Thomas John Barnardo (4 July 1845 – 19 September 1905) was an Irish, Christian[1] philanthropist and founder and director of homes for poor and deprived children.

He was the fourth of five children (one died in childbirth) of John Michaelis Barnardo, a furrier who was of Sephardic Jewish descent, and his second wife, Abigail,[2] an English woman and member of the Plymouth Brethren.

Sometime before his first marriage in 1827 to Elizabeth O'Brien, John Michaelis emigrated from Prussia via Hamburg to Dublin, where he established a business; he married twice and fathered children with both wives.

[7] In 1870, Barnardo was prompted to form a boys' orphanage at 18 Stepney Causeway after inspecting the conditions within which London's orphaned population slept.

[9] Significant provisions were available to occupants; infants/younger children were sent to rural districts in an attempt to protect them from industrial pollution, and teenagers were trained in skills such as carpentry and metal work, to provide them a form of basic financial stability.

[11] In addition to the various homes and schools established by Barnardo and his wife, Sara Louise Elmslie, a seaside retreat and hospital were also founded.

[13] In June 1873, Barnardo married Sara Louise Elmslie (1842–1944), known as Syrie, the daughter of an underwriter for Lloyd's of London.

Barnardo died of angina pectoris in London on 19 September 1905,[12][15] and was buried in front of Cairns House, Barkingside, Essex.

[17] At the time of the Whitechapel murders, due to the supposed medical expertise of Jack the Ripper, various doctors in the area were suspected.

[18] Rowlands proposed that Barnardo's lonely childhood and religious zeal led him to kill prostitutes to clear them from the streets and to encourage them to place their children into his care.

There is no evidence that Barnardo committed the murders,[19] and critics of this theory have also pointed out that his age and appearance did not match any of the descriptions of the Ripper.