Home Children: Child Emigration from Scotland

Each major claim carries one of three labels. established means supported by primary records, official bodies or several independent reliable sources. shared means the core fact is sound but sources disagree on details, dates or interpretation. traditional means widely repeated but not traceable to a primary or independent source.

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry examined the Scottish schemes in detail and published its findings in 2023. Its figures are estimates: records are incomplete, and it said the exact number of children who left Scotland cannot be determined. Figures for the UK as a whole are higher and cover a much longer period. This card deals with abuse of children; it describes findings, not individual testimony.

A long practice

established Sending poor or orphaned children overseas has a long history. In 1618, 100 vagrant children from England were shipped to Virginia, and in the 18th century many children were transported from Scotland, a trade exposed in 1757 after action against Aberdeen merchants. Large-scale child emigration to Canada began around 1869–1870, led by the evangelists Maria Rye and Annie Macpherson, and was taken up by many charities. Across Britain about 150,000 children were sent overseas over some 350 years.

The Scottish schemes

established Scottish organisations sent children overseas from the late 19th century until 1971. Quarriers, the Renfrewshire children's charity, alone sent more than 7,000 children from Scotland, mainly to work on farms. The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry found that probably about 8,088 children were sent from Scotland to Canada by the 1920s, with some sent later, and at least 370 to Australia before and after the Second World War. It concluded that the exact number cannot be determined.

What happened to the children

established The schemes were presented as giving children a better life, but 88 per cent of children sent from Britain had living parents, and many were deceived into believing their parents were dead. Many were used as cheap farm or domestic labour, and some were denied proper shelter and education. As early as 1874 a report by Andrew Doyle criticised the lack of follow-up on children placed in Canada. Former child migrants from Scotland told the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry of sexual and physical abuse in Australia and Canada.

The inquiry's findings

established In 2023 the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, chaired by Lady Smith, found that the migration system was abusive and that many children were abused in Scotland, on the journey, and at their destinations. It found that the UK Government knew of the risk and the reality of abuse, that a critical report of 1956 should have ended the system, and that it nevertheless continued for decades. Lady Smith described it as "an indefensible state failure" in which "children were treated as commodities", and said "it severed children from families and their home country".

Apologies and redress

established The Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, apologised to former child migrants on 16 November 2009, and the UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, apologised on 24 February 2010, announcing a £6 million Family Restoration Fund, which reunited more than 1,000 people with their families. Canada declined a formal apology and instead declared 2010 the "Year of the British Home Child". In December 2019 the Scottish Government told the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry that it was "extremely sorry for the suffering they experienced", and organisations including Quarriers and Barnardo's also apologised. By then more than 1,500 people across the UK, including 121 from Scotland, had received £20,000 redress payments.

A lasting presence

shared Home Children Canada estimated in 2011 that one in ten Canadians is descended from a Home Child, a figure that covers children from all parts of Britain.

• The first English child migrants were sent to Virginia in 1618.
• Most child migrants had a living parent.
• Many were told falsely that their parents had died.
• Quarriers sent more than 7,000 children overseas from Scotland.
• Child migration from Scotland continued until 1971.
• A critical report in 1956 failed to end the schemes.
• Canada declared 2010 the "Year of the British Home Child".
• About one in ten Canadians may be descended from a Home Child.

• Myth: Home Children were orphans. Most had living parents.
• Disputed: how many children were sent from Scotland. There is no exact total.
• UK-wide figures are not Scottish figures.
• Myth: Canada has formally apologised. It has not.