History of the NSPCC

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Child abuse - an invisible social evil

The late 19th century was a time of social deprivation and great hardship for many children. The Reverend George Staite summed up the inhumanity of the era in a letter to the Liverpool Mercury in 1881: "...whilst we have a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, can we not do something to prevent cruelty to children?"

Liverpool banker, Thomas Agnew, on a trip to New York in 1881, visited the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Has was so impressed by the charity that on his return he set up a similar venture in Liverpool in 1883, the Liverpool Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

Reverend Benjamin Waugh

On 8 July 1884, The London Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was established. Lord Shafestbury was appointed as president and the Reverend Benjamin Waugh and Reverend Edward Rudolf as joint honorary secretaries.

A children's champion

Waugh was to be significant in shaping the Society's future. After witnessing the levels of deprivation and child cruelty in Greenwich, London where he lived, Waugh's urgent priority was to draw public and government attention to the plight of children.

By 1889 the London Society had 32 branches, known as aid committees, throughout England, Wales and Scotland. Each branch raised funds from donations, subscriptions and legacies to support an inspector, who investigated reports of child abuse and neglect.

At the 1889 annual general meeting the Society changed its name to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children . Queen Victoria became Patron and Waugh was appointed as director.

Early campaigning

The first Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act was passed in 1889. This was largely the result of five years' vigorous lobbying by Waugh and his supporters. The NSPCC continues to uphold and develop the campaigning tradition established by its founder, acting as an independent voice for children and young people.

The NSPCC has helped more than 10 million children since our inspectors first began their work within the London community in the 1880s. But although our society is now radically different in many ways, the emergence of new and different social pressures means that today's children need the help of the NSPCC as desperately as children did in late Victorian England.

Download a copy of our booklet History of the NSPCC .

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You can watch a video presentation of 120 years of the NSPCC as part of the afternoon presentation from FULL STOP Live!, called 'Imagine you had no one to turn to.'