A study of the dietary of necessitous children during the 19th and 20th centuries within the framework of educational and social reforms

This thesis is concerned with an investigation of the feeding of poor and needy children during the 19th and 20th Centuries and prior to the introduction of the School Meals Act in 1904. A brief review of their feeding prior to the 19th Century indicates that some attention was given to this problem, but the recipients were selected for various reasons - ability as a chorister for example, and the quality and quantity of food depended on the financial position of the College, charity school or workhouse. Accounts are included of the feeding of children in difficult but all too common situations during the 19th Century - pauper apprentices, ragged schools, street children, agricultural gangs, workhouses and the children of agricultural labourers. All the accounts demonstrate the unfeeling and uncaring attitudes of those in wealthier stratas of society, and their perverted sense of values, and there are examples of legislation designed to protect these children which were either ignored by employers or half-heartedly enforced. [Continues]