![Barnardo boy ploughing C 1900](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Barnardo_boy_ploughing_C_1900.gif)
Home Children was the
child migration Child migration or "children in migration or mobility" (sometimes more generally "children on the move") is the movement of people ages 3–18 within or across political borders, with or without their parents or a legal guardian, to another country ...
scheme founded by
Annie MacPherson in 1869, under which more than 100,000 children were sent from the United Kingdom to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa. The programme was largely discontinued in the 1930s, but not entirely terminated until the 1970s.
Later research, beginning in the 1980s, exposed abuse and hardships of the relocated children. Australia apologised in 2009 for its involvement in the scheme. In February 2010
UK Prime Minister
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern pr ...
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chance ...
made a formal apology to the families of children who suffered. Canadian Immigration Minister
Jason Kenney
Jason Thomas Kenney (born May 30, 1968) is a Canadian former politician who served as the 18th premier of Alberta from 2019 until 2022 and the leader of the United Conservative Party (UCP) from 2017 until 2022. He also served as the member of ...
stated in 2009 that Canada would not apologise to child migrants, preferring to "recognize that sad period" in other ways.
History
As a labour source
The practice of sending poor or orphaned children to English and later British colonies, to help alleviate the shortage of labour, began in 1618, with the rounding-up and transportation of one hundred English vagrant children to the
Virginia Colony
The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertGilbert (Saunders Family), Sir Humphrey" (histor ...
. In the 18th century, labour shortages in the overseas colonies also encouraged the transportation of children for work in the Americas, and large numbers of children were forced to migrate, most of them from Scotland. This practice continued until it was exposed in 1757, following a civil action against
Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
merchants and magistrates for their involvement in the trade.
Philanthropic efforts
The
Children's Friend Society
The Children's Friend Society for "the Prevention of Juvenile Vagrancy" through the reformation and emigration of children, was founded in London in 1830, by Captain Edward Pelham Brenton, together with or supported by wealthy philanthropists, and ...
was founded in London in 1830 as "The Society for the Suppression of Juvenile Vagrancy through the reformation and emigration of children". In 1832, the first group of children was sent to the
Cape Colony
The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when i ...
in South Africa and the
Swan River Colony
The Swan River Colony, also known as the Swan River Settlement, or just Swan River, was a British colony established in 1829 on the Swan River, in Western Australia. This initial settlement place on the Swan River was soon named Perth, and it ...
in Australia, and in August 1833, 230 children were shipped to
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
and
New Brunswick
New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...
in Canada.
The main pioneers of child migration in the nineteenth century were the Scottish
Evangelical Christian
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual exper ...
Annie MacPherson, her sister Louisa Birt, and Londoner
Maria Rye
Maria Susan Rye, (31 March 1829 – 12 November 1903), was a social reformer and a promoter of emigration from England, especially of young women living in Liverpool workhouses, to the colonies of the British Empire, especially Canada.
Early life
...
. Whilst working with poor children in London in the late 1860s, MacPherson was appalled by the child
slavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
of the matchbox industry and resolved to devote her life to these children. She bought a large warehouse in
Spitalfields
Spitalfields is a district in the East End of London and within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The area is formed around Commercial Street (on the A1202 London Inner Ring Road) and includes the locale around Brick Lane, Christ Church, ...
and turned it into the Home of Industry, where poor children could work and be fed and educated.
The building was previously used by the
Sisters of Mercy
The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute of Catholic women founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. As of 2019, the institute had about 6200 sisters worldwide, organized into a number of independent congregations. They a ...
as a cholera hospital. It opened in 1868 and could hold up to two hundred children.
She later became convinced that the real solution for these children lay in emigration to a country of opportunity and started an emigration fund. MacPherson began relocating children in 1870,
departing for Canada on the twelfth of May with one hundred boys.
Hastings County
Hastings County is located in the province of Ontario, Canada. Geographically, it is located on the border of Eastern Ontario and Central Ontario. Hastings County is the second-largest county in Ontario, after Renfrew County, and its county ...
provided rent for a distribution centre in
Belleville once she arrived.
In the first year of the fund's operation, 500 children, trained in the London homes, were shipped to Canada.
She shipped children from her own organisation and other agencies such as
Barnardo's
Barnardo's is a British charity founded by Thomas John Barnardo in 1866, to care for vulnerable children. As of 2013, it raised and spent around £200 million each year running around 900 local services, aimed at helping these same group ...
. MacPherson opened another receiving home in the town of
Galt Galt or GALT may refer to:
Biology and biochemistry
* Galactose-1-phosphate uridylyltransferase, an enzyme
* Gut-associated lymphoid tissue, a subset of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue
People and fictional characters
* Galt (surname), a list o ...
in
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
and persuaded her sister, Louisa Birt, to open a third home in the village of
Knowlton, 112 km from
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
. MacPherson's other sister Mary, and her husband Joseph Merry, were superintendents of the Home of Industry for several years. They later ran the receiving home in Galt and its successor in Stratford. One of MacPherson's assistants at the Home of Industry went on to take charge of the Belleville home.
This was the beginning of a massive operation which sought to find homes and careers for 14,000 of Britain's needy children.
In 1887, the Home of Industry moved to purpose-built premises in
Bethnal Green
Bethnal Green is an area in the East End of London northeast of Charing Cross. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the Green, much of which survives today as Bethnal Green Gardens, beside Cambridge Heath Road. By ...
. The building was designed by
Sir George Grenfell-Baines. MacPherson retired in 1902.
Maria Rye also worked amongst the poor in London and had arrived in Ontario with 68 children (50 of whom were from
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
) some months earlier than MacPherson, with the blessing of the
Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...
and ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' newspaper.
Rye, who had been placing women emigrants in Canada since 1867, opened her home at
Niagara-on-the-Lake in 1869, and by the turn of the century had settled some 5,000 children, mostly girls, in Ontario.
In 1909, South African-born
Kingsley Fairbridge
Kingsley Ogilvie Fairbridge (5 May 1885 – 19 July 1924) was the founder of a child migration, child emigration scheme from Britain to British Empire, its colonies and the Fairbridge Schools. His life work was the founding of the "Society for t ...
founded the "Society for the Furtherance of Child Emigration to the Colonies" which was later incorporated as the Child Emigration Society. The purpose of the society, which later became the Fairbridge Foundation, was to educate orphaned and neglected children and train them in farming practices at farm schools located throughout the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
. Fairbridge emigrated to Australia in 1912, where his ideas received support and encouragement. According to the
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England.
The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 mem ...
Child Migrant's Trust Report, "it is estimated that some 150,000 children were dispatched over a period of 350 years—the earliest recorded child migrants left Britain for the Virginia Colony in 1618, and the process did not finally end until the late 1960s." It was widely believed by contemporaries that all of these children were orphans, but it is now known that most had living parents, some of whom had no idea of the fate of their children after they were left in care homes, and some led to believe that their children had been adopted somewhere in Britain.
Child emigration was largely suspended for economic reasons during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
of the 1930s, but was not completely terminated until the 1970s.
As they were compulsorily shipped out of Britain, many of the children were deceived into believing their parents were dead, and that a more abundant life awaited them.
Some were exploited as cheap agricultural labour, or denied proper shelter and education.
It was common for Home Children to run away, sometimes finding a caring family or better working conditions.
Contemporary enquiries
The emigration schemes were not without their critics, and there were many rumours of ill-treatment of the children by their employers and of profiteering by the organisers of the schemes, particularly Maria Rye.
In 1874 The London Board of Governors decided to send a representative, named Andrew Doyle, to Canada to visit the homes and the children to see how they were faring.
Doyle's report praised the women and their staff, especially MacPherson, saying that they were inspired by the highest motives, but condemned almost everything else about the enterprise.
He said that the attitude of the women in grouping together children from the workhouses, who he said were mostly of good reputation, with street children, whom he considered mostly thieves, was naive and had caused nothing but trouble in Canada.
He was also critical of the checks made on the children after they were placed with settlers, which in Rye's case were mostly non-existent, and said that:
Because of Miss Rye's carelessness and Miss MacPherson's limited resources, thousands of British children, already in painful circumstances, were cast adrift to be overworked or mistreated by the settlers of early Canada who were generally honest but often hard taskmasters.
The
House of Commons of Canada
The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada.
The House of Common ...
subsequently set up a select committee to examine Doyle's findings and there was much controversy generated by his report in Britain, but the schemes continued with some changes and were copied in other countries of the British Empire.
In 2014–2015 the
Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry
The 2014–2016 Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry, often referred to as the HIA Inquiry, is the largest inquiry into historical institutional sexual and physical abuse of children in UK legal history. Its remit covers ins ...
considered cases of children forcibly sent to Australia. They found that about 130 young children in the care of voluntary or state institutions were sent to Australia in what was described as the Child Migrant Programme in the period covered by the Inquiry, from 1922 to 1995, but mostly shortly after the Second World War.
Exposure and apologies
In 1987 British social worker
Margaret Humphreys
Margaret Humphreys, (born 1944) is a British social worker and author from Nottingham, England. She worked for Nottinghamshire County Council operating around Radford, Nottingham and Hyson Green in child protection and adoption services. In 19 ...
carried out an investigation leading to the exposure of the child migration scheme and the establishment of the Child Migrants Trust, with the aim of reuniting parents and children. Full details of the scheme only emerged as late as 1998 during a parliamentary inquiry in Britain, which found that many migrant children were subjected to systematic abuse in religious schools in Australia, New Zealand and other countries.
In 1994 Humphreys published a book concerning her research entitled ''Empty Cradles''.
In 2010, this book detailing Humphreys' work, political obstacles, and threats on her life along with the crimes and abuse done to thousands of children by government and religious officials was depicted in the film ''
Oranges and Sunshine
''Oranges and Sunshine'' is a 2010 Australian drama film directed by Jim Loach as his directorial debut. It stars Emily Watson, Hugo Weaving and David Wenham, with a screenplay by Rona Munro, based on the 1994 book ''Empty Cradles'' by Margaret Hu ...
''.
Australia
In Australia, "Child Migrant" children are part of a larger group known as the
Forgotten Australians
Forgotten Australians or care leavers are terms referring to the estimated 500,000 children (a figure that includes child migrants and Indigenous Australians) who experienced care in institutions or outside a home setting in Australia during th ...
– a term the Australian Senate has used to describe the estimated 500,000 children who were brought up in orphanages, children's homes, institutions or foster care in Australia up until the early 1990s. "Child Migrants" refers specifically to the 7000 children who migrated to Australia under assisted child migration schemes. Child migrants were adopted or brought up in children's homes, institutions, orphanages or foster care. Many of these children experienced neglect and abuse while in institutional care.
At the urging of the "Care Leavers Australia Network", in August 2001, the Senate Community Affairs References Committee published "Lost Innocents: Righting the Record – Report on child migration," and followed this in August 2004 with the "Forgotten Australians" report. Both reports concluded with a number of recommendations, one of which was a call for a national apology.
Prime Minister of Australia
The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister heads the executive branch of the Australian Government, federal government of Australia and is also accountable to Parliament of A ...
,
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian former politician and diplomat who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and again from June 2013 to September 2013, holding office as the leader of the ...
apologised on behalf of the government of Australia on 16 November 2009. As of 2009, there were an estimated 7,000 "Child Migrants" currently residing in Australia. The Australian government had contacted about 400 British child migrants for advice on how the apology should be delivered. Australia's Roman Catholic Church had publicly apologised in 2001 to British and Maltese child migrants who suffered abuse including rape, whippings and slave labour in religious institutions.
A £1 million travel fund was set up by the British Government for former child migrants to visit their families in the UK. The Australian Government later supplemented this fund.
Canada
![Home Children house and plaque, Stratford, Ontario](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Home_Children_house_and_plaque%2C_Stratford%2C_Ontario.jpg)
The federal government designated the "Immigration of Home Children" a
National Historic Event, in 1999. A plaque from the national
Historic Sites and Monuments Board commemorating the event stands in
Stratford, Ontario. The
Ontario Heritage Trust
The Ontario Heritage Trust (french: link=no, Fiducie du patrimoine ontarien) is a non-profit agency of the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Culture. It is responsible for protecting, preserving and promoting the built, natural and cultural herita ...
erected a provincial historical plaque to the Home Children the year before, in Ottawa.
After the apology by the Australian government, in 2009 the Canadian Immigration Minister,
Jason Kenney
Jason Thomas Kenney (born May 30, 1968) is a Canadian former politician who served as the 18th premier of Alberta from 2019 until 2022 and the leader of the United Conservative Party (UCP) from 2017 until 2022. He also served as the member of ...
, said that there was no need for Canada to apologise:
The federal government proclaimed 2010 the "Year of the British Home Child"
[Canada Post, ''Details/en détail'', vol. 19, no. 3 (July to September 2010), p. 18.] and on 1 September 2010,
Canada Post
Canada Post Corporation (french: Société canadienne des postes), trading as Canada Post (french: Postes Canada), is a Crown corporation that functions as the primary postal operator in Canada. Originally known as Royal Mail Canada (the opera ...
released a commemorative stamp to honour those who were sent to Canada.
In the province of
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, the ''British Home Child Day Act'', 2011, makes 28 September each year British Home Child Day to "recognize and honour the contributions of the British home children who established roots in Ontario."
United Kingdom
On 23 February 2010, Prime Minister
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chance ...
issued an official apology for the "shameful" child resettlement programme, he announced a £6 million fund designed to compensate the families affected by the "misguided" programme.
In 2020 it was reported that the
Prince's Trust
The Prince's Trust ( cy, Ymddiriedolaeth y Tywysog) is a charity in the United Kingdom founded in 1976 by King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) to help vulnerable young people get their lives on track. It supports 11-to-30-year-olds who are u ...
was providing funds to allow people sent as children from the UK to Australia by the Fairbridge Society to make claims for compensation for sexual and physical abuse. While Australia had a national redress scheme for people sexually abused as children in institutions, those sent by the Fairbridge Society were not eligible as the Society no longer existed. The Prince's Trust had previously been criticised for "covering its backside" by denying it had knowledge of abuse suffered by Fairbridge Society child migrants.
Today
Home Children Canada claimed in 2011 that one in ten Canadians is a descendant of a home child. The British government's Family Restoration Fund has arranged or remimbursed travel for more than a thousand child emigrants reuniting with their families. It is administered by the Child Migrants Trust and funded by the
Department of Health and Social Care
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for government policy on health and adult social care matters in England, along with a few elements of the same matters which are not otherw ...
.
Media
* ''
Heaven on Earth'', 1987 television film
* ''
The Leaving of Liverpool
"(The) Leaving of Liverpool" (Roud 9435), also known as "Fare Thee Well, My Own True Love", is a folk song. Folklorists classify it as a lyrical lament and it was also used as a sea shanty, especially at the capstan. It is very well known in ...
'': 1992 television mini-series
* ''
Oranges and Sunshine
''Oranges and Sunshine'' is a 2010 Australian drama film directed by Jim Loach as his directorial debut. It stars Emily Watson, Hugo Weaving and David Wenham, with a screenplay by Rona Munro, based on the 1994 book ''Empty Cradles'' by Margaret Hu ...
'': 2010 drama film
* Singer/songwriter released the song "Suitcase Full of Lies" in 2021 to accompany the History Detective Podcast Season 2 Episode 6: Child Migrants to Australia After WWII.
* Season 4, Episode 1 of the British television series ''Call the Midwife'' features a family of neglected children who are sent to Australia under the Child Migrant Programme.
* Season 12, Episode 11 of the Canadian television series ''Murdoch Mysteries'', entitled 'Annabella Cinderella' is about a home child
See also
References
Notes
Bibliography
*
Further reading
* Oschefski, Lori "Bleating of the Lambs - Canada's British Home Children" 2015 Rose Printing
* Boucher, Ellen. ''Empire's Children: Child Emigration, Welfare, and the Decline of the British World, 1869–1967'' (2016) .
* Coldrey, Barry. "'A charity which has outlived its usefulness': the last phase of Catholic child migration, 1947–56." ''History of Education'' 25.4 (1996): 373–386. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0046760960250406
* Doyle-Wood, Stan
011 A Trace of Genocide: https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/31737/1/Doyle-Wood_Stanley_S_201109_PhD_thesis.pdf
*
*
*
*
*
* Sherington, Geoffrey. "Contrasting narratives in the history of twentieth-century British child migration to Australia: An interpretive essay." ''History Australia'' 9.2 (2012): 27–47.
*
Swain, Shurlee and Margot Hillel, eds. ''Child, Nation, Race and Empire: Child Rescue Discourse, England, Canada and Australia, 1850–1915'' (2010)
review*
External links
British Home Children Advocacy & Research AssociationBritish Home Child Group InternationalBritish Child Emigration Scheme to CanadaBritish Home Children DescendantsSite dedicated to the one million British Home Children Descendants
Ontario Heritage Foundationplaque and background information
Library and Archives Canada
Library and Archives Canada (LAC; french: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) is the federal institution, tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is th ...
.
Adoption & Forgotten AustraliansThe Golden Bridge an online exhibition created by the
Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services that tells the story of child migration to Canada from Scotland.
British Parliament Health Committee Report, July 1998British Parliament
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremacy ...
ary Report Appendix
''Inside: Life Inside Children's Homes and Institutions'', National Museum of Australia''Inside: Life Inside Children's Homes and Institutions'' exhibition blog, National Museum of Australia*
ttp://child-migrants-to-australia.beep.com/index.htm List of Child Migrant sent to Australia – History
Child Migrants Trust
Films
''Heaven on Earth'' (1987)Canadian film (based on a true story) regarding 125,000 Welsh Home Children shipped to Canada
''The Leaving of Liverpool'' (1992)Australian film regarding UK children shipped to Australia following World War 2
''Oranges and Sunshine'' (2010)British-Australian co-production based on
Margaret Humphreys
Margaret Humphreys, (born 1944) is a British social worker and author from Nottingham, England. She worked for Nottinghamshire County Council operating around Radford, Nottingham and Hyson Green in child protection and adoption services. In 19 ...
' story.
{{Authority control
Adoption history
Forced migration
History of immigration to Canada
Immigration to New Zealand
Immigration to South Africa
19th century in the British Empire
Social history of England
Social history of Scotland
Children's rights in England
Children's rights in Scotland
Scottish people of the British Empire
19th century in Canada
19th century in Australia
19th century in New Zealand
19th century in South Africa
20th century in Canada
Institutional abuse
International child abduction
1869 in the British Empire
Articles containing video clips
Settlement schemes
Immigration to Ontario