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

Annie Macpherson was a philanthropist who is accepted as the pioneer of child emigration to Canada.

Born in Campsie by Milton, Stirlingshire, she was the oldest of three sisters.  On completing her education in Glasgow, she decided to follow her father into the teaching profession but at the age of nineteen experienced "a divine revelation" after which the love of God became the ruling force of her life.  Following a brief spell in Cambridgeshire, where she undertook evangelical work, she moved to London with her mother.  Appalled by the misery and deprivation she found, she immediately began mission work in the East End.  She was particularly moved by the child slavery of the matchbox industry and resolved to devote her life to these children. With donations collected chiefly through The Revival paper, in 1870 she procured a large workshop which she turned into the "Home of Industry", where such children could work while receiving educatio and nourishment.  Annie Macpherson was firmly convinced, however, that the real solution for these children lay in emigration to a country of opportunity  An emigration fund was duly started and in the first year, 500 children, trained in the London homes, were dispatched to Canada.  This was the start of a massive operation which sought to find homes and careers for 14,000 of Britain's needy children.  Annie Macpherson herself made the voyage across the Atlantic over 120 times.  Initally one distribution centre was opened in Ontario, but this was soon followed by other regional centres.  An important section of the operation was founded in Liverpool by Annie's sister, Louisa Birt, and a number of other philanthropic societies, which recognized the benefits of emigration, made use of this network.  The scheme received wide acclaim and was much copied abroad.

As well as her work on emigration, Annie Macpherson sought to help the poor in many other ways, and a number of missions, for example a Bible Flower Mission and Prison Mission, had their origins in the Home of Industry.  She was a far-sighted woman whose unwavering faith enabled her to realize an idea which she believed would give opportunities to those born with none.  In so doing she inspired others to follow where she had led; a philanthropist with wide-ranging insterests, she is above all renowned as the "Children's Home Finder."  Her works included Canadian Homes for London Wanderers (1870) and The Little Matchbox Makers (1870).