Dr Barnardo was born in Dublin,Ireland in 1845 and moved to London to train as a doctor.When he arrived to London, Dr Barnardo was very shocked to see  that children were living in such bad conditions and some were not getting a proper education.

When he heard that a cholera epidemic was spreading across the east end of London that was leaving many orphaned children and some dead,the young man felt an urgent need to help the poor things.

In 1867 Barnardo set up a  Ragged School so children of any age could get a basic education and one of his pupils,a boy called Jim Jarvis showed Dr Barnardo around the east end where he saw that children were having to sleep on top of roofs and in gutters.It affected the man so much that he decided to give up his medical training  and spent all his time helping children living in poverty.

Dr Barnardo opened up his first home for boys in 1870 but as well as putting a roof over their heads he also tought them lots of different jobs such as carpentry,metalwork and shoemaking to practise for a job in the future.

 In his home there was only a limited amount of children allowed but when he saw an eleven year old boy lying dead on the floor Barnardo vowed that he would never turn away a single child ever again.What an amazing man he was.

Dr Barnardo