Coming of age in uniform: The Foundling Hospital and British army bands in the twentieth century

Abstract

This article examines the experiences of former pupils at the Foundling Hospital who served as British Army regimental bandsmen. It is based on interviews conducted by the author, published written accounts and documentary evidence in the Foundling Hospital Archives. The formative experience of institutionalisation at the Foundling Hospital is considered in the first section. The second section describes the transitional process of leaving the Hospital and enlisting in the Army. The final section discusses institutional experiences in the Army and how these affected the former pupils' life choices. It will be argued that the Hospital's authoritarian regime placed significant limitations on the children's social horizons and produced a strong orientation toward institutional life.It will be shown however, that the experience of serving in Army bands at a time of tremendous social change allowed former pupils featured in this study to make alternative life choices which short circuited this institutional bias.

Review of periodical literature published in 2010

“…In both Cultural and Social History and Gender and History Levine‐Clark considers the gendered nature of receiving relief from the state: in the former exploring the impact of masculinity and perceptions of ‘breadwinning’ on access to unemployment relief; and, in the latter, how men's breadwinning duty to support wives and children reflected concerns about Britain's imperial role. Gledhill argues that early experience of institutional life by children often led to choosing life in other institutions after release, through a case study of the Foundling Hospital and the British Army band regiments. Woolley presents a case study of common lodging houses in Oxford from 1841 to 1901, the way in which they came to constitute a ‘problem’ and how this was tackled by the authorities.…”