Growing up in Australia with no past, no family and just unanswered questions ..... Empty Cradles

The story of the children sent to Canada from the late 19th century into the early 20th has almost passed out of living memory, but those who went to Australia were still leaving our shores in the 1970s.

These Australian stories are no less harrowing than those young people who travelled across the Atlantic.

They bring to the surface all the same feelings of anger and incredulity that someone could think it was a good idea to solve the problems of our homeless, neglected and poverty stricken children by dumping them in other parts of the Empire.

Now before any one accuses me of a lack of historical impartiality I do have to say that like many of the descendants of children sent from Britain to Canada I have been very careful in examining the case for their migration. Some in Canada might even feel that I have been over cautious about coming to a judgement.

Here is it is enough to say that despite some well meaning thinking on the part of some good people and a belief that wide open spaces were a better environment than the streets and dismal courts of the poorer parts of our cities the policy was wrong.

And it was seen to be wrong at the time.  Almost from the onset of the programme people were worried about the lack of supervision and inspection in Canada and had been challenging the very premise upon which the migration was undertaken.

So, that I hope has negated that oft used argument by the apologists of the scheme that we are in  some way judging past actions by  present day sensibilities.   It always was a tired and barren argument but one totally exposed when you consider that the policy was still in full swing in the 1960s and really only came to an end 40 or so years ago.

This was no case of another time and another place, but at a moment when Britain had embraced the welfare state, believed we were advancing to a new bright future which offered new life choices to its entire people and set against full employment and growing prosperity.

And yet the children were still being sent.  In some cases having been told their parents were dead and in almost all cases denied any real knowledge of who they had been or why they were sent.

This shabby little episode, this last flickering of a discredited policy in child care was exposed by Margaret Humphreys, a Nottingham social worker in the 1980s.  Her work in providing a history for all those Australians who grew up with no knowledge of a family in Britain or the circumstances which led to them being sent to Australia is documented in her book Empty Cradles which in turn became the film Oranges and Sunshine.

It is a powerful account of the confusion, hurt and anger felt by many of these young people combined with an insight into the reluctance shown on the part of the charities and government agencies to either help or even admit the extent of the programme.

And this is why I think it is essential reading for all of us engaged in telling the story of British Home Children.

For most of us our own BHC relatives are dead and many of their records are scattered, lost or unobtainable.  Even just identifying the names of the young people is a huge task and some I fear will never emerge from the shadows.

So for most of us looking for family it is a matter of pouring over newspaper accounts, census returns and just possibly if we are very lucky the records of the local work house or children’s charity.

Going the next step and trying to understand the justification for the migrations is wrapped up in dense committee minutes of long forgotten charities or the often vain self congratulatory biographies and autobiographies of the worthies involved.

All of which means our own feelings of anger and disbelief are one step removed.  Mrs Humphrey’s book has the value that here are the voices and experiences of people still alive, still able to recount their stories and give a context to what happened.

In its way the book has done more to make me angry about what went on than the plight of my own great uncle or the stories uncovered by Lori and Norah and the many others committed to telling the story of our Canadian BHC.

But it is also a very revealing insight into how the charities and authorities tried to minimise what went on and in some cases to perpetuate the myth that it was all oranges and sunshine and that they were only doing what was best for the children.

More than once Mrs Humphrey’s was told that her work had caused hurt to those who ran the charities to which her reply was always that she knew of countless other Australians who had been at the receiving end and were also still hurting.

I know there are those who feel that the publicity around the book takes the limelight away from the experiences of our Canadian relatives but I rather think it is the reverse.  Empty Cradles exposed an awful episode in child care, opened up the debate and contributed to national apologies made by the Australian and British Governments.

All of that was a good thing, and will lead I have no doubt to an apology from the Government of Canada.  The work of those promoting the petition along with the growing number of books, exhibitions and research will continue to shine a light on all those young people sent north across the Atlantic.

In the meantime I shall finish the book and order up the DVD of the film.

*Empty Cradles,  was published in 1994. Its sales of 75,000 copies helped to fund the work of the Child Migrants Trust at a critical time when British government grants had been stopped. Empty Cradles has been dramatised as the 2011 feature film Oranges and Sunshine.

The Child Migrants Trust was established in 1987 by Margaret Humphreys CBE, OAM. It addresses the issues surrounding the deportation of children from Britain. In the post-war period, child migrants as young as three were shipped to Canada, New Zealand, the former Rhodesia and Australia, a practice that continued as late as 1970. http://www.childmigrantstrust.com/

A story of British Home Children in just 20 objects nu 16 .......... Australia and other parts of the Commonwealth

The story of the children sent to Canada from the late 19th century into the early 20th has almost passed out of living memory, but those who went to Australia were still leaving our shores in the 1970s.*

These Australian stories are no less harrowing than those young people who travelled across the Atlantic.

This shabby little episode, this last flickering of a discredited policy in child care was exposed by Margaret Humphreys, a Nottingham social worker in the 1980s.

Her work in providing a history for all those Australians who grew up with no knowledge of a family in Britain or the circumstances which led to them being sent to Australia is documented in her book Empty Cradles which in turn became the film Oranges and Sunshine.**

Pictures, cover from the book Empty Cradles, and the film Oranges and Sunshine

*Growing up in Australia with no past, no family and just unanswered questions ..... Empty Cradles, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/09/growing-up-in-australia-with-no-past-no.html


**Empty Cradles, was published in 1994. Its sales of 75,000 copies helped to fund the work of the Child Migrants Trust at a critical time when British government grants had been stopped. Empty Cradles has been dramatised as the 2011 feature film Oranges and Sunshine.


The Child Migrants Trust was established in 1987 by Margaret Humphreys CBE, OAM. It addresses the issues surrounding the deportation of children from Britain. In the post-war period, child migrants as young as three were shipped to Canada, New Zealand, the former Rhodesia and Australia, a practice that continued as late as 1970. http://www.childmigrantstrust.com/

British Home Children, an exhibition and the work of theTogether Trust

It has taken a long time but the story of British Home Children is taking one more step out of the shadows with an exciting new exhibition opening on October 17 in Liverpool.*

Emigration party outside Manchester Town Hall, 1897,

British Home Children were those who were migrated from Britain to Canada, Australia and other parts of the old empire from the 1870s onwards.

It is still a story which is not well known, especially in this country and for many of us who stumble across a relative who was sent it is a revelation often shrouded in mystery, and the search for their lives made more difficult by the absence of official documentation.

That said in Canada great strides have been made in researching both individuals and piecing together the story which should not surprise us given that over 100,000 children were sent across the Atlantic and some estimates suggest that up to 10% of Canadians are descended from a British Home Child.**

At which point I shall declare an interest as one of my great uncles was sent under the care of the Middlemore Trust by the Derby Workhouse in 1914.

Report on my great uncle, 1916

His was a story I knew nothing about and until I began some belated research on the family I did not even know of his existence which was compounded by the fact that neither mother nor my grandparents ever referred to him.

Since then some official documents have come to light but sadly they are fragmentary and the trail fades away sometime after 1925 in western Canada.

It is an experience shared by many who have relatives who were migrated, made more difficult because few of them shared their stories.

And so for that reason we know more about those young people sent to Australia some of whom were still being sent as late as the 1970s.

In some cases having been told their parents were dead and in almost all cases denied any real knowledge of who they had been or why they were sent.

It is a story which was exposed by Margaret Humphreys, a Nottingham social worker in the 1980s.

Her work in providing a history for all those Australians who grew up with no knowledge of a family in Britain or the circumstances which led to them being sent to Australia is documented in her book Empty Cradles which in turn became the film Oranges and Sunshine.***

Signing off document on my uncle, 1916

All of which takes me back to that exhibition which is a collaboration between the Australian National Maritime Museum and National Museums Liverpool.

And amongst the material is some from the Together Trust which was the Manchester and Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuge.

The Refuge migrated 2,129 children to Canada between 1870 and 1914 and within the archive there are details “providing family information, living conditions leading up to their admittance to the charity and personal letters written home.”****

Now this makes the Together Trust an important first stop for anyone who believes their relatives were migrated by the charity.

Letter describing life in Canada, 1888

As the archivist stresses in this week’s blog post, “the charity works to provide information to any individuals who believe their descendants may have been emigrated by us.”

All of which adds one more piece to the story of British Home Children and a powerful reason to both read the charities blog and get along to Liverpool.

Pictures; Emigration party outside Manchester Town Hall, 1897, Letter in 1888 describing life in Canada, courtesy of the Together Trust, report and signing off document on Roger James Hall from the collection of Andrew Simpson

* On their own: Britain's child migrants, 17 October 2014 to 4 October 2015, Merseyside Maritime Museum, http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/exhibitions/child-migrants/

**British Home Children in Canada, http://canadianbritishhomechildren.weebly.com/

*** Growing up in Australia with no past, no family and just unanswered questions ..... Empty Cradles, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/growing-up-in-australia-with-no-past-no.html

**** On their own: Britain's child migrants, http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/

Discovering more about those children migrated to Canada and Australia in the 19th century

Extract on the report of Roger Hall, 1915

I doubt that I will ever know the exact course of events that sent my great uncle at the age of 16 to Canada in 1914.

He was one of the 100,000 or so young people who were migrated to Canada during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

It was a policy which even after Canada stopped, carried on into the 1970s with boat loads of children going to Australia and other parts of the old British Empire.

These were the British Home Children and until recently it was a story shrouded in official amnesia, and compounded by a reticence on the part of those migrated to talk about what happened to them.

The policy was born out of a mix of good intentions cynical self interest and an unwillingness on the part of the authorities to accept its shortcomings.

Extract from the passenger list of the SS Carthaginian, 1914

It is a story I have written about many times* and so today I want instead to reflect on the history of the growing awareness of that migration and the efforts on the parts of academics and family historians to uncover the full extent of what went on.

For many of us it was the chance discovery that a relative had been migrated to Canada which led us into the history of British Home Children.

Many of those who first started to explore the story had little to go on, and in an age before the internet and the digitalization of records were forced to spend long month’s fruitlessly writing to charities and public archives to elicit a few facts.

More recently particularly in Canada self help organistions have sprung up aided by the internet which have made the task easier.

And like all good self help organisations people are keen to share information, links and ideas, all of which is how I like my history.

Boys in the care of the Manchester & Salford charity about to leave for Canada

Only this weekend I took part in a global discussions on the future of one of these organisations run from Canada and called British Home Children Advocacy &  Research Association**

In just the last few years the interest in British Home Children has grown.

In part this reflects the search by relatives for information about their migrated family members, but also has become a serious area of study with an increasing number of books devoted to the subject.

Most of these have been published in Canada, but there are a few on this side of the Atlantic and with them has come specialist sites including that of the Together Trust which was the Manchester & Salford Boys’ and Girl’s Refuges and sent children to Canada from 1870 till 1914.***

What both British Home Children Advocacy &  Research Association and the Together Trust offer are help and links which will assist anyone on a personal search or those interested in learning more about the story.

Manchester Boys in Canada

In the case of the British Home Children Advocacy &  Research Association this includes an extensive and growing data base, articles and links as well as a growing programme of talks across Canada to raise awareness.

The Together Trust has its own archivist who is keen to assist those who may have family members who were cared for  by the charity and wish to know more about their relatives.

Nor should we forget the experiences of those young people sent to Australia.
These young people continued to be sent from Britain well into  the 1970s.

Some of their stories featured in Empty Cradles, which was published in 1994.

Its sales of 75,000 copies helped to fund the work of the Child Migrants Trust which was established in 1987 by Margaret Humphreys CBE, OAM.****

The Trust deals with the issues surrounding the deportation of children to Australia in the post-war period.  Empty Cradles has been dramatised as the 2011 feature film Oranges and Sunshine.

So British Home Children have come out of the shadows in more ways than one and have quite rightly become a serious area of study.

Pictures; of Roger Hall's report and the shipping list of the carthaginian, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and pictures of Manchester boys of the Manchester & Salford Boys' and Girls' Refuge courtesy of the Together Trust.

*British Home Children, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/British%20Home%20Children

** British Home Children Advocacy &  Research Association http://britishhomechildrenadvocacy.weebly.com/

***The Together Trust Archive, http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/

**** The Child Migrants Trust, http://www.childmigrantstrust.com/

Oranges & Sunshine the on going story of British Home Children

The story of the children sent to Canada from the late 19th century into the early 20th has almost passed out of living memory, but those who went to Australia were still leaving our shores in the 1970s.

Their stories are still there to listen to and so I am looking forward to watching Ken Loaches’s film Oranges and Sunshine based the true story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham who has worked tirelessly to reunite members of families who were separated when one or more siblings were sent to Australia.

Oranges & Sunshine Saturday evening 21.45 BBC 2