Celebrating 140 years
From humble beginnings, Action for Children has been working to help the most vulnerable and neglected children and young people in the UK for 140 years.
In 1868, a young Methodist minister, Thomas Bowman
Stephenson, arrived in London to take up his new post at a chapel
in Lambeth. Moved by the plight of children living on the streets,
he came up with the idea of a home for young boys, where they would
be safe from poverty and crime.
Together with two Methodist friends, Alfred Mager and Francis
Horner, Stephenson renovated a disused stable in Church Street,
Waterloo. The first two boys, George and Fred, were admitted to The
Children's Home on 9 July 1869.
The Children's Home reflected Stephenson's farsighted commitment
to family-style childcare, which would be disciplined but loving.
At a time when most orphaned or neglected children were sent to big
institutions like the hated workhouse or even prison, Stephenson's
establishing of small homes with a 'house mother' and 'house
father' and supported by donations was pioneering.
Within three years, girls were admitted to The Children's Home as
well as boys, and the Home had moved to larger premises near
Stephenson's new ministry in Bethnal Green, with a second home
established at Edgworth Farm on the Lancashire moors in 1872.
In 1878, a group of young women originally taken in as orphans
began a ground-breaking training course in childcare, and by 1892,
140 graduates, known as 'the Sisterhood' or 'the Sisters of the
children', were working full time for The Children's Home.
By 1908, the charity had grown to become the National Children's
Home and Orphanage (later the National Children's Home, and then
simply NCH), becoming an adoption agency in 1926 and expanding to
work outside the UK in 1969.
Today we are one of the UK's leading children's charities,
committed to helping the most vulnerable children and young people
break through injustice, deprivation and inequality, so they can
achieve their full potential. We also support work in southern
Africa, the Caribbean and Central America.
In 2008, we changed our name to one that better reflects what we
do and what we value - Action for Children.