The talk covers a little known, and some would say shameful part of our social history, in which I have a particular interest. From the late 1860s until 1939, around 100,000 British children from pauper backgrounds were sent to Canada where they were put to work, mostly on farms or in domestic service. They are known as the ‘British Home Children’. Orphaned, abandoned, or otherwise ‘rescued’ from the slums and workhouses of Britain, they were shipped across the Atlantic by a plethora of individuals and organisations. In doing so, they were aided and abetted by the British Government, to the extent that in 2010 Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued a formal apology for the Government’s involvement.

Most of these children never returned to their homeland and 10% of Canada’s current population is said to be descended from them - currently around 4.5 million people. In leaving Britain, many of the children said goodbye to parents and siblings that they would never see again. Indeed, there are many families in Britain who will have distant relatives that they know nothing about, and I provide some ideas for tracing any such connections.

The Home Children and their descendants are well-known in Canada; there is a national ‘Home Child Day’. However, they are largely forgotten in Britain, and they do not deserve to be. In my talk, I will describe the history of the movement over its 70 years and introduce some of the people involved, both nationally and locally e.g. the famous Thomas Barnardo, who was quite a character, as many of them were. I will also highlight how the children were treated – sometimes very badly – and describe the hostility and prejudice they faced. However, it is not all doom and gloom, as some of the children did well and there are also opportunities to extract some humour. It will also become clear that some of the themes and issues addressed are still very relevant today. Finally, I briefly touch on my father's story, who was one of these children and who lived a remarkable life.