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Record #3963
Name :
: Felix Peter JOHNSON (1909 - 1994)
  aka : Peter


Father
:
Mother
:
BMD and other details
Date of Birth
: 8 Jul 1909

Marriage (1)
:
Marriage (2)
:

Date of Death
: 11 Jan 1994   Notes : Pneumonia
Abode (1) : Place of BirthEngland, Hampshire, Southampton

1a Chilworth Road
Abode (2) : Place of Death / BurialEngland, Hampshire, Eastleigh, Southampton
Sailing Information
Date of Arrival
: 23 Sep 1921
Country
: Canada

Ship
: Minnedosa

Placement Family
: Walkom, Staffa; Riley, Milford Bay, Musk
Homes / Agencys
Institution (GB)
: Hospital

Agency
: Barnardos
NotesA birth registration was found for Felix Peter Johnson: Year of Registration: 1909; Quarter of Registration: Jul-Aug-Sep; District: Southampton; County: Hampshire; Volume: 2c; Page: 51.

Felix and his eight month old sister, Violet, were admitted to Barnardo's [Southampton] in November 1913. She was sent there immediately on being taken into HM Hospital as she had an umbilical hernia. She was sent to a foster home in Suffolk afterwards. Felix went to Babies Castle in Kent, then spent three days at Stepney Causeway in transit to his foster home in Norfolk where he did make contact with his sister again.

Felix attended school in Norfolk, England, while fostered out. He appeared to be the only Barnardo child on the page of children listed in the admittance record. As he was seven when he arrived in Norfolk he is not on the page where most of his classmates would be, there is only one person who left the same day (end of July 1921) to go to Secondary School. So it seems that once he reached that point in his education Barnardo's decided to ship him to Canada instead of continuing his education.

Felix spent five years with the same family and then was sent 3,000 miles to an unknown future. He said he knew his mother was aware that he was being sent, as did his younger sister over the border in Suffolk. To the family's knowledge, his mother never tried to contact him in Canada. The address Barnardo's had for his mother from the admission papers to give Felix when he requested it a couple of years after his arrival in Canada was no longer of use, so it seems she did not keep up correspondence with Barnardo's to check on Felix's progress.

In 1921, Felix Johnson, 12, arrived at Quebec, Canada, along with a group of 134 children en route to Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

His daughter, Beth, described her views on the journey to discover her father's life in Canada:

For myself the discovery of the family with whom my father stayed for fifteen years, and where he seems to have been happier than anywhere else, has given me the chance to fulfill a lifetime's wish. To see the places where he lived and worked was a possibility, to actually meet his 'foster' brother and sister and stay with them [on the same farm] awhile is beyond what I had ever hoped for. They have extended this kind offer knowing that we all need to discover why my father never contacted them after returning to England. These people had no idea that their father had contracted as employer to him, to them he was an older brother. living, eating, sleeping, going to school, church and the Boy Scouts as one of them. One of the first questions they asked me was whether he had ever spoken of ill-treatment. They were upset at recent publicity that suggested all Home Children were badly treated. For me the realisation that my father was not an isolated case [in being sent to Canada] caused me great distress, I too felt that there might be a less 'cosy' truth behind what he had made apparent.

[M]y father was extremely fortunate to have been placed with them - he might not have been so if he had stayed with the first farmer he was sent to. ... in my father's case he seems to have found a stable and loving home.

[He] never forgot them, he ensured that they were remembered through me.

I was shocked at the condition my father and sister were in when taken into Barnardo's care. For me that tells me that he may never have survived childhood, and so were it not for what happened, I might not be here now. "

Felix Peter Johnson returned to England in 1936. He died there in 1994. 
ContributorsCreated : 2008-08-02 19:31:58 / From original database

Last Updated : 2012-07-07 11:16:31 /

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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 7 187 Entries        
IDNameDOBPlace of birthArrivals & ShipsDest.AgencyFamily links
3055 ABBOTT, Douglas Groves1910ENG, HAM, Hartley Wintney Apr 1924 : Montclare CAN Barnardos  
3150 ACRES, Ada1864ENG, HAM, Winchester Jun 1874 : Sarmatian CAN Maria Rye  
7448 ADAMS, Ernest Alfred1889ENG, HAM, Southampton Jul 1901 : Numidian CAN Barnardos  
9986 ADDERLEY, Edward George1890ENG, HAM, Southampton Jul 1902 : New England CAN Barnardos  
17765 ADLAM, Edwin Walter1899ENG, HAM, Fareham Mar 1909 : Dominion CAN Barnardos  
17766 ADLAM, Thomas Albert1901ENG, HAM, Fareham Mar 1909 : Dominion CAN Barnardos  
6798 AINSLIE, Daisy Ann1890ENG, HAM, Portsmouth Oct 1905 : Canada CAN Barnardos  
5146 ALDWORTH, Cecil John1915ENG, HAM, Christchurch Oct 1928 : Montcalm CAN Catholic Emigration Association  
5145 ALDWORTH, Sidney Francis1912ENG, HAM, Christchurch Oct 1928 : Montcalm CAN Catholic Emigration Association  
9776 ALLEN, Bertha Ethel1886ENG, HAM, Winchester Sep 1899 : Arawa CAN Barnardos  
15306 ALLEN, Bessie May1888ENG, HAM, Winchester Sep 1899 : Arawa CAN Barnardos  
4093 AMES, Mildred Doris1903ENG, HAM, Alverstoke Jun 1912 : Tunisian CAN Barnardos  
10896 ANNALL, Frederick William1901ENG, HAM, Portsmouth Mar 1915 : Scandinavian CAN Barnardos  
25954 ARMSTRONG, Benjamin John Emmerson1918ENG, HAM, Hartley Wintney Nov 1929 : Ballarat AUS Fairbridge Homes splmum , Pinjarra1929  
27393 ASHWORTH, Gordon Herbert Charles1943ENG, HAM, Alton Jan 1949 : Ormonde AUS Fairbridge Homes  
27392 ASHWORTH, Maurice Benedict1941ENG, HAM, Aldershot Jan 1949 : Ormonde AUS Fairbridge Homes  
17310 AYLWIN, Arthur Edmund1893ENG, HAM, Portsea Aug 1905 : Dominion CAN Barnardos  
17059 AYLWIN, Bertie1898ENG, HAM, Portsea Aug 1905 : Dominion CAN Barnardos  
17311 AYLWIN, Ernest Edward1896ENG, HAM, Portsea Aug 1905 : Dominion CAN Barnardos  
10932 BAKER, George Edward Windsor1937ENG, HAM, Southampton May 1948 : Empire Brent (formerly Letitia II) AUS Fairbridge Homes  
17978 BANKS, Edmund Charles1895ENG, HAM, Portsmouth Jul 1907 : Kensington CAN Barnardos  
17323 BANKS, Harry Albert1893ENG, HAM, Portsea Mar 1903 : Canada CAN Barnardos  
17980 BANKS, Mabel1890ENG, HAM, Alverstoke Oct 1903 : Dominion  Barnardos  
3442 BASHFORD, Albert Edward1886ENG, HAM, Isle of Wight Jun 1891 : Vancouver CAN Bristol Emigration Society  
3441 BASHFORD, Charlotte1881ENG, HAM, Isle of Wight Jun 1891 : Vancouver CAN Bristol Emigration Society  
8855 BIDDLECOMBE, Annie1886ENG, HAM, Dibden Jul 1903 : Dominion CAN Barnardos  
10070 BLACKMAN, Phillip1882ENG, HAM, Gosport Apr 1892 : Sarnia CAN Marchmont Homes (now Barnardos)  
7165 BLANDFORD, Elizabeth1856ENG, HAM, Southampton Aug 1871 : Prussian CAN MacPherson Homes  
7042 BLANDFORD, Frances Amelia1859ENG, HAM, Southampton Aug 1871 : Prussian CAN MacPherson Homes  
16647 BLANDFORD, Kate Jane1861ENG, HAM, Southampton Aug 1872 : Sarmatian CAN MacPherson Homes  
IDNameDOBPlace of birthArrivals & ShipsDest.AgencyFamily links
Page: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 7 187 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