Google Image Photo–Edward Norris – “”I worked hard – I was slapped” he recalls. “Sometimes I thought of my mother, in despair, and started to cry”.
When I grew up in the Eastern Townships I used to hear stories about the British Home children from my Grandparents that had arrived in our area years ago. They never went out and stated anything was horribly wrong, but the looks on their faces made me understand all was not well. I just felt that the words Home Children was a dirty word.
To tell you the truth I never really thought about it much until I moved to Lanark County where a large number of children had been sent also. Sometimes I heard stories that made me embarrassed to be a Canadian. After I watched a few documentaries about them I wondered if Canada had been in the same league as slave labour.
On Saturday at the Lanark County Genealogical Society meeting, Gloria F. Tubman told us about the 129,000 British Home Children (alleged orphans) were sent to Canada by over 50 British Child Care organizations from 1870-1957.
These 4-15 year old children worked as farm labourers and domestic servants until they were 18 years old. The organizations professed a dominant motive of providing these children with a better life than they would have had in Britain, but they had other ignoble and pecuniary motives.
Photo- Google Image-Edith Hutchinson – “My first assignment was at a ministers house. I did not like his wife. She told me all Barnardo Children came from the slums and I replied that I had as good a home as she. She did not send me back to Hazel Brae but sent me to a farmer down the road where I was happy”.
The UK organizations rid themselves of an unwanted segment of their society and profited when they “sold” these children to Canadian farmers. Siblings in care in Britain were suddenly separated from their families and each other when they were sent to Canada. Most never saw each other again. Many spent their lives trying to identify their parents and find their siblings and most were unsuccessful.
A letter to the editor of the Ottawa Citizen March 16 1928. B. Roberts Barnardo boy writes from Lanark, Ontario.
After arriving by steerage, the children (300-400 per boat) were sent to distributing and receiving homes, such as Fairknowe in Brockville, MacPherson sisters in Belleville, Dr. Bernado in Peterborough and Toronto and then sent on to farmers in the area. Although many of the children were poorly treated and abused, some did experience a better life here than if they had remained in the urban slums of England. Many served with the Canadian and British Forces during both World Wars.
A month ago I wrote a story about local Western migration and how young men 18 and up were offered land grants. It seems a lot of the male home children were offered the same deal in Russell, Manitoba, but were underwritten by Dr. Bernardo. They would give them what they needed as long as they paid it back in 5 years.
Doris Frayne – “Canadians just wanted to used me as a scullery-maid”.
Many believed that these children would have a better chance for a healthy, moral life in rural Canada, where families welcomed them as a source of cheap farm labour and domestic help. So did these agencies make money bringing these children to Canada. According to the site British Home Children & Child Migrants in Canada– the government began to provide a grant of $2 per child brought into Canada. This clearly expressed the governments approval of the importation of child labourers. Interesting also to note is that there was no bonus paid for children who came from the workhouses in England.
1894 Bonus Report
Girls’ Dormitories, Smyllum Orphanage, Lanark 1910
These children arrived in Canada with the usual kit given to child immigrants: a Bible, a copy of Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, writing materials, a brush and comb, a work bag with needles, thread and worsted for darning. All this was packed into a wooden trunk along with a nicely trimmed dress and hat for Sabbath wear and a wincey dress (made of a plain or twilled fabric), a dark hat for winter, a liberal supply of underclothing for summer and winter, three pairs of boots, four pairs of stockings, gloves, collars, aprons, pinafores and a warm hood.
They thought they were doing a favour to these children– but were they? Certainly a dark period of Canada’s history.
William Price – “To be a home boy—it’s so hard to explain—there’s a certain stigma. I know that for a fact. You’re just in a class. You’re an orphan. Years ago you counted as dirt. You were a nobody. That was only common sense. You were alone in the world.”
ONTARIO EAST BRITISH HOME CHILD FAMILY
2016 UPCOMING EVENTS
February 6 – Lanark Genealogy Society Beckwith Township Community Centre
February 13 – Cornwall Annual Heritage Day, Cornwall Mall
April 2 – Gene-O-Rama Genealogy Conference, Confederation Education Centre, Woodroffe Avenue, Ottawa
April 23 – ‘Forgotten’ (movie) being shown in Hamilton
April 30 – Perth Maplefest
April 30 – OEBHCF Spring Dinner
May 17 – OEBHCF Annual General Meeting
September 16 – BIFHSGO Conference, Ben Franklin Place, Centrepointe Drive, Nepean
September 24 – British Home Children Day celebration in Perth (5th anniversary)
Aultsville Train Station British Home Children Museum Open
August 20 & 21
August 27 & 28
September 3, 4 & 5
September 10 & 11
September 17 & 18
Please note that at some of the above listed events OEBHCF may be attending only & not hosting.