I was reading with interest the Hiding Out thread, started by sessions, who is from Vancouver. I was there in 1987, visiting friends in Vancouver and my mother's brother (Uncle Ted), who had retired to Victoria, on Vancouver Island.
It was a shorter visit than I’d have liked as I was on my way home from Pakistan. I’d been on secondment to the FCO in Islamabad; in those days they gave you a business class ticket home that you could trade in for an economy class ‘round-the-world’ ticket. I stopped over in Bangkok, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, then Vancouver, where, if I remember correctly, I rented a car from a company called Rent-A-Wreck!
The ferry trip to Vancouver Island was stunning, and the Island itself was beautiful, but the reason for this story is Uncle Ted, and how he ended up there.
My mother’s siblings (3 girls and 2 boys) were born between 1913 (Ted) and 1919, and they were orphaned in 1920. In February 1929, aged 15, Ted embarked from Southampton on the SS Pennland, sailing to Halifax, with the final destination of Montreal. He was in one of the later parties of British Home Children to be sent to Canada.
https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/ ... rds.aspx#bBetween 1869 and the late 1930s, over 100,000 juvenile migrants were sent to Canada from the British Isles during the child emigration movement. Motivated by social and economic forces, churches and philanthropic organizations sent orphaned, abandoned and pauper children to Canada. Many believed that these children would have a better chance for a healthy, moral life in rural Canada, where families welcomed them as a source of cheap farm labour and domestic help.
After arriving by ship, the children were sent to distributing and receiving homes, such as Fairknowe in Brockville, and then sent on to farmers in the area. Although many of the children were poorly treated and abused, others experienced a better life and job opportunities here than if they had remained in the urban slums of England. Many served with the Canadian and British Forces during both World Wars.
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/ ... t-children
This wasn’t an adoption scheme, though it had been in many cases earlier on, when children were sent at a much younger age; it was more like a business arrangement. The arrangement was that Ted would work on a farm for a few years, initially earning his keep, and during the last year or two the farmer was supposed to put his wages aside to give him a start in life. Unfortunately, that last bit didn’t quite work out as intended, and Ted was ripped off. Nevertheless, he went on to have a good life in Canada, mostly in Ontario.
Ted’s first trip back to England was with the army in WW2, but the first time I met him was when he visited in c. 1965, when we still lived in London.
I visited him and his family (4 kids) in 1971, when I was 14. He was by then head of maintenance at a Forestry Service Training School in the middle of nowhere, near(ish) to Huntsville, Ontario. It was an amazing holiday in a stunning part of the country. In the midst of miles and miles of forest (obviously), it was early autumn and the trees ranged from green to gold to red. We drove to the nearest rubbish tip to watch the bears rummage for leftovers. On a network of lakes, I’d spend hours zipping around in a dinghy with an outboard. One of my cousins, who was about 19 and training to be a helicopter pilot for the Forestry Service, drove a late 50s Chrysler New Yorker, black with fins. Both he and the car were so cool!! We visited Ottawa and Niagara Falls, but I’d have been quite happy just to stay on the lake. A holiday I wanted never to end.
I had the opportunity to emigrate to Canada when I was 18, but I bottled out. I still have the occasional ‘what if’ moment…
