Benjamin Waugh
Runwell Terrace
Southend-on-Sea
Benjamin Waugh was born in !839. His father was a saddler, they lived in Settle, Yorkshire.
Benjamin attended theological college in Bradford and became a congregational minister in London . Benjamin married Sarah Boothroyd in 1865, they had twelve Children
This was the time of great hardship. Waugh was very critical of the terrible poverty and cruelty many children had to endure. This often led them into crime for which there was no proper criminal justice. He sought to change the workhouse conditions, the Poor Law and the criminal justice system’
He wrote The Goal Cradle, Who Rocks It? Hoping to ease the lot of the children who turned to crime. He served on the London School Board for several years.
Benjamin was editor of a religious magazine, and in it published some of his own hymns .He founded the London Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in 1884.The first chairman was Lord Shaftesbury. This later became the NSPCC. Five years later, Waugh was its chairmen and Queen Victoria its Patron.
In 1905 He retired to Southend-on-Sea. Where he died in 1908