Benevolent Institutions - Law Commission - Ministry of Justice

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Reference Extent of repeal or revocation
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Philanthropic Society’s Act 1806 24 The whole Act.
(46 Geo.3 c.cxliv)
Philanthropic Society’s Act 1823 The whole Act.
(4 Geo.4 c.18)
Philanthropic Society’s Act 1848 The whole Act.
(11 & 12 Vict. c.cix)
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Philanthropic Society’s Acts 1806, 1823 and 1848
1. This note proposes the repeal of three obsolete 19 th century enactments
relating to the Royal Philanthropic Society. 25
Background
2. In 1788 a group of wealthy individuals formed a charitable society “for the
Purpose of providing for the Maintenance, Education, and Employment of poor
Children, the offspring of convicted Felons, and of children who had themselves been
engaged in criminal Practices”. 26
3. This society became known as the Philanthropic Society (“the Society”). The
Society, based initially in London, opened a number of homes to house children who
would otherwise be on the streets begging or stealing. In 1849 the Society founded
the Farm School at Redhill in Surrey for children who were sent there either
voluntarily by their parents, or by the courts as an alternative to prison. The Farm
School became an approved school 27 in the 1930s. The Society ceased to be
responsible for running the school in 1973 and focused its activities in communitybased
child care projects in Kent, Surrey and Wandsworth.
4. The Society still continues its work as a registered charity. In 1997 it became
known as Rainer in recognition of one of the Society’s 19 th century benefactors. 28 In
24 The short titles to these Acts were conferred by the Philanthropic Society’s Act 1848, s 2.
25 Formerly the Philanthropic Society. The Society was granted royal status in 1952.
26 Philanthropic Society’s Act 1806, preamble.
27 The system of approved schools appeared in the United Kingdom pursuant to the Children and Young
Persons Act 1933. They were schools to which young persons could be sent by a court, usually for
committing offences but sometimes because they lacked parental control. The system of approved
schools disappeared as a result of the Children and Young Persons Act 1969 (which established new
regimes for such children).
28 In 1876 Frederic Rainer, a volunteer with the Church of England Temperance Society, provided the
Society with a donation to help provide rescue work for young people in the police courts.
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