Over 500 children passed through the schools in the first year. The effect of his efforts, it is said, was to clear the streets of young beggars and reduce the number of children held in prison by three-quarters - a phenomenal success story.

Guthrie was also involved with other good works including the Board of the Royal Infirmary; a Home for Fallen Women, the Blind Asylum and a House of Refuge. He was also involved with the legislation which in 1853 led to legal closing hours for public houses and closed them completely on Sunday. In 1862 he was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland.

Widely travelled throughout Europe America and Australia he was an acquaintance of Harriet Beecher Stowe and had fundraising assistance from Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale, of whom he wrote in 1861:

"I should have liked very much to meet Jenny Lind that I might personally thank her .. for the £50 she sang out of the public for our Ragged Schools, last time she was here."

There were, too, some floating Ragged Schools such as the "Akbar" an old man of war converted to a training ship. In the Tay estuary was the "Mars" and the "Cumberland" on the Clyde.

Guthrie retired in 1864 and died on February 23, 1873, in St. Leonards on Sea in Sussex, surrounded by his wife and eight of their ten children. He was interred in Edinburgh on Friday February 28, 1873, with his funeral procession watched by 30,000 bystanders. 230 children from the Original Ragged Schools attended. A fitting epitaph surely are the words of a little girl from one of his schools:

"He was all the father I ever knew."

Back to History of Children Main Page

Part One: History of Children 1200-1800
Part Two : The Industrial Revolution to Today
Part Three : The Dustbin Kids
Part Four : Reverand Canon Charles Jupp
Part Five : Quarrier Homes
Part Six : Dr. William Buchan
Part Seven : Thomas Guthrie
Part Eight : Neither Waif nor Stray, Book Review