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Record #11351
Name :
: John VALLANCE (1925 - )


Father
:
Mother
:
BMD and other details
Date of Birth
: 1925 (approx.)

Marriage (1)
:
Marriage (2)
:

Date of Death
:
Abode (1) : Place of BirthScotland
Abode (2) : Place of Death / Burial
Sailing Information
Date of Arrival
: Jul 1939
Country
: Canada

Ship
: Empress of Australia

Placement Family
:
Homes / Agencys
Institution (GB)
:

Agency
: Barnardos
Notes[EDITORS NOTE: Taken from the Calgary Herald - {website}calgaryherald.com/Life+could+difficult+kids+sent+from+Britain/2605390/story.html]

More than 70 years have passed since John Vallance last saw his dying mother. Yet, even the mere mention of her name, Nancy, reduces the former military man to tears.

"She was only 35 years old, and I was a 12-year-old boy that wanted to help her, but couldn't do a thing," he says of the day the mother of five succumbed to a severe asthma attack. "She was a wonderful mother, and far too young to die."

Her premature death also marked the end of Vallance's life, and family, as he knew it. His father John senior, a fireman on the London Midland Scottish Railroads, could barely make ends meet when he had a wife at home tending to the children full time.

John, the eldest, was taken from his home in Newton-on-Ayr, Scotland, to Dr. Barnardo's Homes for Orphaned Children in London; his siblings were parcelled out to various relatives and orphanages.

Two years later, one of his caregivers at the orphanage asked if he would like to go to Canada.

"They showed me photographs of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the mountains," recalls the now 85-year-old. "I said 'yes,' although looking back, I don't know I had a choice."

He left Portsmouth, England, for Canada on the ship Empress of Australia with about 27 other children, his sole possessions the clothes on his back and a Barnardo Box, a steamer trunk carrying a change of clothes, a sewing kit, a Gideon Bible and a few other necessities. (In 1939, John Vallance, 12, arrived at Quebec, Canada, in a group of 27 Barnardo children en route to Toronto, Ontario, Canada.)

By summer of 1939, Vallance was a 14-year-old boy working on a farm in Ontario, an ocean away from his father, siblings and other extended relatives. "Being sent to Canada was one of the best things that happened to me," he says. "But I know that some of the others didn't have quite so good a time."

"I read stories about how some of them were tied up like dogs and lived in doghouses," says Vallance. "It is heartbreaking to learn how badly they were treated."

Although he never faced abuse from those who took him in, Vallance was haunted by not knowing what happened to his father and siblings.

"I never even had photographs of them to take to Canada," he says. "I wouldn't have known the younger ones if I bumped into them on the street."

He made a good life for himself in Canada, serving in the air force for three decades and later running a successful bar service company in Calgary. He and his wife Elizabeth, who died in 1997, raised four children in the southwest home where Vallance still lives.

"This country gave me my life," he says as he proudly shows off a wall filled with photographs of family and his exploits as a paratrooper. "If I had stayed in England, I likely would have wound up dead." 
ContributorsCreated : 2010-02-25 19:38:27 / 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  30 Entries        
Page: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 881 Entries        
IDNameDOBPlace of birthArrivals & ShipsDest.AgencyFamily links
3042 ABBOTT, John1881SCT,     Sep 1886 : Carthaginian CAN Emma Stirling  
3075 ABERCROMBIE, Andrew1878SCT,     Mar 1891 : Hibernian CAN Quarriers  
3076 ABERCROMBIE, William1855SCT, LKS, Glasgow Aug 1872 : St. Andrew CAN Unknown  
3100 ABRAMS, Mary Ann1898SCT,    , Dumfries May 1913 : Victorian CAN Refuge Home, Cheetham Hill, Manchester  
22560 ACTON, Philip John1917SCT,     May 1931 : Athenia CAN Quarriers  
3159 ADAIR, Henry Bower1895SCT,    , Dumfries Apr 1906 : Sicilian CAN Quarriers  
3164 ADAM, Allan Devrix1885SCT,    , Govanhill, Glasgow Apr 1897 : Siberian CAN Quarriers  
3168 ADAM, Isabella1897SCT,     Jul 1910 : Southwark CAN Quarriers  
3171 ADAM, Maggie1887SCT,     Jun 1897 : Sarmatian CAN Quarriers  
3172 ADAM, Margaret1899SCT,     Jul 1910 : Southwark CAN Quarriers  
3175 ADAM, William Butter1884SCT,    , Govanhill, Glasgow Apr 1897 : Siberian CAN Quarriers  
25417 ADAMS, William1889SCT,     Jun 1897 : Sarmatian CAN Quarriers  
9871 ADAMSON, Charles Daniels1897SCT,    , Airdrie Apr 1909 : Hesperian CAN Quarriers  
6389 ADAMSON, Christina Alison1894SCT, LKS, Glasgow Jun 1907 : Sicilian CAN Quarriers  
9872 ADAMSON, James Balfour1892SCT, LKS, Glasgow May 1905 : Corinthian CAN Quarriers  
7357 ADDISON, Hugh1876SCT,    , Jamestown Apr 1887 : Siberian CAN Quarriers  
10483 ADDISON, Thomas Snowden1905SCT,     Apr 1920 : Scandinavian CAN Quarriers  
3147 ADIE, Gregor McGregor1880SCT, LKS, Glasgow Apr 1894 : Buenos Ayrean CAN Quarriers  
5358 AITKEN, Lawrence Gray1909SCT, LKS, Glasgow Aug 1925 : Montnairn CAN National Childrens Home  
10484 AITKEN, Robert Plenderleith1904SCT,    , Limefield, Wiston & Roberton Apr 1920 : Scandinavian CAN Quarriers  
3156 AITON, William Lyle1888SCT, LKS, Glasgow Apr 1907 : Sicilian CAN Quarriers  
5679 ALCORN, Agnes Maxwell1894SCT, LKS, Glasgow Jun 1913 : Grampian CAN Quarriers  
5680 ALCORN, Margaret-Ann Irwin1897SCT, LKS, Glasgow Jul 1910 : Southwark CAN Quarriers  
3916 ALEXANDER, Agnes Barbour1888SCT,    , Coatbridge Aug 1906 : Corinthian CAN Quarriers  
10339 ALEXANDER, Beatrice Carlisle1889SCT, LKS, Glasgow Jun 1897 : Sarmatian CAN Quarriers  
6417 ALEXANDER, Charles1894SCT,     Oct 1910 : Cassandra CAN Unknown  
3917 ALEXANDER, Janet Murray1896SCT, LKS, Glasgow Jun 1906 : Corinthian CAN Quarriers  
3915 ALEXANDER, Mary Eliza1897SCT,    , Coatbridge Jul 1905 : Corinthian CAN Quarriers  
3918 ALEXANDER, Sarah Stewart1890SCT,    , Coatbridge Jun 1906 : Corinthian CAN Quarriers  
6418 ALEXANDER, Thomas1893SCT,     Jun 1910 : Hesperian CAN Cossar (George Carter)  
IDNameDOBPlace of birthArrivals & ShipsDest.AgencyFamily links
Page: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 881 Entries        
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  30 Entries