Case 9621

T

Male

T's mother drank heavily and this had caused her marriage to break up. T's father contributed 6 shillings and 6d per week for the maintenance of his wife and son. The child remained in his mother's custody. An Inspector for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children [NSPCC] visited the child and mother in September 1902 and found the woman drunk, T. neglected and poor living conditions. The bed was a sack filled with rotten straw. With the father's consent T. was removed to Mrs Ramsay's Home. His father paid 20 shillings per month for his care through the NSPCC. T's mother was taken to a Home by a Police Court Missionary but discharged herself and started drinking again worse than before. T. was not able to live with his father because he lived with his own parents and T's grandmother was too elderly to care for the child. T. was described as "bright and intelligent". On 28 May 1903 T. entered the Worsley Home, Manchester. In January 1910 he was transferred to the Rochdale Home and in January 1914 he was sent to the Heywood Home, Heywood, Lancashire. The file contains an extract from a letter about T. dated 1913. A doctor had predicted that he would become completely deaf, he already had poor hearing. It was stated that he was not learning anything at school and the writer of the letter [from the Worsley Home?] wonders what can be done with him. On 14 March 1914 T. was placed in a situation at the Roydal Grammar School, Lancaster.