able to help today. We help orphan cases but the majority of situations we help are not such cases. Sometimes it is a parent whose spouse has died and who is left to look after a child or children. Sometimes it is a wife or a husband who is separated or divorced. It may be a single mother. There are also some other circumstances in which we are able to help, e.g. where there is a parent who is disabled, in long-term hospital care or prison. Literally hundreds of letters throughout the years from grateful parents, show the relevance and the practical nature of the work of the Society. It is true to say that many children have had, and are continuing to have, their prospects in life enhanced by the care which the Society has given and continues to give.
The Society is both relevant and practical today, but will it continue to be so in the future? As with any future event nothing is certain but the Society hopes to continue its grant system which has served it well and has made provisions for many children through the years. Unfortunately the future will hold heartbreaking events for many – many people will continue to die and leave their partner alone to bring up their child or children and many children will face difficult circumstances. Many marriages will continue to break up and leave a lone parent to bring up a child or children; again many children will face difficult circumstances. Many girls will continue to become pregnant outside marriage and will need help. There is no question as to the continued need for our help. The Society will continue to adapt to the situations in which it finds itself and seek to show Christ’s love in the most meaningful way possible both now and in the future.