WAUGH, BENJAMIN (1839-1908), English social re former, was born at Settle, Yorkshire, on Feb. 20, 1839. He passed some years in business, but in 1865 entered the congregational ministry. Settling at Greenwich he devoted himself especially to children. He served on the London School Board from 1870 to 1876. In 1884 he founded the London society for the prevention of cruelty to children, of which he was honorary secretary. It was owing to information obtained by him that the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 was passed. He secured a clause giving magistrates power to take the evidence of children too young to understand the nature of an oath. In 1889 he saw his society (of which he had been made director the same year) justified by the act for the prevention of cruelty to children, the first stepping stone to the act of 1908. (See CHILDREN-PROTECTIVE LAWS.)
In 1895 a charter of incorporation was conferred on the society, but in 1897 its administration was attacked. An inquiry was demanded by Waugh, and the commission which included Lord Herschell, vindicated the society and its director. Waugh had given up pastoral work in 1887, and he retained his post as director until 1905. He died at Westcliff, near Southend, Essex, on March 11, 1908. Waugh edited the Sunday Magazine from 1874 to 1896. His The Gaol Cradle, who rocks it? (1873) was a plea for the abolition of juvenile imprisonment.
See R. Waugh, Life of B. Waugh with introd. by Lord Alverstone (1913).