Kings County GenWeb  New Brunswick - Canada

Middlemore reunion held on Sept.7th & 8th, 2001,
St Mary’s Church Hall, Devon, NB

Group photo taken in St. Mary's Church Hall Saturday September 8th

 
The meeting of Home Children and descendants of Home Children, sent out by the J.T. Middlemore Homes of Birmingham, England, spent an informative and lovely weekend together. People came from as far away as Florida and Maine in the USA, and from Calgary Alberta, as well as Ontario and around the Maritimes.

Our many thanks go out to our guest speakers Les Hull, Mayor of Fredericton, and to Senator Brenda Robertson, a daughter of Home Child John J. Tubb, and formerly of Sussex NB.

A special thank you goes to the Salvation Army for their efforts in preparing the supper from foods brought in by the many descendants. Also special thanks goes to Joe & Mary Dobblesteyn of Fredericton for their arrangements of the tables, signs for the tables and direction signs to the location. Also to Bob Andrews of Fredericton for lending a hand. This was very much appreciated.

Information tables were assigned to Marion Crawford of Belleisle Creek, NB and to Roxanne Belyea of Woodstock, NB. Several participants at the event were able to locate valued information on their family. Marion’s information was supplied by way of the National Archives of Canada, Ottawa. Roxanne was able to supply her information by way of David Lorente of Home Children Canada.

The announcement was made at the reunion to have it held in Sussex for 2002, again on the First Saturday of September. I would like to mention at this point that this is also the weekend of the annual Balloon Fest. I would recommend for anyone who plans to attend, that you reserve a room in the area as soon as possible to avoid any disappointment. Further details of our event will be released at a later date.

The following article was prepared by Mary Dobblesteyn with her interview to Annie Cairns of Fredericton, one of our Home Children who came to Canada in 1928.

In 1980, Annie Cairns was staying with her daughter, Sheila, in Saint John.  Annie's husband Jim was in the hospital. One day, after visiting the hospital, Sheila pointed out an article in the Saint John newspaper to her Mother.  The article was from George Barrett.  He related the story about visiting the Bank in England, where he had put the savings he had earned while working at odd jobs in England when he was young.  Not only were the savings there, but also interest it had earned.  George was later placed in the Middlemore Home and sent to Canada.  He invited anyone who read this story, and was from the Middlemore Home, to contact him.

Annie cut the article out and they wrote back and forth.  Annie called him and she and her husband were invited to visit Mr. Barrett in the Kingston Peninsula.  Mr. Barrett had also invited Bill Matthews, a Middlemore Home Child, and his wife.  After a visit and talking about the Home and when they came out to Canada, the suggestion was made to try and get other Middlemore Home boys and girls together for a reunion and reminisce about their time at Middlemore Home.  A date was set and they decided to meet at Mr. Barretts's home in the Kingston Peninsula.

Annie put a letter in the newspaper giving the date and place of the Reunion of Middlemore Home Children.  Twelve Home Children and their wives and husbands attended.  Annie was the only Home Child girl.  Tables were set up outside and a potluck supper was served.  As the years progressed more Home Children started to attend the Reunions.  The reunions were held at Harold Williams home at Brown's Flats, Alfred Chiswell's home in the Kingston Peninsula, the Legion building in the Kingston Peninsula, the Legion building in Hampton, the Church of England Hall in Apohaqui, the home of Sheila Milburn in Saint John and at present St. Mary's Church of England Hall, Fredericton.

As the years went on many of the Home Children passed away.  A bouquet of flowers was purchased each year in their memory. The remaining Home Children advanced in age and their descendants started going to the reunion.  The notices of the Middlemore Home Reunion placed in the newspapers; attracted more and more attention and the descendants wanted to find out as much as possible about their family members who came to Canada as Home Children. There were 250 people who attended the Middlemore Home Reunion.  Six were Home Children.

Besides the bouquet of flowers, a cake is purchased with a picture of the Union Jack.  The attending Home Children have the honor of cutting the cake.  The Union Jack Flag has also been on display, in remembrance of the Children's birth country.

Despite a drop in attendance, organizers of last weekends Middlemore reunion said the gathering was a huge success. For the second year in a row, the event was held at St. Mary's Church on McEvoy Street and was open too all survivors and descendants of children from the Middlemore Home for Orphans in the UK.

John T. Middlemore founded the Children's Emigration Homes in Birmingham, England and started bringing children to Canada in 1873. Some 5,000 children came to Canada with Middlemore. They came from his home in Birmingham, as well as from local workhouses and reformatories. Until around 1932, the children were placed in the Maritime Provinces, Ontario and Manitoba.

Some who came to Canada found loving homes, while others found abuse and hardship and were often used as nothing more than slave farm laborers.  In attendance last weekend, was three original home children, a name they were called at the time. Annie Cairns and Sid Coles of Fredericton and Elsie Hatheway from Plaster Rock.

Neither Cairns nor Hatheway have ever met before the reunion but right way realized they shared a common bond. "When you meet someone like that it’s just like family," says Cairns joyfully. "We all went through the same thing and know what it's like. Children coming from far away across the sea, we all felt very lonesome. As we got older we kept out past to ourselves, no one told us to, we did it instinctively. We didn't want to bother our own children and let then know what it was like."

Northside resident Sid Coles, who came to Canada in 1932 recalled his early childhood and growing up in a country that was new to him. "When I first got to Halifax I was awful home sick," Coles said in retrospect. "I would have walked back if I could have, now I wouldn't go back to England if they gave it to me. I enjoy it here, it's a great country."

At age 85, Elsie Hatheway says she came to this country back in 1922, but quickly found it was nothing like she was expecting. "They told me I was coming to the land of milk and honey but I never found any," says Hatheway sadly. "I landed in Montreal and later I was shipped to Cape Breton, to a family where I was to go to work. I was only six years old."

As a microphone was passed around for people to share memories with those in attendance, Hatheway's daughter read an emotional story of her mothers remarkable life and the hardships she faced, at times bringing tears to some as they listened to how she overcame adversity and eventually find happiness with her family.

The events guest speaker was Senator, the Hon. Brenda Robertson, who spoke about her own father, who came from the Middlemore Homes back in 1905. "I could always depend on him for encouragement and inspiration," said Senator Robertson. "He had a grade four education and I often wondered where he acquired all the knowledge that he had. Later I found out that he would spend a great of time reading."

Event chairman Roland Woodward says is looking forward to next year’s reunion which will be held in Sussex, New Brunswick.

 Marion you forgot to thank yourself for all the time and effort you have put into this Middlemore project and also with the microfilm indexing project on the home children – great work.We all thank you for this project.www.bifhsgo.ca