Home Children

The British Home Children were groups of children sent from children’s homes across the UK to countries like Canada and Australia. Archives can be an amazing tool to find and tell the stories of these children.

We have been undertaking work to explore the British Home Children who went from Scotland to Canada by putting on two webinars as part of Glasgow Doors Open Days Festival 2024 working with organisations such as Glasgow Building Preservation Trust.

The Power of Archives: Finding the Home Children who went to Canada

Thursday 19 September 2024, 13.00-14.30

Join us as we explore the history of the British Home Children. Over 100,000, including 7,000 from Glasgow, of these children were sent from the United Kingdom to Canada between 1869 and 1939. This often-overlooked chapter in history shaped the lives of thousands of young people, many of whom faced tremendous challenges as they were sent to work on farms and in homes across Canada.

This webinar will highlight the importance of archives and their accessibility.

Watch the recording here.

‘Give Us The Power To Make A Golden Bridge Across The Atlantic’ – Honouring the story of Glasgow’s child migrants

Tuesday 17 September 2024, 20.00

In 2001, the Heatherbank Museum of Social Work, now part of Glasgow Caledonian University, hosted a public exhibition that shared the stories of the child migrants from Quarrier’s Homes. A few years later, the exhibition and the extensive archival material behind it were curated, digitized, and published online by IRISS, the social care charity. Hear from the team who created this poignant resource, finally giving a voice to the thousands who were sent to new worlds, with little or no say in their fate.

Watch the recording here.