An 11-year-old boy is sent to sea to earn his fortune. For ten years he works as a shipbuilder in Massa- chusetts, before mounting debts force him to return to England. Back home, a reversal of fortune turns the penniless sea captain into a wealthy philanthropist who establishes a home to save thousands of abandoned children on the streets of 18th-century London.
This is the tale of Captain Thomas Coram, founder of England's oldest children's charity, Coram Family.
Coram Family has worked with disadvantaged children since 1739. In those days poor children were dying at an alarming rate with epidemics such as typhus, dysentery, measles and influenza, and families affected by the Gin Craze.
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