Victorian & Edwardian Schoolchild

'What is our purpose in this Bill? Briefly this, to bring elementary education within the reach of every English home, aye, and within the reach of those children who have no homes.' So said W. E. Forster when introducing the Elementary Education Bill in the House of Commons in 1870. The Victorian and Edwardian Schoolchild describes the effect of this Bill on the lives of the vast majority of Engl...