George Everett Green, Owen Sound - Died November 9 1895
Death through ill-usage
Dr. Barnardo's Boy
Evidence of Manslaughter trial
Died November 9 1895
Aged: 15
Cause: Starvation, Abuse and Neglect
Place: Township of Keppel, Ontario, Canada
Pages 2 and 3, Ups and Downs, Volume 1, Number 5, Dec 1, 1895. Toronto.
"It is our deep and painful duty to refer to what is unquestionably the most distressing event in the history of our work from the time of its first establishment - the death of the poor boy George Everett Green and the subsequent committal of his employer Miss Findlay on a charge of manslaughter for having caused his death by neglect or ill-usage. It would be wrong and illegal to make any comment on the case while it is still before the courts, but we must add our emphatic protests against the tone adopted by many of the papers in dealong with the subject. It has been commented upon as if this poor lad, who unquestionably had physical defects, although not in rhe least to the extent that has been represented, was a fair specimen of our boys, and as if the filth, squalor, and neglect amid which he lived and died is typical of the surroundings of our boys in Canadian farm homes. One is as gross an exageration as the other.
"We believe that Green, when he left England, was free of ailment or indication of disease, but he was never robust, and after he had been out for some little time there is no doubt he fell into bad health. Had we known of his condition we should have brought him back and put him under medical treatment, but unfortunately neither he nor anyone else gave us any intimation of his condition. He was only placed with Miss Findlay in May last, and the neighbourhood being on which Mr Griffith visits in the winter, we had not seen anything of him. Had he been kindly and properly cared for, the poor lad might have been here still, but, instead of this the surroundings were all of the poorest and roughest. His employer was a person struggling to maintain herself by her own almost unaided exertions on a poor farm in a very remote district, and in the boy's home there were none of the comforts, and the barest necessities of life. It appears that his constitution at length succumbed under want of care and proper treatment, and the public opinion of the neighbourhood expressed itself in the movement which led to the holding of the inquest and the subsequent arrest ant committal of the woman.
"What the issue of the forthcoming trial may be is not for us to forecast, neither have we any opinion to express upon the degree of responsibility that rests upon the accused, but we do once again repeat our protest against the cruelty and injustice of branding all our boys and girls as diseased and depraved because there appears to be evidence that this one unfortunate boy was not of sound and healthy condition, and to attack and condemn the whole system, because, in this one case, there may have been an error in our judgement, either of the boy or of
this home.
"Our defence in regard to the latter is, that the circumstances had entirely changed since we had an opportunity of forming an impression of the place. For the past four years we have had a boy in the same household. This boy has written and spoken in the highest terms of the treatment he received, and each time he was visited he was found to be very happy and thriving There was nothing to cause us the slightest misgiving, and we imagined it was under the same conditions we were placing poor George Green. It appears, however, that the death of the brother, George Findlay, at the beginning of the present year led to an entire and disastrous change, and everything about the place seems to have fallen into neglect and wretchedness. Can anyone suppose that if we had the slightest idea of this state of affairs, we would have allowed any boy to go to such a place, or that we should not have removed him at once if he himself or anyone else had told us how he was situated?
The whole occurrence is surrounded with awfully distressing and painful circumstances, and, for the time being, it has cast a shadow of the deepest gloom over our whole work."
Dr. Barnardo's Boy
Evidence of Manslaughter trial
Died November 9 1895
Aged: 15
Cause: Starvation, Abuse and Neglect
Place: Township of Keppel, Ontario, Canada
Pages 2 and 3, Ups and Downs, Volume 1, Number 5, Dec 1, 1895. Toronto.
"It is our deep and painful duty to refer to what is unquestionably the most distressing event in the history of our work from the time of its first establishment - the death of the poor boy George Everett Green and the subsequent committal of his employer Miss Findlay on a charge of manslaughter for having caused his death by neglect or ill-usage. It would be wrong and illegal to make any comment on the case while it is still before the courts, but we must add our emphatic protests against the tone adopted by many of the papers in dealong with the subject. It has been commented upon as if this poor lad, who unquestionably had physical defects, although not in rhe least to the extent that has been represented, was a fair specimen of our boys, and as if the filth, squalor, and neglect amid which he lived and died is typical of the surroundings of our boys in Canadian farm homes. One is as gross an exageration as the other.
"We believe that Green, when he left England, was free of ailment or indication of disease, but he was never robust, and after he had been out for some little time there is no doubt he fell into bad health. Had we known of his condition we should have brought him back and put him under medical treatment, but unfortunately neither he nor anyone else gave us any intimation of his condition. He was only placed with Miss Findlay in May last, and the neighbourhood being on which Mr Griffith visits in the winter, we had not seen anything of him. Had he been kindly and properly cared for, the poor lad might have been here still, but, instead of this the surroundings were all of the poorest and roughest. His employer was a person struggling to maintain herself by her own almost unaided exertions on a poor farm in a very remote district, and in the boy's home there were none of the comforts, and the barest necessities of life. It appears that his constitution at length succumbed under want of care and proper treatment, and the public opinion of the neighbourhood expressed itself in the movement which led to the holding of the inquest and the subsequent arrest ant committal of the woman.
"What the issue of the forthcoming trial may be is not for us to forecast, neither have we any opinion to express upon the degree of responsibility that rests upon the accused, but we do once again repeat our protest against the cruelty and injustice of branding all our boys and girls as diseased and depraved because there appears to be evidence that this one unfortunate boy was not of sound and healthy condition, and to attack and condemn the whole system, because, in this one case, there may have been an error in our judgement, either of the boy or of
this home.
"Our defence in regard to the latter is, that the circumstances had entirely changed since we had an opportunity of forming an impression of the place. For the past four years we have had a boy in the same household. This boy has written and spoken in the highest terms of the treatment he received, and each time he was visited he was found to be very happy and thriving There was nothing to cause us the slightest misgiving, and we imagined it was under the same conditions we were placing poor George Green. It appears, however, that the death of the brother, George Findlay, at the beginning of the present year led to an entire and disastrous change, and everything about the place seems to have fallen into neglect and wretchedness. Can anyone suppose that if we had the slightest idea of this state of affairs, we would have allowed any boy to go to such a place, or that we should not have removed him at once if he himself or anyone else had told us how he was situated?
The whole occurrence is surrounded with awfully distressing and painful circumstances, and, for the time being, it has cast a shadow of the deepest gloom over our whole work."
George Green's death certificate
Mansfield Daily Shield Nov 15 1895
Winnipeg Morning Free Press
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Manitoba Morning Free Press Nov 22 1895 
Manitoba Morning Free Press Nov 25 1895
Winnipeg Morning Free Press Dec 19 1895 |
Winnipeg Morning Free Press
November 29 1895
Links to stories about the death of George Everett Green
Disability Studies, Temple U
In Memory of George Everett Green
Our History - by Andrew Armitage
Tragic end for Barnardo boy who came to Grey County for a fresh start
By Joy Parr Published by British Home Children Descendents
The tragic life of George Everett Green
Dictionary of Canadian Biography
George Everett Green
