Graves of children taken off the streets of Britain and brought to Canada

“On my winter walk through Park Lawn Cemetery in Toronto, I came upon two monuments and several graves commemorating children brought from the streets of England to Canada as part of Dr. Barnardo’s Homes.

It’s a painful and complicated legacy — one poignantly explored in Kenneth Bagnell’s bestselling book, The Little Immigrants.

The story begins in Britain, where thousands of children lived in squalid conditions, their families too poor to care for them. In desperation, some parents gave up their children to charitable organizations like Dr. Barnardo’s, hoping they might find a better life overseas. Yet only about two per cent of the children sent to Canada were true orphans. Most had families who, due to poverty, had no other choice.

Between the late 1860s and the 1930s, more than 100,000 children were sent to Canada — often placed as farm labourers or domestic workers. While the program may have been born of good intentions, the reality for many was bleak. Separation, exploitation, abuse, and loneliness defined their Canadian experience.

Today, it’s estimated that over four million Canadians are descendants of British Home Children. But standing before those stone markers, reading the names and ages of these young souls, it’s hard not to feel that those good intentions — however well-meaning — went terribly wrong.

Some of these children did find opportunity. But for many, their lives were marked more by hardship than hope.

This is William Blake Gregory. He came over to Canada as a Barnardo Home Child  around 1903-1905. He ended up on a farm near Markdale, Ontario.