British Home Children - unkown Canadian history

There are many advantages about going on holidays. For me, the best part is experiencing and  learning  new things. 

Because I am spending three weeks in Charlottetown, instead of running around, hurrying to get to different places  for sightseeing,  I have time to take in many other wonderful local events offered in this wonderful city.

Charlottetown Public Library

The Charlottetown library offers many programs and events such as book talks and reading by authors  from their books. Yoko, my new friend and I went to one of such event yesterday.

It was a book reading event with an author, Sandra Joyce.  She read an excerpt  from her new  book , “ The Street Arab”,  which is a historical novel about a boy from a small mining town in Scotland, his life as one of the British Home Children  in Canada in the early 1900’s.

Sandra Joyce - reading from her book
 " The Street Arab"

After the reading, Ms. Joyce gave us a brief presentation about the history of British Home Children. I learned that during the period between 1870 -1957,  about 100,000 British children,  alleged  orphans , were sent to Canada and distributed to all parts of our country  as hire hands on many Canadian farms, a fact which not too many Canadians are aware of. Apparently, Anne, the famous red haired spunky character in the all time favorite character of the novel, "Anne of Green Gable" , was one of such child and she was one of the lucky ones who got placed in a loving home.

These children, signed over by their relatives and sometimes parents in England,  were shipped here with only the clothes on their backs, many of whom lived a harsh life in their new Canadian homes. The British Home Children were between the ages of  4 – 15 years old, worked as indentured farm labourers and domestic servants until they reached 18 years old. Sometimes, siblings were sent over to Canada on the same ship, but unfortunately, were not kept together.  Many lived separate and lonely lives, trying all their lives to find their siblings and identify their parents with their efforts in vain.

There are about 4-5 million Canadian descendants of British Home Children.  Ms. Joyce is a descendant of a British Home Child. Her father was shipped over to Canada when he was fourteen years old. He was placed with a farm family. He had a home but was not allowed to eat with the family.  Ms. Joyce’s father never talked about his life as a home child in Canada.  She did not even know this part of his father’s life unit he passed away. Many were too ashamed about their past and preferred to be quiet on this subject.

I have been working in the Ontario education system for the past thirty years, I have never heard about the plight of the British Home Children until today. 

It is a pity that our students do not learn much about the darker side of our Canadian history such as the Japanese internment in B.C during WW2, the Chinese Exclusion Act during the period of 1920's - 1940's etc.  The stories and struggles of these British Home Children along with others should be told and taught in our schools.

  R.T.
 Charlottetown
June 20, 2012