In 1949, 13 year old Pamela Smedley boarded a ship with 27 other girls from a Catholic orphanage in Britain. The nuns told them they were going on a day trip. The girls were excited, happy to be out in the world, on an adventure. According to Pamela, quote “We thought it would be like going to Scarborough for the day because we were so innocent and naive.” But they weren’t going to Scarborough. They were going to Australia, for good. Four extremely difficult decades would pass before Pamela would return home to Britain and finally reunite with her family, her mother who had been waiting for her all those years, wondering. The girls on that ship were part of Britain’s child migrant program which sent an estimated 150,000 children to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Rhodesia during the 19th and 20th centuries. The press at the time reported that these children were being sent to loving families, taken into homes, and raised in caring environments. But did you know, that was all a lie? Let’s fix that. 

Sources: 

• The Guardian "I couldn't love her: the last UK child migrants to Australia on the long, lonely search for their mothers"
• BBC "Which countries are in the Commonwealth and what is it for?"
• Government of Canada Library Archives "Home Children"
• Australian Mu-sea-um "Children were sent overseas as early as 1618"
• History.com "Canada's Long, Gradual Road to Independence"
• The New York Times "Why is Australia Still Part of the British Monarchy?"
• Parliamentary Education Office of Australia "Why is Australia a part of the commonwealth?
• Child Migrants Trust
• The Guardian "Britain's child migrant programme: why 130,000 children were shipped abroad"
• The Guardian "Abused and publicly flogged: the UK child migrants sent for a better life in Australia"
• BBC "The 13-year-old girl sent on a 'day trip' to Australia"
• news.com.au "The Forgotten Children"
• Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast "Child Migrant Program"

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