J. Pady
Reverend W. J. Pady began sending industrial school and union children from all over England to Canada in 1889. The first shipment went to Montreal, Quebec.
Pady, a Baptist minister and cheese merchant, brought children deemed too small for the work, they were intended for. After receiving complaints about these children being sent with no other place to return to in both Winnipeg and Montreal, laws required him to start up a Receiving Home, where children could be returned if unsatisfactory.
Using his son’s address in Emerson, Manitoba, as his receiving home, Pady was caught out by a small boy who asked for refuge at the Children’s Home in Winnipeg, citing Pady as his sending agency. This boy was also Catholic and no attempt had been made to place him in a home of that religious designation.
An official inspection was made of the home where Pady’s son lived and as a small shack, deemed unsuitable as a Receiving Home. Pady’s daughter, Bertha, who had been bringing the children to Canada was questioned and the answers were considered unsatisfactory. Reverend Pady was requested to cease his operations in 1894 but he continued for two more years before finally stopping.
Leonard K. Shaw and the Manchester and Salford Homes
After having worked with the Ragged Schools in Manchester and also setting up shelters for boys without homes, Leonard K. Shaw opened the Manchester and Salford Homes in Quay Street, in Deansgate. It was a small home and every space in it served as a multi-purpose: boys slept in hammocks at night that were rolled away during the day while the front cellar was used as a living space and in the evening, a school room.
Shaw also founded the Strangeways Institute on Francis Street as well as the Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuge, both in Manchester, England. Another home to prepare children for emigration in Canada and so in the 1880s, Rosen Hallas at Cheetham Hill in Manchester was created.
In the beginning, Shaw’s children were placed through Annie MacPherson and received at the Marchmont Homes in Belleville, Ontario. When Miss MacPherson turned the operation over to Ellen Bilbrough and her husband Reverend Wallace, Shaw continued to send children through Marchmont Homes.
As with many other Homes, the First World War stopped emigration and when it started up again in 1920, children were sent by this organization through the Marchmont Homes and the Liverpool Sheltering Home.
Stanley Boy’s Home
Some children were placed in Ontario by the Stanley Boy’s Home at 14 Soho Street in Liverpool, England.
Saint Joseph’s Orphanage
Located in Dundalk, Ireland, Saint Joseph’s was a smaller orphanage and industrial school. Some of their children were emigrated.
Mrs. Janet Wallis and the Hurst House Training Home
Wallis’ Babies Homes in Walthamstow, England’s basic concept was to offer daycare to working mother who were also housed there, alongside their offspring. As well as the Babies’ Homes, the Hurst House Training Home in South Croydon, Surrey was also operated by Mrs. Wallis as a training establishment for girls and boys. A third home run by her was called the Haven for Homeless Little Ones (changed later to the Mission of Hope.
Two further homes were added on Hurst Road and then a maternity clinic was established in Streatham. This became the head office for Mrs. Wallis’ Homes.
Starting in 1907, Mrs. Wallis sent a party of children with Reverend Hall to 87 Howard Street, Toronto until they could be placed. Then, children were sent to the City Mission Fresh Air Home (in Bronte – now Oakville, Ontario). Then, a home called Haven for Homeless Little Ones opened its doors at 2 Endean Avenue. That moved to 875 Palmerston Avenue, Toronto, Ontario.
The First World War brought an end to this organization sending any more children to Canada. Mrs. Wallis died in 1928.
The Traveller’s Aid Society
Primarily developed to support young women who required help and protection as they moved from placement to placement. This organization was an arm of the YMCA.
YMCA
Founded in England by George Williams in 1844, the Young Men’s Christian Association was originally intended to be a place where youth could meet like-minded young men and study the Bible.
The YMCA began sending youth to Canada but records of them doing so are sparse. Their (and the YWCA) more important work lay in helping those who had reached the end of their indenture (age 18), providing non-permanent housing till the young people could establish themselves.
Charles E. Baring Young
From his training farm in Daylesford, Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire, England, Charles Young intended young men to learn practical farming methods.
A farm was purchased near Woodstock, Ontario in 1895 to receive boys who had been prepared in England, and they were schooled in all areas of farming before being placed. This organization received no assistance or funding.
Vimy Ridge Farm
After the First World War, a farm was bought in Wellington County (near Guelph), Ontario to be used a training facility for boys orphaned primarily because of the war. The British government purchased Ballagh Farm alongside the Ontario government and sent the young boys through the Oversea Settlement Committee. Interesting to note that only boys from public schools in England (public schools in the UK are called private schools in Canada) were allowed to be trained here.
Vermillion Farm
Although the ages of the youth sent to this Albertan farm in 1924 ranged from 17 – 24, they were supported by the provincial government and trained in general, dairy and fruit and vegetable farm work, managing livestock, and management of a farm. Jobs were found for these youth by the provincial government.