The often harrowing stories of thousands of Birmingham orphans and unwanted children forcibly sent to work on farms in Canada are set to be revealed by a city history group.

About 6,000 children aged three to 12 were sent from the Middlemore Children's Homes in Highgate to far flung corners of the world between 1873 and 1948 as part of a scheme to get the urchins of our streets and playing a constructive role in building the colonies.

Most of the children came from the Birmingham slums where as ‘street urchins’ they were destined for lives of poverty, grime, crime or hard work in the factories. They were a mix of orphans, those whose parents had fallen ill or been sent to prison or fallen out of work and could not afford to look after them.

But while some flourished on the farms of Canada and took their place in new families, others were handed over to lives of brutal hard labour or suffered at the hands of abusive adoptive parents. Many would never see their English brothers, sisters or families again.

Now the Balsall Heath History Society have teamed up with Brummie historian Carl Chinn to highlight the Middlemore Children Emigration Homes and call for descendants of the Home Children to come forward with their personal stories along with any photographs and letters. Their Lost Children Project is being backed by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Prof Chinn said: "The children were taken away from the back streets of Birmingham because they were seen as 'street arabs' or 'gutter children'. In that period lots of middle class people looked down on the poor and there was a lot of poverty.

Carl Chinn with the 'street urchins' at Birmingham's Back to Back houses

"They didn't see neighbourhoods and the community ties so they thought it was better to take children away from their homes, if it was an unhappy home or else if there was a widow or an abandoned mother and send them to the open spaces of Canada."

"Some of them were fortunate in Canada they went to good homes and did well. Others were used as cheap labour and were very unhappy."

One unfortunate case being looked into involved a man, now aged 93, who emigrated at the age of eight with his younger brother. They were sent to separate farms miles apart. It was assumed the boys were orphans. The family has now found that there were eight brothers and sisters, but just the two of them were sent to Middlemore and abroad.

Children from the Balsall Heath Youth Theatre group

The man and his family are desperate to trace his Brummie relatives before he dies.

The Homes were founded by philanthropist Sir John Middlemore in 1872, with financial support from the Chamberlain and Cadbury families. He would later become Liberal MP for Birmingham North.

History Society spokeswoman Rowena Lyon said: "The children spent up to a year, on average, at the ‘Middlemore Homes’ preparing for their epic journey.

"The girls were taught domestic duties while the boys were prepared for a life of farm labour. They were given a basic education and skills that would make them useful workers and give them an opportunity to prosper in their new life abroad. The children were taken overseas in large groups and then distributed to families when they arrived. Canadian farmers could specify how many children they wanted, what age and which sex.

"For the colonies it was a source of cheap labour and an opportunity to populate the Commonwealth with ‘good British stock’ or ‘material’ as the children were often called. What seems a hugely misguided policy now, made sense to the politicians of the day."

Children Ken, Marjorie Skidmore and Audrey at the Prince of Wales Fairbridge Farm School, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada.
Children Ken, Marjorie Skidmore and Audrey at the Prince of Wales Fairbridge Farm School, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada.

The majority of Middlemore residents have now died never made contact with their long lost families. Others found it too difficult given the great distances and effort involved to trace relatives.

In 2010 then Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologised on behalf of the nation to the 150,000 British children forced to migrate to the colonies.

Mr Brown said: “To all those former child migrants and their families; to those here with us today and those across the world – to each and every one – I say today we are truly sorry. We are sorry they were allowed to be sent away when at their most vulnerable.

“We are sorry that instead of caring for them, this country turned its back."

The Lost Children project research will eventually be turned into a book and major touring exhibition in 2020 featuring the case studies of the children.

The group has already compiled the following case studies and personal stories:

Joe Payne

Joseph Payne was born on September 11, 1905 Blockley, Gloucestershire. His younger sister Georgina was born on June 19, 1910. The parents - Josiah and Alice and their two children lived in Murcot until the beginning of World War One in 1914, when their father went off to serve in the First World War.

The family were never reunited, despite the father living until 1924. Alice and the children moved to the city of Birmingham in search of work. She was able to find a place for them to live in Saint Martin’s Place, supported by the church but by September 1914 Joe’s mother placed him in the Middlemore Homes as she could no longer care for him. Joe spent a year at the Middlemore Homes before being sent to Canada.

His sister Georgina stayed with her mother as she was only four-years-old whereas Joe was now eight - a perfect age to send abroad. Joe was one of over 100 children who boarded the The SS Carthaginian on May 18, 1915.

Joe Payne (far left) on a farm in Canada

Joe was indentured to work until the age of 18 for a farmer’s widow who had one son and six daughters and had applied for a boy to help with the farm work.

He lived with a family who spoke Gaelic. He got to go to school only on a day when there was no farm work to do, looking after cows and sheep.

He had to cut holes in the brook to provide water for the animals in the winter. He had to pick rocks and mend fences.

Amazingly, through the years Joe received many post cards and some gifts from his mother and sister in England. He also managed to send cards back to his mother and sibling.

Joe Payne, left, on a farm in Cape Breton, Canada

Joe married Ola Sharpe on May 11, 1933 and they had one daughter Carolyn Anne born in 1945.

When Ola died Joe said “Now I am all alone again”.

His daughter believes this is a reference to the loneliness he felt as a child, taken from his family and sent across the ocean. In the 1950’s Joe made a one month trip back to England to visit his mother and sister, he stayed a month but it was a difficult relationship, they all felt like strangers.

His daughter has an oral interview from John that her son recorded for a school project.

Joe’s daughter, now nearly 75 is still searching for information on her father’s life and is even tracing the other 100 or so children that sailed with him.

The Wheway family

The Wheway family who were a respectable middle class family, ran The Grove pub in Smethwick for over 100

years. But when the mother died at 44 from consumption, five of her nine children were sent to the homes and emigrated.

The Society says the family want to know why 50 blood relatives, living within a two mile radius, deserted these young children in their time of need.

The Danks Family

William, Jack and Margaret Danks were emigrated in 1909 - their younger sister Emily remained in England. The brothers worked on a farm in Woodstock. They were paid ten dollars for the winter work in the remote woods but ended up owing the farmer the same amount after deductions for cigarettes, axes, gloves etc.

A year later two of their cousins - Nellie and James Thomas were sent to join them. Margaret and Nellie were very close and used to pretend they were sisters., even making up a false name for their mother (Lizzie Whitehouse) on official documents.

William, Jack and Margaret Danks were emigrated in 1909

Margaret had an illegitimate child, Kathleen, fathered by the farmer’s son. The three siblings were very close and looked out for each other. When the brothers went off to fight in WW1 they sent a large portion of wages back to Margaret. She eventually married but died during childbirth in 1929 while Nellie went on to have 13 children.

Jack returned to the UK after serving in WW1. He married and had two sons. Sadly Jack died young and his wife could not take care of the boys so they were also shipped out to Canada - two generations of emigrants.. The family has spent two years piecing the story together but still have many gaps to fill.

Marjorie Skidmore

Marjorie Arnison was sent from the Middlemore Homes to the Prince of Wales Fairbridge Farm School on Vancouver Island in 1937 at the age of ten with her nine-year-old brother Kenny. A year later their eight year old sister Audrey joined them.

They left their beloved sister Joyce in the Birmingham homes because at 13 she was deemed too old to go, although in fact she was only 12. They did not get a chance to say goodbye when they left the Homes.

Joyce sent a photo to Canada so that her siblings would not forget her but it was 70 years before they met again.

Marjorie and Kenny Arnison (later Marjorie Skidmore) arrive in Canada as child migrants from Birmingham in 1937
Marjorie and Kenny Arnison (later Marjorie Skidmore) arrive in Canada as child migrants from Birmingham in 1937

Marjorie’ daughter - Patricia Skidmore- spent years unlocking her mother’s past and helping her come to terms with the loss of her childhood. In February 2010 Marjorie was one of only two Canadian Home Children to return to the UK to meet with the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown when the UK government officially apologised for the child emigration policies.

Margaret passed away in 2017 and her daughter is travelling back to the UK to scatter her mother’s ashes next week, accompanied by Joyce, the elder sister who remained in the UK and is now 94.