Case 3583

The family became known to me through a Bible woman at the time of the mother's death in Bristol in October 91- The father was then fulfilling employment with Hengler's Circus at Glasgow. He took back with him the boy of 10 leaving 3 girls & a boy boarded out at 5/- a week each - with a respectable person in the neighborhood of Bristol - in 6 months from that time his work came to an end & he cannot continue to pay for the children. I then wrote to his father a retired tradesman ([?]) asking him if some member's of the father's family would not adopt some of the children - The answer was that he (the grandfather) could manage to take the eldest girl but that his married children had families & could not afford to do anything - That is all the information I have been able to obtain. The distance to [Faverwell] being so great. The mother has only one surviving relation to my knowledge - an unmarried sister an officer in the Salvation Army in London. I sent the oldest girl on my own expense to [Faverwell]. The second girl M was placed by the Magistrate in an Industrial School in Bristol & the two youngest children A & M boarded out in good homes at 5/- a week - under my care - This has been going on for nearly two years all the time the father has been barely able to support himself & his boy in a wandering life all over the United Kingdom sometimes with one company some time with another. He is a most affectionate man I have witnessed him make the greatest sacrifice for the sake of his children & he manages whenever possible to send his boy to school & always to give him good food & clothes. Should A be accepted into the "Waifs & Strays" there is still W to be helped & it is not only because -- is a widower but because the nature of his work requires constant change. That man sees no possibility of his [working at home]