State Children's Aid Association Explained

State Children's Aid Association or State Children's Association was a British children's rights organization established in 1896 to support the welfare of pauper children.^{[1] [2]} The association was active from 1897 until 1937.^[3] Its headquarters were in London, at 61 Old Broad Street, E.C. in 1899 and at 117 Picadilly, W.1. in 1923.^[4] The main objects of the association were to obtain individual treatment for children under the guardianship of the State, and to obtain for the State further powers of control over neglected children. It agitated for better treatment of the many thousand orphan and other children dependent upon the public and advocated for doing away with barrack schools.^[5]

The organization was established in 1896 by Henrietta Barnett and her sister's husband, Dr Ernest Hart.^[6] Its first chair was Hon. Lord Herschell. Serving on its governing committees in 1897, in addition to Barnett and Hart, were Sir William Hart Dyke, the Bishops of Hereford and Lichfield, Sir James Crichton-Browne, Sir Henry Thompson, and Dr. Thomas John Barnardo.^[7] In 1899, Arthur Peel, 1st Viscount Peel served as the chair, Alfred Fowell Buxton as Hon. Treasurer, and Mrs. Francis Rye as Hon. Secretary.^{[8] [9] [10]}

The State Children's Aid Association issued its first annual report in April 1898. Some of the association's committee records are held by the LSE Library Archives and Special Collections.

Notes and References

1. Book: Charity Organisation Society . The Charity Organisation Review . 1897 . Longmans, Green and Company . London . 184 . 10 September 2023 . en.
2. Web site: State Children Aid Association - Archives Hub . archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk . 14 September 2023.
3. Book: Mess . Henry Adolphus . Voluntary Social Services Since 1918 Volume 193 . 1998 . First published 1948 . Routledge . 123–124 .
4. Association News . The Education Times . May 1923 . 75 . 721 . 197 . 14 September 2023 . S. Birch . en.
5. Book: Labour-copartnership . 1897 . At the office of the Labour Association . London . 203 . 3 . 3 . 14 September 2023 . en.
6. Book: Cooper . John . The British Welfare Revolution, 1906-14 . 2017 . Bloomsbury Academic . 9781350025738 . 212–214.
7. Poor-Law Children . British Medical Journal . 27 February 1897 . 1 . 542 . 14 September 2023 . British Medical Association . en.
8. Book: Warwick . Frances Evelyn Maynard Greville Countess of . Progress in Women's Education in the British Empire: Being the Report of the Education Section, Victorian Era Exhibition, 1897 . 1898 . Longmans, Green . 10 September 2023 . en.
9. Book: Mitton . Geraldine Edith . Hubbard . Louisa M. . Janes . Emily . The Englishwoman's Year Book and Directory for the Year ... . 1899 . F. Kirby, Publisher . 212 . en.
10. The State Children's Aid Association . The Lancet . 23 April 1898 . 1133 . 10 September 2023 . J. Onwhyn . en.