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Record #17228

Name :: : William John GUERIN
Father: :
Mother: :

BMD and other details

Date of Birth: :
Marriage (1): :
Marriage (2): :
Date of Death: :

Abode (1) : Place of BirthEngland

Abode (2) : Place of Death / Burial

Sailing Information

Date of Arrival: : 11 Apr 1905
Country: : Canada
Ship: : Kensington
Placement Family: :

Homes / Agencys

Institution (GB): :
Agency: : Barnardos

NotesIn 1901, William John Guerin, the eldest of seven children born to Emily Jane Tippett, was convalescing in the Chateau Bellevue Infirmary in Margate, Kent. This establishment, on Wilderness Hill, took children from some inner London boroughs to recuperate after serious illness. The sea air was considered beneficial and it was well away from the dirt and smog of the city.
At this time, his mother was living in very poor conditions with three of her children and her partner Isaac Benson. They all lived in two rooms in a house in Clerkenwell. Her income as an artificial florist was insufficient for her to provide for all her children, the others staying with her sisters and one in the workhouse. The next reference I found for William was when he was sent to Canada by Dr Barnardo's in April 1905. He was not actually a 'Barnardo's Boy'. He had only come under their auspices at the end of Feburary that year, having been on the Shaftesbury Homes' training ship 'Arethusa' before that. The ship was moored on the Thames at Greenhithe in Kent and its aim was to train boys from poor families for the Royal and Merchant Navies. However, this was not to be young William's destiny. He left Paddington with two hundred and sixty six other boys on March 30th bound for Liverpool. It was the first group to leave the UK that year, and the event was reported the following day in the London 'Times', as Dr Barnardo himself went to see them all off.
William landed in Portland, Maine on April 11th. Their onward journey to Toronto would almost certainly have been by train. Quite a distance. Normally, on arrival, the practice was to place boys with farmers for whom they would work. It seems to have been almost arbitrary who went where. However, it would appear that William was unusual in having arranged his own placement. He had chosen to work for a farmer named Samuel Doupe in Blanchard, Ontario, which suggests that he had prior knowledge of the family. The only clue I can offer to that appears in the 1851 UK Census, where William's grandfather, John Guerin, is shown living next door to a family called Doupe. Although they were not the same Doupes, they had all originated in Ireland and had many Christian names in common. It certainly seems an odd coincidence if there was no connection at all. How else might he have known about them?
William stayed working with the Doupes until about 1908, when for some reason, he set off across Canada, finally getting married, having a family and settling in British Columbia. His descendants still live there.

Emily Jane Tippett married William Guerin on April 30th 1888 at All Saints Church, Newington, London SE, just off the Old Kent Road. Their first child, William John Guerin, had been born on January 6th that year at their home in Trafalgar Street near the church. The couple moved around the area over the next four years and had two more children, Elizabeth Cordelia (Kitty) and Walter. William was a wood turner and some time around 1892 the young family moved to Alverstoke (part of Gosport, near Portsmouth) where there may have been employment opportunities in the Royal Dock Yards. While they lived there, Emily gave birth to my Grandmother, Emily Margaret, and Great Aunt Aggie (Agnes).
In 1896 they moved again, this time to Southampton. William, then thirty nine, was taken seriously ill and died in August in the South Hampshire Infirmary, Southampton. Emily was four months pregnant with their last child, Alice. At some time between Alice's birth in December 1896 and 1900, Emily returned to London, a widow with six children to support. With no social security, she had only her sisters and the Poor Law to fall back on. In 1901 she was working as an artificial florist (making flowers for hats etc) and living in Clerkenwell. She had moved in with a boot maker called Isaac Benson, with whom she had a child, Cordelia. The baby, tragically, died before she was one of TB, probably exacerbated by the poor conditions in which they were forced to live.
In the 1901 Census, Emily only had two of her other children living at home, Walter and Agnes. Emily ('Cissie') was living with her Aunt Elizabeth Billingham in the East End of London and William was at The Chateau Bellevue Infirmary in Margate, Kent, on the coast. This was an establishment which had an arrangement with some Inner London boroughs to allow sick children from the city to recuperate after illness. It is not impossible that William himself might have had TB. Of Kitty I could find no mention, but one of Emily's other sisters is also missing from the census and she had had Kitty living with her in 1891, so it's possible she was still there.
The saddest story of all was that of little Alice, who, at the tender age of four, was an inmate at the Alverstoke House of Industry - the workhouse. Her place of birth was listed in the 1901 Census as St Pancras (a London borough close to Clerkenwell) so presumably she had gone to London initially with her mother and siblings. I discovered that the options for a widow with children were very bleak in those days. In order to qualify for 'Outdoor Relief' (a loaf of bread and a little money) from the Poor Law Union, she had to have as few of her children living with her as possible. The alternative was the ignominy of the whole family going into the Workhouse, where they would have been separated anyway. It would appear that Emily did her best, but she may have been unable to place Alice so had to give her up. What a choice. (The site of the Alverstoke House of Industry is now an executive housing estate, built in the 1980s. The original gatehouse was retained and is incorporated in the design.)
The story, however, has (I hope) a happy ending. I was unable to trace what had happened to Alice, until I discovered that she had left the UK in 1924 and gone to Quebec on the 'Antonia'. Her last known UK address was at Marine Villa, The Esplanade, Shanklin, IOW, where she had been a domestic servant. I have yet to discover what happened to her in Canada, or perhaps America, but at least she survived the Workhouse.
William John was sent to Canada in 1905 as one of a party of 'Barnardo's Boys' and made a successful life for himself in British Columbia. Kitty and her husband Gordon B Rand also left the UK, sailing for Quebec in 1923. I have yet to discover what happened to their mother, Emily Jane.

ContributorsCreated : 2012-10-08 10:30:52 / From original database

Last Updated :

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Surnames starting with: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 68 Entries

Surnames starting with: G »GARC »GATI »GENT »GIBS »GILL »GLOC »GOLD »GORN »GRAH »GRAY »GREE »GRIM »GSCH » GZZZ

ID	Name	DOB	Place of birth	Arrivals & Ships	Dest.	Agency	Family links
7003	GUDD, Mary A.	1858	ENG,	Aug 1871 : Prussian	CAN	Maria Rye
17228	GUERIN, William John		ENG,	Apr 1905 : Kensington	CAN	Barnardos
17570	GUEST, Harry	1895	ENG,	May 1898 : Siberian	CAN	Middlemore
23378	GUEST, John	1902	ENG,	May 1920 : Minnedosa	CAN	Middlemore
16722	GUEST, John Arnold	1911	ENG,	May 1920 : Minnedosa	CAN	Middlemore
4307	GUILFOYLE, James Edward	1895	IRL, , Dublin	May 1906 : Tunisian	CAN	MacPherson Homes
16661	GULL, Alfred	1901	ENG, LAN, Liverpool	Mar 1909 : Dominion	CAN	Barnardos
16662	GULL, Walter Stuart	1898	ENG, WAR, Birmingham	Mar 1909 : Dominion	CAN	Barnardos
22521	GULLIMAN, Henry Frederick	1910	ENG,	Sep 1923 : Minnedosa	CAN	Barnardos
10424	GULLIVER, Bessie	1896	ENG, DOR, Weymouth	Jun 1906 : Dominion	CAN	Barnardos
19042	GULLIVER, Ethel	1902	ENG,	Sep 1912 : Sicilian	CAN	Barnardos
6025	GULLIVER, Lily	1899	ENG,	Oct 1910 : Sicilian	CAN	Barnardos
8051	GULLY, Mary Ann	1848	ENG,	Jun 1869 : Austrian	CAN	Maria Rye
8521	GUMBLETON, Emily Marian	1891	ENG, , Brentford	Oct 1902 : Colonian	CAN	Barnardos
12682	GUMBLETON, William Thomas	1889	ENG, MDX, Brentford	Apr 1904 : Southwark	CAN	Barnardos
18128	GUNDEY, Thomas A	1872	ENG,	May 1887 : Parisian	CAN	Waifs & Strays
26375	GUNN, Agnes	1893		Mar 1900 : Parisian	CAN	Louisa Birt
20194	GUNN, Annie	1886	ENG,	Mar 1900 : Parisian	CAN	Louisa Birt
26382	GUNN, Frederick	1890		Mar 1900 : Parisian	CAN	Louisa Birt
15367	GUNN, George	1863	ENG,	1872 : - Unknown -	CAN	Maria Rye
26255	GUNN, James	1923		Aug 1934 : Oronsay	AUS	Fairbridge Homes
15366	GUNN, Richard	1861	ENG,	1872 : - Unknown -	CAN	Maria Rye
21389	GUNN, Sarah	1898	ENG,	Jun 1913 : Corinthian	CAN	Barnardos
17623	GUNNER, Edgar	1900	ENG,	Mar 1910 : Tunisian	CAN	Barnardos
12837	GUNNER, Henry	1887	ENG,	Sep 1898 : Dominion	CAN	Barnardos
25998	GUNNING, A H	1888	ENG,	Mar 1903 : Canada	CAN	Barnardos
25929	GUNTHORPE, Cecil	1890	ENG,	Mar 1903 : Canada	CAN	National Childrens Home
25928	GUNTHORPE, Jonathan	1887	ENG,	Mar 1903 : Canada	CAN	National Childrens Home
5088	GUNTHORPE, Thomas	1910	ENG,	Aug 1926 : Montrose	CAN	Barnardos
8488	GUPPY, Arthur George	1912	ENG, SOM, Wincanton	Jun 1924 : Minnedosa	CAN	Barnardos
15520	GUPPY, Henry Charles	1910	ENG,	Jun 1924 : Minnedosa	CAN	Barnardos
8286	GUPPY, Percy John	1916	ENG, SOM, Shepton Mallet	Apr 1928 : Montclare	CAN	Barnardos
5013	GURDON, Stephen	1916	ENG, LDN, London	Sep 1930 : Duchess of Bedford	CAN	Barnardos
5543	GURNEY, Arthur William	1895	ENG, , St Pancras	Sep 1907 : Dominion	CAN	Barnardos
12236	GURNEY, George Henry	1922	ENG,	Nov 1932 : Balranald	AUS	Fairbridge Homes
19602	GURR, A E	1888	ENG,	Jun 1897 : Labrador	CAN	Barnardos
19613	GURR, Amos	1886	ENG,	Jun 1897 : Labrador	CAN	Barnardos
11895	GURR, Joseph	1907	ENG, , Chatham	Apr 1921 : Minnedosa	CAN	Salvation Army
19118	GURR, Sybil	1901	ENG,	Sep 1912 : Sicilian	CAN	Barnardos
26214	GURROW, C S	1894	ENG,	Mar 1903 : Canada	CAN	Barnardos
22095	GURST, James	1886	ENG,	Apr 1897 : Labrador	CAN	Barnardos
3837	GURT, Frederick John	1894	ENG, SFK, Brantham	Oct 1905 : Canada	CAN	Barnardos
25348	GURWARD, Lizzie	1886	SCT,	Jun 1897 : Sarmatian	CAN	Quarriers
11364	GUTHRIE, Dora	1888	ENG,	Jul 1898 : Labrador	CAN	Barnardos
13233	GUTSELL, Rose	1887	ENG,	Oct 1897 : Labrador	CAN	Barnardos
5014	GUTTON, Mazie	1917	ENG, SRY	Sep 1930 : Duchess of Bedford	CAN	Barnardos
4906	GUTTRIDGE, John	1909	ENG, LAN, Liverpool	Mar 1925 : Aurania	CAN	Liverpool Sheltering Home
9109	GUY, Ada Lily	1883	ENG, DOR, Sherborne	May 1892 : Oregon	CAN	National Childrens Home
10990	GUY, George W	1895	ENG, WAR, Birmingham	Jul 1905 : Siberian	CAN	Middlemore
4373	GUY, Lilian	1886	ENG,	Jul 1903 : Dominion	CAN	Barnardos
14768	GUY, Louisa	1873	ENG, LAN, Liverpool	Jun 1883 : Sardinian	CAN	Board of Guardians (Various)
4372	GUY, Louisa Florence	1880	ENG, DOR, Sherborne	May 1891 : Sarnia	CAN	National Childrens Home
14769	GUY, Walter	1878	ENG,	Jun 1883 : Sardinian	CAN	Board of Guardians (Various)
14888	GUYATT, Florence	1893	ENG,	Jul 1904 : Southwark	CAN	Barnardos
17572	GUYATT, William	1892	ENG,	Apr 1899 : Scotsman	CAN	Barnardos
11374	GUYATT, Willie J	1892	ENG,	Apr 1899 : Scotsman	CAN	Barnardos
12888	GUYMER, Charles	1885	ENG, , Strood	Jun 1897 : State of California	CAN	Lord Archibald Douglas
12889	GUYMER, James	1884	ENG,	Jun 1897 : State of California	CAN	Lord Archibald Douglas
20298	GUYOT, Charles	1869		Mar 1887 : Parisian	CAN	Barnardos
11924	GWYER, Edward George	1911	ENG,	Oct 1925 : Benalla	AUS	Barnardos
10991	GWYN, David	1898	WAL, , Pontypool	1906 : Dominion		Barnardos
10992	GWYN, Elizabeth	1900	WAL, , Pontypool	1911 : Sicilian		Barnardos
10993	GWYN, Thomas	1895	WAL, , Pontypool	Jun 1910 : Sicilian		Barnardos
10994	GWYN, William	1896	WAL, , Pontypool	Aug 1906 : Dominion		Barnardos
2745	GYERTSON, Henry Arthur	1913	ENG, MDX, Tottenham	Apr 1929 : Cedric	CAN	Waifs & Strays
5598	GYNANE, Winnifred	1898	ENG, , Wirral	Apr 1912 : Corinthian	CAN	Barnardos
19579	GYNN, Martha	1881	ENG,	May 1895 : Parisian	CAN	Annie Macpherson Homes
22874	GYSON, William	1890	ENG,	May 1905 : Southwark	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys
ID	Name	DOB	Place of birth	Arrivals & Ships	Dest.	Agency	Family links

Surnames starting with: G »GARC »GATI »GENT »GIBS »GILL »GLOC »GOLD »GORN »GRAH »GRAY »GREE »GRIM »GSCH » GZZZ

Surnames starting with: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 68 Entries

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