Rev. Canon Charles Jupp  and the Aberlour Orphanage
 


 The Reverend Canon Charles Jupp was ordained in 1868 and
became Rector of St. Margaret’s Church in Aberlour from
1874. He was warden and founder of an orphanage there inRev. Canon Jupp
1875 when he began a lifetime’s work with destitute
children.


The first home was a small four-room cottage on the banks
of the River Lour in Speyside for “four mitherless
bairns”.


 Canon Jupp was a fervent fund raiser and became known as
“The Beggar of the North” for his activities including
door-to-door collections and sales of unwanted clothes.
Within three years a new building was created which
accommodated 30 children. Seven years on the Aberlour
Orphanage had room for 100 children and continued to grow
despite the intervention of two World Wars.


Times changed however, and the use of large residential
homes ceased as children were placed in smaller, family
type, care homes. By the mid-1970’s the Aberlour Child
Care Trust, as it had become, had 11 children’s homes
spread across Scotland. Moving with the times the focus of
the Trust now is on developing services for disadvantaged
children and young people in Scotland.


 The Trust gives examples in its 1999 Annual Report of the
issues that in the 21st century confound attempts to get
families and children out of their despair:

  • “The parent who
    is too heavily in debt, too ill or who has too many
    caring responsibilities” that prevent a return to work.

  • “Children
    “…locked into a vicious cycle of low incomes, low
    aspirations and low achievement on housing estates where
    loan sharks and drug dealers flourish.”

  • “Their playground
    is a concrete posted area which is usually full of dogs
    mess and syringes, and housing is in an old tenament
    with no lifts….”

  • “Rent arrears
    locks them most firmly into unemployment and the poverty
    trap as they cannot afford to take the lowly paid jobs
    that are available”

  • “About “one in
    seven young people run away from home and stay away
    overnight … “

  • “The number of
    children diagnosed with autism has increased
    dramatically over the past decade…



So the problems for the children continue but thanks to
the likes of Rev. Canon Jupp there is an organisation
ready to help them.

 


Next:
William Quarrier and the Quarrier Homes.