THE NEW KNIGHT.

Feilding Star, Volume I, Issue 275, 25 May 1907, Page 4

THE NEW KNIGHT.

Sjr John Kirk, who has just been Knighted, was born at Kegworth, Leicestershire, in 1847, spent part of his boyhood in France. At the ago of sixteen years he became secretary to the Pure Literature Society, assistant secretary to the Bagged Schools Union in 1873, and in 1879 secretary to that institution and the Shaftesbury Society. Ho organise.* Pearson's Fresh Air Fund, Christmas Guest Guild, Sir W. Treloar's Christmas Hampers, aiid other voluntary efforts for the relief of the poor, particularly children and child-cripples. He edits the Ragged School Union Monthly. To John Pounds, shoemaker, of Portsmouth, is due the original idea of "ragged schools," the first attempt* to deal with the neglected children of the poor other than as criminals. By constant agitation Mr Pounds enlisted the sympathy and aid of influential phifan- ! thropists. In 1847, the late Dr. Guthrie issued his "Plea for Ragged Schools," and opened one on Castle Hill, Edinburgh, which has not only been the parent of many others, but of the more modern industrial achools controlled by the State. Dr. Guthrie, whose sympathies and activities were very wide, esteemed the institution of the ragged schools as the great work of his life. The late Lord Shaftesbury was deeply interested in the work, and assisted in extending it to the great cities of England. In 1844 the Ragged Schools Union was established. One of the early developments of the union was the Shoeblack Brigade. Up to the time of the first great exhibition (1851) there were no street shoeblacks in London, but to supply the needs of foreign visitors, accustomed to this convenience abroad, the union organised the brigade, by which many lads were enabled to earn a living and supply a want. The fee was a penny, and there was much mirth in regard to an odd halfpenny at the end of the first year's balancesheet, which it was explained had been paid by a one-legged man. The Ragged Schools Union still carries on its work, with such modifications as the experience and the social changes of half a century have shown to De desirable.