| AdminHistory | St. Thomas's was built in 1837, to help ease the population growth in the mother parish of St. Dunstan's. The Vestry's role was to supervise public services, including the administration of poor relief. Sir John Trollope (1800-1874) was appointed President of the Poor Law Board during the short-lived Conservative administration in 1832.
Trollope was a landowner and MP for a rural constituency in Lincolnshire. The press hoped that he would conduct this brief 'in a more homogeneous manner' than might be expected from people with little awareness of how the system worked in rural areas (1).
In a parliamentary debate, he highlighted problems emanating from the Poor Law system. Medical officers employed in Poor Law institutions had made representation following concern about overcrowding and the lack of proper classification of inmates. The atmosphere in some workhouses was deemed prejudicial to infant health. Girls discharged into service with local firms were expected to undertake the workload of a fully experienced housekeeper (2).
'Mr. Layard' is Sir Austen Henry Layard (1817-1894), a recognised expert on eastern antiquities, and sometime Liberal MP. He and Trollope were parliamentary contemporaries. Layard disapproved of the government's conduct of the Crimean War. He criticised the 'great error in courting the alliance of Austria' (3), which heightened the risk 'of England being entangled in this policy' (4). The country was 'on the brink of ruin' (5), unless the government was prepared 'to do away with the system of favouritism' (6) which characterised military inefficiency, the country would not be satisfied.
Layard held many prestigious appointments, such as First Commissioner of Works and Public Buildings (1869) and as Ambassador to Constantinople (1877) (7). The world-famous collection of Assyrian antiquities which Layard discovered, and dispatched to London during his travels, is housed at the British Museum.
Sources of information
1. 'The Right Hon. Sir John Trollope': p.3/4 in Illustrated London News, Saturday, 23rd November 1852.
2. 'Poor Law Continuance Bill': Hansard, 24th May 1852 in apl.parliament.uk
3/4. 'The Vote of Credit - The War': p.10/11 in Illustrated London News Saturday, 29th July 1854.
5/6. 'The New Administration': p.18 in Illustrated London News, Saturday, 24th February 1855.
7. 'Our New Ambassador in Turkey': p.6 in South London Chronicle, Saturday, 17th April 1877
References 1 and 3-7: British Newspaper Archive. |
| CustodialHistory | Immediate Source of Acquisition
Transferred from the Local History Library, 1995; original provenance not known.
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