Tom Thumb and Arthur

As regular readers to this blog will know we have thousands of entries in our admission books for children who came under our care. Many have similar sad upbringings; death of parents or belonging to families which could not afford to bring them up, at a time before any social welfare was introduced. The charity however, took in any child in need of aid and some had unusual backgrounds.

Admission Book 1892

Arthur for example, was admitted to the Boys Brigade Home aged 11, in April 1892. This service was located on Great Ducie Street where Arthur would have worked as either a messenger boy or as part of the shoeblack brigade. This would have been alongside school. Shortly before his father’s death in 1893 he was taken to London by one of the committee to be adopted by a lady travelling to Africa who wanted to take Arthur with her. There still resides his adoption agreement within the archive, which can be seen at one of our previous blogs. 

Adoption Agreement 1893

All of this makes for an interesting case but it is also worth noting the circumstances in which Arthur found himself within the Refuge care. Arthur was born in Manchester after his father had travelled to the city in the company of Charles Sherwood Stratton, more widely known as General Tom Thumb. Tom Thumb was a popular performer under the management of P.T Barnum in the mid nineteenth century and travelled widely around the world. His last appearance in the UK was in 1878 two years before Arthur’s birth. It is unknown what role Arthur’s father took in the performance arena but by the time of Arthur’s admittance he had been selling papers and portering within the city. Tom Thumb, of course, is well known and made a substantial fortune in his lifetime. His companion however, was not quite so fortunate resulting in his link with the Manchester Refuges and the sad circumstances in which he had to admit his son.