Dear Editor:
RE: Home children, Sept. 23.
My grandmother was one of these children, part of the Barnardo Homes program in England.
I cannot speak for the statistics in Tasha Heart’s letter, but I have lots of evidence that this program did exist. My grandmother’s mother died in child birth and her father was wayward. Her older siblings had young families of their own so she was abandoned to an orphanage and then ended up with Barnardo. It was hard times in England and in Canada.
She came to Barnardo at age 12 and was shipped to Canada a few months later. She worked on a farm near Hastings and another near Clarksburg, then went to a third farm in Greensville. There she met my grandfather and married at age 15. She went on to raise 12 children.
My grandmother was very positive in her correspondence with Barnardo. She went to meet her sister during a trip to England. She also had correspondence with Canada’s Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. She received a newspaper write-up while in England during her visit.
Whether there were abuses on these farms is not evidenced by her letters but, suffice to say, these children were put to hard work on these farms. Some would have perished and would likely been buried in Canada at minimal cost.
If Canada is truly fair in this reconciliation process, these Home children should be major part of this investigation.
Peter Zess,
Guelph