It has been proven now that Charlie Chaplin was a pauper when he was a child.
In a recently published document it is made known that he had had the last grade of food that was made available to him,the ‘fourth grade’ or the “number four” diet that was required for a person’s survival.
The popular belief and popular knowledge suggests that he worked in a workhouse that was available for youths at that time. But it was unclear whether he had his daily quota of square meals as a child. A hand-ruled page belonging to the ill-famed Victorian workhouse,dating back to ‘9th week Midsummer 1896′has been uploaded by The London Metropolitan Archives (LMA).
The revelation comes not as a shocker but a much anticipated hard truth, admitted by Chaplin himself after he received three Oscars for his stupendous contribution for silent cinema and also for his acting achievements.The document further reveals that Chaplin went through the most severe conditions and was made to survive simply on Gruel,the most basic diet. If we are to take note of the details provided in the recently published document, we may take into account that Chaplin was admitted to the workhouse in the British capital at the age of seven. He was admitted alongside his brother who was 11.
It is possible that he was housed alongside unemployed men and was made to work hard and fend for himself because of the sole reason being, his alcoholic father and his mother (committed to an asylum)abandoning him .