Valuing the child: philanthropy, health, and leisure in London childhood – The Children’s Country Holidays Fund c.1880-1939.

This thesis explores the role of philanthropy in moral education of working-class school-aged children through leisure, who were living in London during the period 1880-1939, and the value of children to society. The focus is a philanthropic organisation, the Children’s Country Holidays Fund (CCHF) established in 1884. It argues that while the perceived value of the child to society changed, Victorian class-based distinctions and attitudes towards the poor remained entrenched in the framework of the CCHF. The research aims to shed light on a neglected aspect of the history of the emergence of the philanthropic children's holiday movement. The CCHF was one of a plethora of new organisations developed during the late Victorian period, promoting rational forms of recreation as a means of self-improvement. Religious philanthropy played an important role in late Victorian Britain - promulgating particular values in terms of class, age and gender. Societies working with children were philanthropically financed by those in society who perceived leisure as a means of instilling good habits of moral character in the young urban working-classes. The CCHF was the largest known organisation of its kind to send poor working-class children to stay with hosts in the countryside for a fortnight at a time during the school summer break.
The analysis of the archival sources of the CCHF revealed a disturbing pattern of child accidental deaths and child sexual abuse occurring during these holidays throughout the period studied, some of which resulted from a lack of adult supervision and poor choices of hosts provided by the charity. In total, fifty-one such deaths and thirty-nine cases of child sexual abuse were identified during the study period through textual documentary sources including committee minutes and inquest reports and articles on the Fund published in both local and national newspapers.
This finding raised questions about the paradoxical relationship between the increasing societal value ascribed to children through social policy towards their health, welfare, education and leisure outside the classroom, and the apparent negligence shown towards their safety by the organisation which sent them on trips. To send children away on holidays was not without its risks. The exploration of risk as a social construction emphasises the changing nature of the concept of risk and childhood experience of freedom, and the intricate balance between perceived benefits and potential hazards associated with sending children away on such holidays.
This thesis contributes to the historiography of philanthropy by highlighting the complex role of philanthropy in the moral education and leisure activities of working-class children outside the classroom. It exposes the overlooked risks and abuses faced by children during these holidays and reveals the persistence of class distinctions within the philanthropic framework of the Children's Country Holidays Fund, an innovative and significant organisation in the field, and a lens through which the value of the child can be explored.