The annual dinner to the boys and girls connected with the Refuges for Homeless and Destitute Children was held, on Tuesday, at the Boys' Refuge, Great Queen-street. The boys and girls, to the number of about 490, ate a plentiful dinner of beef and pudding. The young guests came from five different places—fifty-six girls came from the home in Broad-street; fifty-five from Ealing House; 160 boys from the Queen-street Refuge; 189 from the ship Chichester; and thirty boys from the society's farm at Bisley, the opening of which we have recently described. During the year 352 boys, mostly on their own applications, were received into the refuge in Great Queen-street, while waifs and strays have occasionally been brought in by the police. The able secretary, Mr. Williams naturally spoke in a grateful tone while reviewing the past. Sixteen years ago the work of the society commenced in a small room over a cowshed, in what Londoners of that day will remember as the St. Giles's Rookery. The destitute children then brought together in the temporary refuge numbered but a dozen—six boys and six girls. From that day to this the operations of the charity have widened. Judging from Mr. Williams's statement, however, the funds have not proportionately increased. He says that £2000 is needed to free the Bisley estate from debt; and he appeals to the public to aid so praiseworthy an institution.

Source: The Illustrated London News, No.1520—Vol. LIV, Saturday, January 9, 1869, p.27