*2010* ~ Year of the British Home Child in Canada

Posted in the Leduc Representative by Alexandra Pope

Leduc residents had a unique opportunity to learn about a little-known chapter in Canadian history May 25 when a quilt depicting the stories of British home children in their own words and pictures made a stop at the Civic Centre as part of a planned cross-country tour.

The quilt's creator, Hazel Perrier, hopes all who view it and read the accompanying stories come away with a greater understanding of the hardship endured by the home children and how it shaped their adult lives.

Between 1869 and 1948, an estimated 100,000 children were brought to Canada by charities seeking ways to alleviate the rampant poverty in England's urban centres.

Many of the children were orphans or had no relatives able to care for them, and their only options were to enter a workhouse or find sponsorship for the voyage to Canada.

Perrier, a resident of Claresholm, AB, is twice descended from home children — her grandparents came to Canada on the same ship, albeit four years apart — and originally began researching this little-recognized but significant period in Canadian immigration history as a way of filling in the blanks in her family tree.

"It was a big secret," Perrier said of her grandparents' early lives.

Her grandmother, Rosina Wagner, came to Canada with two younger siblings, Sarah and John. Sarah settled in the same area of rural Ontario as Rosina, but John was sent to Winnipeg and the siblings lost touch.

Using online geneology tools, Perrier was able to trace John's journey to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he had married and had 11 children. In honour of her discovery, Perrier made a quilt depicting her family tree and unveiled it at a family reunion with John's descendents in Council Bluffs last summer.

Life has come full circle for British-born, Kiwi-raised child migrant Tony Chambers with his return to his hometown of Hemel Hempstead in England. Tony was one of approximately 150,000 British children sent to various parts of the then Empire and Commonwealth in a child migration scheme operated before and after World War II by 35 large British charities. The Government selected children mainly from orphanages and long-term care homes, but some, including Tony, were taken from displaced and broken family homes.

On April 18, TVNZ’s current affairs programme Sunday aired a story on New Zealand’s involvement in the British child migration policies. Whilst Sunday focused on the negative experiences some children had, Tony’s upbringing in New Zealand was one of great happiness.

Tony was born in 1942 in Hemel Hempstead and remembers he was a happy little boy who had a carefree childhood. After the war, his single mother, Phyllis, found it difficult to both work and look after him. She went to the social services to see if they could provide a solution to how he could be looked after while she went to work. Phyllis was told that Tony could be sent to New Zealand in order to have a better start in life.

“Mother agreed, but without understanding the implications; without realizing that it was a one-way ticket.”

Family stories and research paint a picture of tough times, survival and hard-won happiness during an important time in Canada's history.

I didn't know my grandfather very well, as family visits didn't occur often.  When grandpa did visit, he told me a few stories, but it was my mother who answered many of my questions about him.  Later, I did research to find out more about his life, and to learn about the 100,000 British "home children" who, like Grandpa, were sent to Canada as indentured workers, beginning in 1869.

My grandfather--Francis James Preston--was born in 1874 in Southwark, Surrey, England.  He had three younger brothers:  Edward, born in 1876; John Thomas (John), born in 1878; and George, born in 1880.  His parents were Francis Barnard Preston and Louisa Elizabeth Hatch, born in 1850 and 1851 respectively.

Grandpa's dad passed away in early 1885.  His mother, being unable to care for all the boys, put my grandfather, who was then 11, and John, 8, into the Annerley School Union Workhouse.  After staying there for almost four years, both boys were discharged on May 31, 1889, and were made ready to be sent to Canada.