General Chat

this subject really interests me but I am at a loss to know how to progress (other than appoint a researcher in Canada) with information that might be available on the Canadian Records but as yet is unavailable on the internet.

Perhaps Janey might advise me, if she's still around.
It would be appreciated.

Jac xxx

forgot to say that relations in Canada, who are direct descendents of Home Children have shown absolutely no interest whatsoever in their forefathers - so drawn a blank there.

I understand the Austrailan prime minister has made an apology on behalf of the Parliamnet and the Australian people, to the "forgoten children" who were sent to Australia and, who were often neglected or abused in institutions and used as cheap labour on many Australian farmsteads.........Mmmmm, did he ask for forgiveness, because an apology without forgiveness is nothing in my eyes.

I think i remember reading about a similar apology made by the Australian government, to say they were "SORRY" for the terrible wrongs committed to the Aboriginal children.

So it seems Gordon Brown is also going to make an apology for Britons part in this disgraceful episode, I wonder if he will beg for forgiveness as well.

In my eyes, an apology is an admission that a wrong has been done and is also an appeal to the injured party to forgive for what was done to them.
Its one thing to say "We're sorry" but without asking for and receiving forgiveness I feel is worthless.

your probaly right rose at it being five shillings a week would have been a lot of money in 1935 she boarded other children over a period of time as well as my dad and his brother

PollyPoppet I would think it was 5 shillings a week given the date, my mum started work around 1935 and earned 9 shillings a week.

thanks rose
have just talked to my mum about it and the woman my dad was boarded to got 5 shillings per child not sure if it was a for day or a weeks board

CtCat,

no of course no gov involved knew that any abuse would ever take place,,,,they were sent and accepted as part new stock for which a better life would be provided,,once there in some of these countires is where they were sadly let down.....wether our gov or that countires gov knew what was happening is another matter......,,,,,some were placed in orphanages on arrival and spent their life in childrens homes.....remember back then the child had no voice.!!!

The cost to keep a child here UK in* a home* was abt £5 per day,,,in Australia it was 10shillings!!!so sening them was less of a burden on gov expenses.!!

On the other hand lots went to loving homes ,had great lives.hundreds were placed into the wrong hands.

Lies and decite to both parents and children was paramount.also many parents were told their child would be returned after a couple of years.

Hi PollyPoppet , terribly sad story I hope someone will be able to help with information for you .

Caththecat, I know very little myself on this topic, but it seems to me that though the government of the day can't perhaps be held accountable for the treatment received by the children as 'individuals' placed in different homes etc ( though personally I think it should be as they had a duty of care to those children which they did not fulfill once they had left this country) , they certainly CAN be held accountable for misinforming those children and their parents, and for not making some effort much much sooner to rectify that situation?

Hi Rose
Hi All
This makes my blood boil for my own personal reasons
an appology is to little to late for the years of suffering this caused so many children and their families and the suffering will be with them till their dying day not something that wll ever be taken away by a sorry
my father and his brother were nearly sent to canda in 1936 as they were in a poorhouse with their mum and sister she left taking the girl with her and the boys were left we believe her intentions was to try and get sorted then get them back but in the period of a couple of months the boys were boarded out to a couple who had a farm in this country and told their mum had died this we found to be a lie as in doing my research i found she had remarried and had a son in 1938 but had died after childbirth my father and his brother suffered terrible abuse from this woman and her husband and made to work the farm they were 7 and 5 and i know it causes my dad a lot of pain to talk about it and she was paid for the privilage of doing this and they were not the only children she boarded and abused i know their grandmother and mother tried to see them but was refused and i suppose in 1936 there wasnt a lot of places to go and get help to try and see your children or granchildren we are still trying to trace his sister as we are not sure what happened to her after the mothers death in 1938 wether she stayed with her step father or would have been put into a home maybe she was sent abroad on one of the ships in trying to find her i have come up with nothing in this country appart from her birth cert

Althought it may not be totally relevant in this thread - the UK Government is now cooking up ideas on how to stop the destitute, the poor, the maligned (and the terrorist) from coming here.

Funny old world, don't you think?

SRS,

The Child Migration Charity put this forward to Tony Blair when he was PM.and it was put on the back burner,,more or less saying present gov couldnt be held accountable for past gov actions,in reality that is true,,but back then a formal apology would have hekd more water than another 20years down the line,


These *children * now adults...have been helped in the past 15/20 years establish family links in UK,,but it comes with restrictions and a once only paid trip!!!!!..and because of red tape data protection in UK/AU/Canada it has taken years for birth information to be released......

The fault still lies with the country who put forward this proposal in the first pace,,,,,,,,UK..

Why Brown is lagging behind Mr Rudds statement just goes to show how lagging this country is....we should have been the first to make a humble move.-years ago.

Wasn't there a drama about this subject several years ago when it became a subject of debate? Sorry I cannot remember what it was called. I wonder why the Government didn't apologise then.

I have also met one of these forgotten children. She is too young to be a WW2 evacuee, so the scheme must have continued at least into the 1950s, or even later.
I wonder whether Barnardos is a church run thing. I think not, but orphanages run by various churches were responsible for many outrages. Still, younger members might like to know that what was conventional theory of child discipline has changed dramatically in 50 years.
I am aware of many outrages on ordinary schoolchildren by the Christian Brothers orders. The strap, beating, humiliation were the standards of the times.

I have read and heard of a number of British children who were told before they left England, that their families had died in air-raids. They were brought to Australia and it wasn't until later in life, when they traced their families, that they often found their parent/s were still alive - or had been alive for many years after they were shipped off to 'safety'. I'm talking about WW2 here. The parent would tell them that they too, were told the child had been 'lost' in the air raids. Someone had to be responsible for those lies.

Dr. Barnardo's homes was one of the biggest exporters of children from Britain to Australia and Canada. Over the years, they have been singularly unhelpful to families trying to find their Home Child, and Home Children trying to find their families.

Home children commonly became cheap household/farm labour rather than becoming members of loving families. My mother's Uncle Charlie was one. Father died in the 1890s, then mother in the early 1900s, and he, the youngest of several children, arrived in Canada in 1905 at age 11 and appears on the 1911 census as a farm labourer. He never had any other contact with his family in England, and did go on to prosper as a farmer in Canada, marrying my grandmother's sister. His children all emigrated to the US, and my mum and her cousins recently had what will doubtless be their last get-together. Charlie never had any other contact with family in England - but as a result of name notes I have plastered around the censues at Ancestry (he gave his parents' names when he married in Ontario), I've just heard from a descendant of his mother's brother.


The Home Children really started being sent to Canada at least in the mid-1800s, not the 1900s. At that time, immigration to Canada was virtually wide open, for white Europeans at least, and especially British. There was very little in the way of immigration control. If mother England wanted to send its poor children to Canada, there would not have been much Canada could have done about it -- but the fact does remain that the policy was viewed with approval here, and the influx of a pool of young cheap labour was a benefit to Canada, economically and demographically.

I don't actually think that churches as such had a lot of involvement; it was more poor relief / social services agencies doing the work. The churches here have enough to answer for with the residential schools First Nations were sent to, and other abuses of children in schools.


This is the search page for the Government of Canada child migrant database:

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/home-children/001015-100.01-e.php

The records are not complete, especially for later years (privacy legislation would certainly prevent disclosure in the case of people who might be living). But it's very often possible to find a missing child there. Some did return to England upon reaching adulthood.

The main Barnardo's staging centre for new arrivals was in Peterborough, Ontario, at Hazelbrae house. A memorial group that works on assembling historical info works out of a church there:

http://fourinfo.cioc.ca/record/PET0058

http://www.peterboroughmuseumandarchives.ca/publicbarnardo.htm

(I think "desolate" should have been "destitute", but desolate probably isn't far off.)

Barnardo Children

In the late 1800s, Dr. Thomas John Barnardo sent desolate British children to Canada to “better” their lives. At first strictly orphans were sent, but later this included any child that he felt would benefit from life in a new home.

The first Barnardo children arrived in Canada in 1884. Peterborough became one of the main Canadian distribution centers between 1889 and 1922. The children stayed in Hazelbrae House until placed in homes. Prominent Peterborough resident George A. Cox donated this building to Dr. Barnardo’s cause.

Some children were placed in loving homes, while others experienced hard lives. Sadly, many siblings were separated, with brothers or sisters even sent to different countries.

1912, No.807

(with a photo album)




Oh, and actually, many children were not accounted for. Apparently, parents who had had to place their children in what they intended as temporary care would return to find them ... gone. And the parents were never told where.

What ever church or church run charity was involved at the time......couldnt just send multitudes of infants,young children and young adults without the gov backing or seal of aproval from each country....so in the end the Gov's said yes a good idea,!!!


Each young person had to be accounted for.

It looks as if this country suffers from incompetent Governments in every generation.

As ever, the Church picks up the 'slack' on a charitable basis. A little inaccuracy often saves a lot of explanation.

My understanding of it is that certain churches had a lot to do with it and the government left it up to them. I may be wrong, but I believe that any apology should be forthcoming from the churches also.

see also Janey's thread on General ,

MIGRANTS
CHILD SLAVERY COMES TO MIND

nobody had any right to send theses kids anywhere

T,
I met one of these children about 3 years ago when he was over and memories will never fade,he was 7 half ,along with a half brother and sister were shipped out to AU,,were seperated going to live thousands of miles apart from each other,,as a man,found the sister had died,and the brother adopted,.he wasnt,,and it was only a couple of years before his ever first visit here,,he found his brother,who has since died and was living in Canada...
He has been reunited with UK relatives,

Lots had a happy life.went to great families. made a good life for themselves.....but it was the deceitful way they were lied to. including a parent!!.made to feel it was all their fault they were taken to other families thousand and thousands of miles away,.