Gordon Boys' Orphanage

Band and Pipers of the Gordon Boys' Orphanage
From an old postcard

When my grandfather was killed at Ypres in December 1917, some members of the family suggested that my father, who was the only boy in a family of girls, should be sent here to the Gordon Boys' Orphanage on the south side of St James's Street.  Fortunately, my grandmother would not hear of such a thing and he was brought up in a loving, though fairly poor, family.

"The block of buildings at the eastward end (of Caroline Place) was used as an Artillery Volunteers' Institute before the East Cliff Drill Shed was built; it was here that Mr. Thomas Blackman started one of his earliest philanthropic works, in the formation of the Dover Youths' Institute; and at a later date, in a tentative way, he opened a Seaside Rest for London Orphan Homes, which he continued on a more extensive scale in other parts of the town, from which noble effort developed his Gordon Boys' Orphanage in St James's Street." (J.B.J. 1907)

"The most important establishment (In St James's Street) is the Gordon Boys' Orphanage, founded by Mr. Thomas Blackman.  This, and the house above it, although having good frontages to St James's Street, were evidently built to command sea views, which they have interruptedly through Guilford Lawn, and the large addition that has been made to the Orphanage, skywards, gives it still greater advantage in that respect.  This Orphanage was established by Mr. Thomas Blackman, as part of his Dover philanthropic work, in memory of General Gordon, soon after his death in the Soudan; and the usual number of boys trained here is about 117.  Opposite this Orphanage are the workshops and offices of the Dover Gas Company, built on land where, prior to 1855, stood the residence of Mr. Peter Fector.  The kitchen part of the house still flanks the street." (J.B.J. 1907)