Doing that anniversary thing ……………… remembering the 100,000 young people migrated to Canada

Now it is easy to get anniversary fatigue.

Young people at Manchester Town Hall, 1897 about to be migrated to Canada

After all most of us will have signed up to commemorations for events ranging from the outbreak of the Great War, to Holocaust Memorial Day, Black History Month, V.E. Day and many more.

And I have rather taken my eye off the work being done to remember the thousands of young people migrated from Britain to Canada and other bits of the old British Empire, purely because we in Britain couldn’t provide for them. *

This September marks the 150th anniversary of those migrations, and today as British Home Children has become a recognized area of historical study it is fitting that all of us should be engaged in promoting the event.

Beacons of Light poster

This omission on my part to have done anything for  the 150th is all the more embarrassing, given that I have my own relative who was migrated, and have written extensively about the subject, both here and in Canada, and have a book coming out later in the year which touches on that migration.

To be fair along with Tricia Leslie, I run our own British Home Child site on social media, have given talks and encouraged individuals to set up their own groups.

But away in Canada they have been very busy with a special project called Beacons of “Light for British Home Children & Child Migrants”, which "is an initiative started by British Home Child Advocacy & Research Association member Kim Crowther when she asked if we would sponsor a bridge lighting in Edmonton for Sept 28th on BHC Day to mark the 150 the year. Bruce Skilling secured a bridge in Calgary and I Niagara Falls.

Since then it has become a quest of all members and groups to find as many landmarks and structures to participate. Some are doing flag raising some are proclaiming it BHC Day in their city.  We have 37 supporters and counting”. ***

BHC badges

Of the 41 events today, most are in Canada, but there three scheduled for the UK, and one in Australia, and I know one member is attempting to get something organized here in Manchester.

It may be too late to get something organized for Manchester Town Hall, but there are plenty of smaller things people to do ahead of September 28th, including hosting an evening for friends, talking at a local organization or downloading our poster and leaving it in a public place, having of course secured permission.

Poster

Leaning me just to say that I shall be contacting some Manchester Councillors and dropping the anniversary into every talk, and walk I undertake from now till September 28th.

So, there you have it ………. Lots to do till September 26th.

Location; Britain., Canada

PIctures; Young people on the steps of Manchester Town Hall, prior to migration to Canada, 1897, courtesy of the Together Trust, Beacons poster and badges courtesy of Lori Oschefski, BHCARA, and poster from British Home Children ... the story from Britain


*British Home Children, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/British%20Home%20Children The Story of the Together Trust due out late 2019
**British Home Children ....... the story from Britain, www.facebook.com/groups/bhchildren
***Lori Oschefski, BHCARA, https://www.britishhomechildren.com/