ABSTRACT
After a history of neglect, the children of the poor were to be among the first ‘children of the nation’. The term comes from Sir John Gorst’s The Children of the Nation: How Their Health and Vigour Should Be Promoted by the State (1906), which was representative of the new thinking in Edwardian Britain about social problems in general, and in particular about child welfare. Important political, professional and business interests were undecided about priorities for the new century, and it was by no means agreed that all working-class children were in fact ‘of the nation’. However, this was certainly the view of left-wing Liberals, radical Tories, of which Gorst was the leading example, orthodox philanthropists and social theorists, such as those affiliated to the Charity Organisation Society and, of course, the socialists. On the other hand, agreeing that children were of the nation was one thing; a common understanding as to what this meant in terms of social policy was something quite different.
