A Mind Opening Read

The Home Child Interviews  - A very interesting and mind opening article.


For the past few month on my days off, I've been helping a friend research and gather information on Canadian Soldiers who served in WW1, and were also British Home Children.

For those of you that don't know, the British Home Children program was set up to sent orphans and other "undesirable" children to Canada and Australia.  The program was set up under the pretense that these children were receiving training and assistance towards a better future.  The reality though was that most of these children were sent as cheap labour.  They were indentured servants until the age of 18, and quite a number of them, were robbed of their income.
Several of the boys that were sent over, took the opportunity of enlisted in the Canadian Forces in hopes of getting to see loved ones again as they passed through England.  Some lied about their age in order to qualify to serve.  Some as young as 14 were going off to war.

The homes were only supposed to take in Orphans, however due to the lucrative nature of the venture, many families were ripped apart.  Children were taken from parents having trouble making ends meet.  Single parents were lied to and told that their children would be far better off.  In many cases we've found that there was some communication with family once the children were settled in Canada.  Quite a few of the boys had knowledge of their parents, and put them on their attestation papers.  The most heartbreaking ones are the ones who listed the organization that sent them to Canada as next of kin, and the ones who had no family that they were aware of.
Children as young as 5 years old were sent to Canada through this program.

If you'd like to know more about the British Home Children visit:
http://canadianbritishhomechildren.weebly.com/