Memorandum by NCH Action For Children
WELFARE OF FORMER CHILD MIGRANTS (CM 152)
DETAILS OF
THE CHILD
MIGRANT SCHEMES
ONCE OPERATED1.
The charity known today as NCH Action For Children was established
as National Children's Homes and Orphanages, and was founded by
a Methodist Minister, the Reverend Thomas Bowman Stephenson and
two friends, in 1869. They established the charity in response
to the needs of homeless and destitute children in London, with
the aim of providing them with accommodation, care and support.
The charity was then, and remains today, constitutionally part
of the Methodist Church. It is now one of Britain's largest child
care charities, operating 270 community based projects for vulnerable
children and their families, across Great Britain.2. Under the
name of National Children's Homes and Orphanages, the charity
developed a child migration scheme of significant scale to Canada
in the years 1873 to 1931. Under the name of the National Children's
Home, the charity was involved in a much smaller child migration
scheme to Australia, in the years 1950 to 1954. It also sent a
small number of children to Australia under the auspices of the
Fairbridge Farm Schools in the years 1937-39. These schemes are
best dealt with separately.
CANADA3. The Reverend
Stephenson visited Canada in 1872, shortly after the foundation
of National Children's Homes and Orphanages. As a result of his
visit, the people of Hamilton, Ontario, decided to raise £1,000
to buy a house and land for a Canadian branch of the charity.
In 1873, one of the three original founders of the charity, Frances
Homer, left England for Canada, with the first group of 34 boys
and 15 girls.
4. The archives of NCH Action For Children contain a series of
registers and case files documenting sailings and details of individual
children who emigrated to Canada. These include copies of certificates
signed by the parents or guardians of the children concerned,
agreeing to their emigration.5. In 1989, an employee of the National
Archives of Canada undertook a study of the files of children
sent to Canada by National Children's Homes and Orphanages. He
found that the children went initially to the Home in Hamilton,
before being moved to placements within Canada. In the years after
1873, the Home in Hamilton was expanded and developed into a training
and reception centre. The report from the National Archives of
Canada also shows that a member of staff was employed in Hamilton,
specifically to visit the children in their placements and to
oversee their employment and living arrangements. It is understood
that a new Home was opened in Montreal some time after 1873, in
addition to the one in Hamilton, Ontario.6. In terms of the numbers
of children sent, the charity's involvement in child migration
to Canada reached its peak in the years before the First World
War. The practice ceased during the period 1914-18, and never
recovered to pre-War levels thereafter. In 1924, the emigration
of children below working age was made illegal and no new child
migrants were therefore sent.
AUSTRALIA7. The charity
was far less involved in child migration to Australia than to
Canada. The first children from the charity went to Australia
in the period 1937-39, under the auspices of the Fairbridge Farm
Schools. A total of 37 children emigrated and were sent to the
Lady Northcote Farm in the State of Victoria. The Farm had been
set up in memory of Lord Northcote, Governor General of Australia
from 1903 to 1908.8. Child migration to Australia ceased during
the Second World War. In 1949, the then Principal of National
Children's Home (as it was by then called), the Reverend John
Litton, travelled to Australia through his contacts with the Fairbridge
Farm Schools, to examine their child care and training facilities.
He appears to have been impressed by what he saw, and what he
perceived to be the improved life chances of children living apart
from their parents in Australia, compared to Britain. For these
reasons, Reverend Litton decided to develop the charity's involvement
in child migration to Australia.9. During his trip to Australia,
the Reverend Litton visited several Methodist societies in different
States which were providing residential care for children. They
agreed to co-operate with the National Children's Home in developing
a child migration scheme. In the event, fewer children were sent
to Australia than the Reverend Litton hoped.10. Records suggest
that an explanatory letter was sent to parents and guardians of
children resident in some National Children's Home establishments
in Britain, informing them of the prospects of migration and ascertaining
their willingness for their children to be considered. However,
there is no record of the response from parents nor of the means
by which children were selected for migration. The charity's archives
do however, contain records of the formal consents given for children
to emigrate. These suggest that for about two thirds of the children,
parents and guardians provided consents; for most of the others,
if proved impossible to locate any parents or guardians, so the
Principal of the charity gave his consent on their behalf.11.
National Children's Home staff accompanied the groups of children
which travelled to Australia, and appear to have stayed with them
for several years. Prior to their emigration, the children spent
a month at a children's home in Britain. During this period, efforts
were apparently made to prepare them for their new lives, and
all were medically examined to ensure they were fit to travel.
NUMBERS OF
CHILDREN SENT
AND THEIR
DESTINATIONS12. Records show that
a total of 3,600 children emigrated to Canada from Britain, through
the National Children's Homes and Orphanages child migration scheme,
between the years 1873 and 1931. Among these children were
384 who had not been in the care of the charity in Britain. As
has been explained, the children went first to a reception centre
in Hamilton, Ontario, before moving on to permanent placements.13.
Between 1937-39, 37 children from the National Children's Home
emigrated from Britain to Australia through a scheme operated
by Fairbridge Farm Schools. They all went to the Lady Northcote
Farm in Victoria.14. During the period 1949-54, 91 children in
the care of the National Children's Home in Britain, emigrated
to Australia under the charity's child migration scheme. Their
initial placements in Australia were as follows:
Dalmar Children's Home, Carlingford, Sydney: 15 children McGill
Children's Home, Adelaide, South Australia: 16 children Methodist
Home for Girls, Victoria Park, Perth: eight children Methodist
Peace Memorial Home, Burwood, Melbourne: 37 children Dr Barnardos
Farm Training School, Picton, Sydney: 15 children.15. With the
exception of the Dr Barnardo's Home, all the other establishments
were part of the Methodist Church in Australia.
CONTACTS WITH
THE VARIOUS
GOVERNMENTS OVER
THE YEARS16.
The charity's archives for the years 1873 to 1931 are incomplete,
and do not hold any Committee minutes or other records which shed
light on contact between the National Children's Homes and Orphanages,
and the Government of Canada.17. There is much more documentation
about the organisation of the charity's child migrant scheme to
Australia, especially in the years after the Second World War.
There are few references to contacts between the charity and the
Australian Government, except so far as grants are concerned.
The records show that the charity received grants from both State
and National Governments in Australia, and from the British Government,
in support of different aspects of child migration.18. In recent
years, NCH Action For Children has responded readily and in full
to requests for information from the Western Australia Select
Committee Inquiry into Child Migration, and the initiative of
the National Archives of Canada, already referred to, among others.
Today, the charity regularly makes representations and provides
expert information to the British Government on child care matters
and other issues related to our operation work.
THE REASONING
BEHIND THE
CREATION OF
THE SCHEMES19.
Today, it is not especially easy to ascertain the reasoning behind
the development of the charity's child migration schemes; from
the records now available. This difficulty is compounded by the
fact that current professional and public attitudes to child care
are very different from those of fifty or more years ago.20. The
Canadian scheme was developed shortly after the establishment
of the charity in Britain, suggesting that at the time, it was
almost taken for granted that it was in the best interests of
many disadvantaged children in Britain not living with their parents,
to emigrate to "newer" countries, where their prospects
of making a success of their lives would be much better.21. This
attitude has to be viewed in the context of the acute social and
economic disadvantage experienced by the children whom charities
such as the National Children's Homes and Orphanages sought to
help. Although the late Victorian and Edwardian eras were years
of great social reform, the life chances of disadvantaged children
in Britain remained extremely poor. In most cases, the children
living in establishments run by charities in Britain, had already
become detached from their families and local communities. Encouraging
their removal to a country far away may therefore not have seemed
so drastic a move then as it appears to us, today.22. The Australian
child migration scheme which was developed after the Second World
War, appears to have been very much the brain child of the then
Principal of the charity, the Reverend John Litton was a highly
respected child care expert and was awarded the CBE in 1949, in
recognition of his contribution to the Curtis Committee, which
laid the foundations of the 1948 Children Act. It appears that
he genuinely believed that some children's interests would be
best served by sending them to Australia, a view he developed
after visiting child care facilities there.23. There is some suggestion
from the records that the charity's trustees were less enthusiastic
about child migration than the Reverend Litton, and this helps
to explain why the charity's post war scheme began in a limited
way. Records suggest that it was abandoned relatively quickly
because staff who had travelled with the children reported back
that their quality of life in Australia was disappointing, and
fell below the standards then considered acceptable in Britain.
The child care was said to be generally poor, both physically
and emotionally, and children's activities outside establishments
were severely restricted. Reverend Litton went back to Australia
when he retired and tried to improve the child care facilities
there.24. It seems likely that the charity's decision to begin
a child migration scheme after the Second World War was encouraged
by the knowledge that grants of various kinds were available to
help from the National and State Governments of Australia, and
the Government of Britain.
25. This perception is strengthened by the fact that although
the Reverend Litton had been especially committed to the idea
of sending young people to Australia, in practice, it was predominantly
younger children who emigrated. Children's homes in Australia
with which the Reverend Litton was in contact, were keen to expand
by taking unaccompanied children, and were eligible for Government
grants to help them to do so. These grants were forthcoming because
at the time, the National Government of Australia was pursuing
a policy of encouraging immigration from Britain and to a lesser
extent, from other European countries.26. A final factor which
probably contributed to the development of these child migration
schemes was the fact that the charity is and was a Methodist based
organisation. This meant that there was a network of Methodist
churches and welfare institutions in Canada and Australia with
which the charity could easily link.
THE IMPACT
ON CHILDREN
WHO EMIGRATED27.
There is little information in the charity's records about the
Canadian child migration scheme, and the passage of time means
that few former migrants to Canada are still alive to describe
what happened to them. Much more information is available about
the post-war Australian scheme and its impact on the children
concerned.28. Today, it is clear from both academic research and
from media investigations, that the experience of migration was
profoundly damaging to significant numbers of the children concerned.
In particular, the damage derived from the sense of separation
and loss from friends, family and communities in Britain, and
sometimes from the children's unhappy experiences in their adopted
countries.29. Examination of the records within the charity's
archives tend to show that children, parents and guardians were
fully consulted, wherever possible, and that informed consent
was given for emigration. However, anecdotal reports suggest this
was not always the case, and that neither children nor parents
always understood the enormity of the decisions they were being
asked to make. It is also clear from the records that the charity
effectively reneged on an undertaking it gave to parents who had
agreed to their children's emigration, that they would pay for
the repatriation of any child who was unhappy in Australia, and
who wished to return. Today, NCH Action For Children believes
this was very wrong and deeply regrets that it should have happened.30.
The records also show that 17 of the 91 children who emigrated
to Australia under charity's scheme, were separated from their
brothers and sisters in the process. This is perhaps an example
of what appears to have been in many respects, and essentially
unimaginative and bureaucratic approach to dealing with the lives
of very vulnerable children. Forms were duly completed and children
were medically examined, but it is a moot point whether "the
system" really focused on the best interests of the children
concerned, as individuals, with the same need for love and care
as other children. Many of today's commentators would suggest
that this is a problem which continues to afflict the care system,
today.31. Having said this, it is important to acknowledge that
not all the children who emigrated under such schemes were damaged
by their experiences. Some settled well, lead happy and fulfilled
lives and have helped to make Canada and Australia the economically
successful nations they are today. For these people, migration
almost certainly offered them opportunities unavailable to them
in Britain, at the time.32. Similarly, within a "process"
of child migration which appears to have been largely unthinking
and bureaucratic, there were undoubtedly many acts of individual
kindness. It would appear that the charity and its staff made
genuine efforts, in their own terms, to equip these children for
their new lives, and to provide them with continued support in
their adopted countries. Follow up visits were made to children
in placements in both Canada and Australia, and once it became
clear that children were not generally faring well in Australia,
the charity's child migrant scheme there was rapidly abandoned.
The Reverend John Litton who had championed the scheme, sought
to make amends by travelling to Australia to try to improve the
quality of child care.
NCH ACTION FOR
CHILDREN'S
CONTINUING RESPONSIBILITY
TO FORMER
CHILD MIGRANTS33.
NCH Action For Children is absolutely clear that it has a continuing
responsibility towards people who emigrated through the child
migrant schemes the charity once ran. It also accepts that it
owes a similar duty to members of their families, who may now
wish to find our more about the lives of relatives who were former
child migrants.34. In discharging these responsibilities, NCH
Action For Children accepts that it is particularly important
that the charity provides any former child migrant who approaches
it for information, with a courteous, efficient and sensitive
response to their enquiries. NCH Action For Children sent far
fewer children abroad under child migrant schemes than some other
charities, so it does not maintain a special unit to provide this
kind of service. However, as a charity which provided a great
deal of residential care in the past, it is regularly approached
by former residents of its children's homes in Britain, and it
has policies and procedures for responding to their requests for
information which are broadly applicable to former child migrants.35.
A constraint on NCH Action For Children's ability to respond appropriately
to these requests for help, is the fact that child care record-keeping
in the 1950s and before, was not as efficient or full as is the
case today. It is therefore not always possible to provide former
child migrants and their families, with the information they are
seeking. However, in all cases NCH Action For Children is committed
to providing as much information as it possibly can.36. Recently,
a situation occurred in which a former child migrant's family
sought help from the charity and received a response which fell
below the standards they could reasonably have expected, and below
the standards the charity sets for itself. One of the problems
was that unfortunately, the member of staff who first dealt with
their request died while in service, and the handover of work
to colleagues was protracted and incomplete. NCH Action For Children
has apologised unreservedly to the family concerned for the distress
inadvertently caused to them by the way it responded to their
request for help, and has reviewed its procedures to ensure that
this situation cannot happen again.
Letter from the Director, Social Services
Department, The Salvation Army, to the Clerk of the Committee
WELFARE OF FORMER BRITISH CHILD MIGRANTS
(CH 138)With reference to your letter
of 5 December 1997 I here attached information I have gathered
regarding the involvement of The Salvation Army in such schemes.
One of the major difficulties which has hindered the investigation
is that The Salvation Army International Headquarters was bombed
during the Second World War so that the vast majority of our records
were destroyed then. I have sought to gather information from
the various Salvation Army Oversees Territories possibly involved,
but most of them are still researching the matter and I expect
to receive more information later, particularly from Canada and
Australia. I will forward any further information received as
soon as possible. You will observe from the brief summary at the
front of the attached documents that The Salvation Army was mainly
involved in migrant schemes for families and boys of 14 years
and upwards, after they left school. There are some instances
of migration arrangements for younger children but these seem
to be relatively few. We are willing to answer any questions or
give any further information that you require. The bulk of the
information is contained in the documents attached as Appendices
but a brief summary of this is given initially as requested.
Summary of information on the Salvation
Army's investigation into its own involvement in Child Migrant
Schemes and their subsequent response regarding the Welfare of
Former Child MigrantsIn 1890
William Booth, the co-founder of The Salvation Army with Catherine
his wife, published a social treatise entitled, In Darkest
England and the Way Out. This book described the plight of
the poorest people living in inner cities of England, whom he
described as the submerged tenth. The basis of all The Salvation
Army Social Work now spread around the world in over 100 countries
is based on the principles he set out. Papers given at the first
Salvation Army International Social Councils (or Conference) in
1911 with extracts in Appendix A provide background on the implementation
of Booth's concepts.A substantial part of Booth's plan to rescue
the destitute was in three stages, providing accommodation and
employment at each stage. This consisted of a City Colony, a Farm
Colony and an Overseas Colony. Emigration from England to developing
countries in the Commonwealth was an important part of these plans.
The vast majority of those involved however were families. Some
boys of 14 years of age, when they left school, were included
in the schemes and a small number of individual children, whose
guardianship was signed over to The Salvation Army. An overview
of the schemes was prepared in September 1996 at the request of
a Select Committee into Child Migration of the Legislative Assembly
of Western Australia. A copy of this document is attached as Appendix
B.Information regarding information still available in the various
overseas territories is given in a page of notes from the Salvation
Army Heritage Centre together with references to various relevant
publications. The basis for the selection of boys of 14 years
of age and upwards is given as requests from parents together
with other circumstances such as "blind alley" jobs
or being unemployed. The process of training, equipping and guardianship
is confirmed in these notes.Information received from The Salvation
Army Headquarters in Wellington, New Zealand describes The Salvation
Army activity in Migrant Schemes to New Zealand. This information
is attached as Appendix D together with reports from The Salvation
Army publications between 1922-30, when these schemes were at
their peak. You will see that in addition to the families and
boys of 14 years and over, just 29 individual children were received
in New Zealand under Salvation Army Schemes.A letter from The
Salvation Army Territorial Commander in Southern Africa confirms
that no Salvation Army schemes were operated to South Africa (Appendix
E). The Salvation Army did operate migration schemes to Canada
but again mainly families and boys of 14 years of age and above.
Information is still being prepared and will be sent as soon as
possible (see attached Letter Appendix F). Similarly information
is still being researched in The Salvation Army Territory of Australia
East (see fax letter of 4 February 1998—Appendix G)
The Salvation Army Family Tracing Service has since its formation
in 1885 sought to locate missing relatives of families where contact
has been lost for whatever reason. They have been instrumental
in tracing the families of many child migrants over the years.
Enquiries have come mainly from those who emigrated with Barnardos
but also enquires from Fairbridge and Big Brother schemes. As
far as we know no particular requests have come from children
who emigrated on Salvation Army sponsored child migrant schemes
(see Appendix H).An overall resume of The Salvation Army's migrant
schemes is given in an extract from the book: Bread for my
Neighbour by General Frederick Coutts (see Appendix J).
18 February 1998
SOURCE OF
SALVATION ARMY
INFORMATIONMost of The Salvation
Army Sources of information contained in this paper are listed
in this extracts from documents given in the Appendices and these
sources include:
- International Heritage Centre
- Family Tracing Service
- Reliance Travel (formerly Salvation Army Migration
Department)
- Territorial Headquarters in Canada, New Zealand
Army, South Africa and Australia South and East.
- Book: Aspects of Social Work in the Salvation
Army (Papers from International SA Conference in 1911)
- Book: Bread for my neighbour by General
Frederick Coutts.
- Book: Boys in Britain in 1920s?
- Book: Organised Empire Migration and Settlement
1930
- Book: History of The Salvation Army Volume 3
LIST OF
INFORMATION ATTACHED—APPENDICES[2] A. Extracts
from Aspects of Social Work in The Salvation Army. Papers
presented at an International Social Conference in London in 1911. B. Paper
on Historical Background, etc, prepared in September 1996 following
an enquiry from the Select Committee of Legislative Assembly of
the Parliament of Western Australia. C. Notes from The
Salvation Army Heritage Centre. D. Letter dated 28 January
1998 from the Territorial Commander of The Salvation Army in New
Zealand with list of extracts from the New Zealand War Cry papers
1924-30 with complete list of 28 child migrants with four sample
copies of War Cry Reports. E. Letter dated January 1998
from Territorial Commander of The Salvation Army in South Africa
confirming that no child migrants were sent there by The Salvation
Army. F. Letter dated January 1998 from The Salvation
Army Territorial Headquarters in Canada. G. An initial
fax message dated 4 February 1998 from The Salvation Army Australia
South Territory on information available. H. Report from
Director of Salvation Army Family Tracing Service on the assistance
provided by The Salvation Army to individuals and families seeking
to trace missing relatives including child migrants, who went
abroad via many different agencies. J. Extract (chapter
13) of book Bread for my neighbour by General Frederick Coutts.
2 Appendices not printed.
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