Remembering the British Home Children

You may have seen the colours of white, red, and blue lighting up the night sky in Sherbrooke on Saturday night and that’s because Sept. 28 marked National British Home Child Day. In honour of the 100,000 children that were brought to Canada from Britain between 1869 and 1948 and the contributions they made to Canada’s nation building, the British Home Child Association asked communities across the country and in the United Kingdom to light up any of their buildings, monuments, and memorials with the colours of the British Home Children Advocacy and Research Association, and their flag, for their “Beacon’s Of Light” Campaign. This year marks the 150th year since the first children were brought to Canada and various cities across the country chose to participate in memory of them, including Sherbrooke. Sherbrooke is the location of one of the two homes in the Eastern Townships that received children from Britain during this period of time and it is known as the Gibbs Home. Upon their arrival, children would wait in these receiving homes until their new Canadian farm family came to pick them up. See full story in the Wednesday, Oct. 2 edition of The Record.