ABSTRACT
In August 1836 Wilderspin gave up his career as an itinerant educational missionary and accepted an engagement with the Corporation of Liverpool to organise the infant departments of its two non-denominational schools. He was probably chosen by the Corporation as much for his belief in nondenominational education as for his expertise in the infant sphere. With participation in the newly-formed Home and Colonial Infant School Society closed to him, the Liverpool opening offered a chance to put his principles into action in a new and exciting experimental situation.
