Oshawa Siblings Want Story of 'Home Children' To Be Told
Written by Jillian Follert, DurhamRegion.com
Thousands of British children forced into labour in Canada, no apology from government
Gladys Fudge was only 12 years old when she was shipped from England to Canada, to work as a farm labourer.
It was 1920 and she was among more than 100,000 poor or orphaned British children taken from the only home they had ever known and put to work in commonwealth countries such as Canada and Australia.
"They were treated as second-class citizens, so many of them were mistreated or abused," said Irene Campbell, daughter of the late Ms. Fudge. "It's hard to believe this happened in Canada. So many people don't know anything about this, we want the story to be told."
Between the 1860s and 1939, the British government sent thousands of children overseas at the urging of charities and church groups trying to address the problem of poverty in Britain's urban slums.
The government of Canada has designated 2010 as the Year of the British Home Child, in recognition of the children who toiled here as maids, servants and farm hands under Britain's Child Migration Scheme.â?¨ A commemorative postage stamp was recently unveiled and a reception was held in Ottawa on Sept. 9 for Canadian descendants of British home children.
But many say it's not enough.
Ms. Fudge's children -- four of the seven are still living -- want the Canadian government to issue a formal apology to home children and their families, something the British and Australian governments have already done.
They also want to see home children included in the history curriculum for Canadian students.
"We just want them to be acknowledged," said Gord Fudge, an Oshawa resident.
Gathered around his kitchen table, Mr. Fudge and his siblings sift through the records, photos and newspaper clippings collected over years of trying to piece together their mother's story.
Ms. Fudge was just seven when she was put into an institution home in London. She and her younger sister were sent to Canada in 1920, landing in Saint John, New Brunswick, then taking a train to a "distributing home" in Peterborough. From there, the sisters were separated. It would be years before they would find each other again.
Between the ages of 12 and 18, Ms. Fudge worked on 11 farms, rarely attending school.
"She didn't talk a lot about what happened to her ... but we knew it made her sad," recalled her daughter Jean Alexander, also from Oshawa. "At least she got to live in a house. Some of the home children lived in barns, they were treated like dogs."
Ms. Campbell pointed out that the Canadian government apologized for forcing thousands of aboriginal children to attend state-funded Christian boarding schools, and questions why this doesn't warrant the same gesture.
"These are both situations where children were forced to leave their families and their homes and where there was a lot of abuse," she says. "Why wouldn't they apologize for this too?"
It is estimated that between three million and four million Canadians are directly descended from British home children.
The children of Ms. Fudge are looking to connect with other local home children descendants. Contact Jean Alexander at 905-728-7018 for more information.
© Copyright Metroland 2010
It was 1920 and she was among more than 100,000 poor or orphaned British children taken from the only home they had ever known and put to work in commonwealth countries such as Canada and Australia.
"They were treated as second-class citizens, so many of them were mistreated or abused," said Irene Campbell, daughter of the late Ms. Fudge. "It's hard to believe this happened in Canada. So many people don't know anything about this, we want the story to be told."
Between the 1860s and 1939, the British government sent thousands of children overseas at the urging of charities and church groups trying to address the problem of poverty in Britain's urban slums.
The government of Canada has designated 2010 as the Year of the British Home Child, in recognition of the children who toiled here as maids, servants and farm hands under Britain's Child Migration Scheme.â?¨ A commemorative postage stamp was recently unveiled and a reception was held in Ottawa on Sept. 9 for Canadian descendants of British home children.
But many say it's not enough.
Ms. Fudge's children -- four of the seven are still living -- want the Canadian government to issue a formal apology to home children and their families, something the British and Australian governments have already done.
They also want to see home children included in the history curriculum for Canadian students.
"We just want them to be acknowledged," said Gord Fudge, an Oshawa resident.
Gathered around his kitchen table, Mr. Fudge and his siblings sift through the records, photos and newspaper clippings collected over years of trying to piece together their mother's story.
Ms. Fudge was just seven when she was put into an institution home in London. She and her younger sister were sent to Canada in 1920, landing in Saint John, New Brunswick, then taking a train to a "distributing home" in Peterborough. From there, the sisters were separated. It would be years before they would find each other again.
Between the ages of 12 and 18, Ms. Fudge worked on 11 farms, rarely attending school.
"She didn't talk a lot about what happened to her ... but we knew it made her sad," recalled her daughter Jean Alexander, also from Oshawa. "At least she got to live in a house. Some of the home children lived in barns, they were treated like dogs."
Ms. Campbell pointed out that the Canadian government apologized for forcing thousands of aboriginal children to attend state-funded Christian boarding schools, and questions why this doesn't warrant the same gesture.
"These are both situations where children were forced to leave their families and their homes and where there was a lot of abuse," she says. "Why wouldn't they apologize for this too?"
It is estimated that between three million and four million Canadians are directly descended from British home children.
The children of Ms. Fudge are looking to connect with other local home children descendants. Contact Jean Alexander at 905-728-7018 for more information.
© Copyright Metroland 2010
