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Book

The story of Britain's child migrants

In the late 19th and 20th centuries, Britain sent thousands of children to new lives across the Empire. Taken from charities, workhouses and the city streets, they were dispatched to Canada, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere, often with little concept of where they were going or why. Ranging from five and six year olds to teenagers, they were destined for farms and homesteads half a world away from all they had known.

This fascinating book tells the story of the controversial practice, showing how a `truly Imperial work' was experienced on the ground. It considers the characters involved in emigration, from Maria Rye and Annie Macpherson to Thomas Barnardo and Kingsley Fairbridge, and the roles that different organizations played. Combining the children's own words with original photographs and records from the National Archives, it celebrates the resilience of those who managed, against all the odds, to adapt to their new lives.