“Nobody’s Child”: Dr. Thomas John Barnardo and Home Children in Canada

From the late 1800s until the mid-twentieth century, roughly 100,000 children from various parts of Great Britain were sent to Canada by charities in England, Ireland, and Scotland. These so-called “Home Children” worked in rural areas in most of the Canadian provinces, the boys as farmhands and the girls as housemaids. Some were badly treated mentally, physically, and sexually. Many, however, not only survived the shock of leaving their families at a very young age but also went on to thrive as new immigrants in the new Dominion.

In this presentation, after giving a brief history of the circumstances that produced these “waifs and strays” and the charities that strove to help them, we shall concentrate on Dr. Thomas John Barnardo and some of his boys and girls who came to Canada from the 1880s until the 1930s. These include two great-uncles and an aunt and uncle by marriage in the instructor’s family as well as several close relatives of her friends, some of whose descendants ended up living in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia.

Presenter, Mary Jane Edwards: PhD, Distinguished Research Professor at Carleton University in Canadian Literature

2 Sessions, $25, Class max 12

Tuesdays, March 10 & 17th, 10:00 – Noon

Location:  ElderCollege Learning Centre