Historical overview
Their Story, Our History
Home Children quietly helped build our country and their many descendants continue to do so today. Yet the migration of British children to Canada is a little-known chapter of Canada’s immigration and social history. Between 1869 and the late 1940s, British religious and philanthropic organizations transported about 100,000 children to Canada to live with Canadian families and work as farm labourers or domestic servants. Most of these children were under the age of 14 and came from urban slums.
In Canada, the children would become known as Home Children, as the institutions from which many of them came were known as Homes. The best-known, Barnardo’s Homes, sent approximately 30,000 children to Canada, 70 percent of them boys.
A Response to Child Poverty
The idea of child migration took hold as a response to desperate child poverty in Britain during the rapid industrial expansion of the early 1800s. During this period, many people moved from the countryside to large cities like London to seek work in factories. High unemployment, low wages, overcrowded housing and large families contributed to precarious situations for most households. A crisis, such as the death or departure of a parent, often left the family unable to provide the bare necessities for all of its members. Often, there were few choices but to place children in orphanages or Homes.
The British government and the agencies behind the Child Migrant Scheme were motivated, in part, by concern for the welfare of the children, but also by the desire to reduce the financial burden of providing for them. The children brought to Canada had been residing in Homes, orphanages or workhouses, or had no shelter whatsoever. Some of the children were, in fact, orphans, but most are thought to have come from families too poor to care for them.
Although unthinkable today, sending unaccompanied young children thousands of kilometres from their families, to live with and work for strangers, was seen at the time as practical – even morally commendable. Many people in Britain had an idealized vision of life in rural Canada and believed that the children would be better off beginning a new life in a healthful environment away from the corrupting influence of the poor areas of Britain’s cities.
Vulnerable to Abuse
On arrival in Canada, the majority of the children were placed on farms in Ontario, Québec and the Maritimes, usually through an apprenticeship or an indenture agreement, a contract that would set out the terms of their work and wages, expectations for school attendance, and clothing requirements.
Some children were fortunate and were treated as members of their new Canadian families. In some instances, the families adopted them. However, it is generally agreed that the living and working conditions of the Home Children were poorly supervised in Canada, leaving the children vulnerable to abuse.
Growing Concerns Regarding Child Migration
Growing concerns about the welfare of the children prompted most agencies who sent them to Canada to conduct yearly inspection visits. In 1883, the Government of Canada agreed to annual inspections of the children. From a practical standpoint, though, it was hard to carry out the inspections due to the limited number of officers available, the difficulty of tracing the children and the fact that the children were widely dispersed.
There were opponents of the child immigration movement in both Canada and Britain. In Canada, organized labour opposed it on the grounds that the children took jobs away from Canadians. Others expressed concern that Home Children, most of whom came to Canada after early experiences in the slums of Britain, would corrupt Canadian youth or become a burden on public funds through unemployment and imprisonment.
In Britain, opposition to the migration was based primarily on the agencies’ lack of care in choosing Canadian homes and the absence of regular inspections once the children were placed with Canadian families.
With the outbreak of the First World War, child migration to Canada was temporarily suspended. An estimated 10,000 former child migrants fought for Canada during the war. Of particular note was the service of Claude Joseph Patrick Nunney, who received the Distinguished Conduct Medal, the Military Medal and the Victoria Cross.
Movement of Children to Canada Comes to an End
Child migration began again in 1920, but on a much smaller scale. It was further reduced by the 1925 informal ban on the entry of unaccompanied children under the age of 14, and finally banned by law in 1928. The federal government banned the immigration of very young, unaccompanied children in response to a public outcry over several well-publicized cases of abuse, including the suicides of three of the children and gross mistreatment leading to the death of another. As well, there was less demand for imported labour during the high unemployment years of the Depression, when many adults were prepared to work for meagre wages.
Some older children did come to Canada during the 1930s. Under a special exemption, approximately 350 children were brought to the Fairbridge Farm School in British Columbia between 1935 and the late 1940s.
By the time they had reached the age of 18 and were released from their employment obligations, Home Children generally lacked education or preparation for skilled work. Nevertheless, many of them went on to build fulfilling lives in Canada. As adults recalling their life experiences, some former Home Children said their emigration to Canada provided them with opportunities they appreciated.
Legacy of Home Children in Canada
There are no reliable estimates available of the number of British Home Children still living in Canada. Since most of them arrived before 1925, there are likely very few surviving. It is estimated that between three and four million Canadians are descended from former Home Children.
In 1999, the Historic Sites and Monuments Board recognized the immigration of the Home Children as an event of national historic significance and installed a commemorative plaque on a house in Stratford, Ontario, that had been an agency receiving home for Home Children.
Private Claude Joseph Patrick Nunney
Claude Joseph Patrick Nunney was born in Dublin, Ireland, on December 24, 1892. As his family was poor, he and a few of his siblings were sent to Canada in 1905 as Home Children, in the hopes the children would have a better life here in Canada. Nunney was first a ward of St. George’s Home in Ottawa, then placed in a home in North Lancaster, before his foster-mother’s death in 1912. He was then placed in another home in the area, from where he enlisted in June 1913, as a private with the 59th Stormont & Glengarry Regiment.
In February 1915, Nunney enlisted for service in the Canadian Expeditionary Force with the 58th Battalion. In March 1915, he was transferred to the 38th Battalion, before sailing for England in May 1916.
Nunney was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his actions during the Battle of Vimy Ridge in April 1917, and the Military Medal for his actions at Avion later the same year.
Nunney was in action near Vis-en-Artois, France, on September 1-2, 1918, during the Second Battles of Arras, which included the fight for the Drocourt-Quéant line, a heavily defended portion of the German trench system.
His Victoria Cross citation appeared in the London Gazette of December 14th, 1918:
"For most conspicuous bravery during the operations against the Drocourt-Quéant line on the 1st and 2nd September, 1918.
"On 1st September, when his battalion was in the vicinity of Vis-en-Artois, preparatory to the advance, the enemy laid down a heavy barrage and counter-attacked. Pte. Nunney, who was at this time at company headquarters, immediately on his own initiative proceeded through the barrage to the company outpost lines, going from post to post and encouraging the men by his own fearless example. The enemy were repulsed and a critical situation was saved. During the attack on 2nd September his dash continually placed him in advance of his companions, and his fearless example undoubtedly helped greatly to carry the company forward to its objectives.
"He displayed throughout the highest degree of valour until severely wounded."
Claude Joseph Patrick Nunney died as a result of his wounds in hospital at Vis-en-Artois, France, some sixteen days later. He is interred at the Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension in Aubigny-en-Artois, France, a village approximately fifteen kilometers northwest of Arras. His medals are on display at the Museum of the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa.
-Private Nunney’s story provided by Veterans Affairs Canada