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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        
IDNameDOBPlace of birthArrivals & ShipsDest.AgencyFamily links
3004 AARON, Alfred Robert1899ENG, LAN, West Derby, Liverpool Mar 1911 : Sicilian CAN Barnardos  
3003 AARON, John Richard1895ENG, LAN, West Derby, Liverpool Mar 1911 : Sicilian CAN Barnardos  
3007 ABBEY, Bertha1890ENG, DUR, Stockton on Tees Jul 1904 : Southwark CAN Barnardos  
3006 ABBEY, John1887ENG, DUR, Stockton on Tees Oct 1904 : Southwark CAN Barnardos  
3161 ABBEY, Thomas1892ENG, DUR, Stockton on Tees Oct 1904 : Southwark CAN Barnardos  
3020 ABBOT, Alice1877ENG, MDX, Islington Oct 1893 : Labrador CAN Barnardos  
3047 ABBOT, William1878ENG,     Apr 1895 : Parisian CAN Barnardos  
3019 ABBOTT, Alfred1869ENG,     Aug 1887 : Parisian CAN Barnardos  
23669 ABBOTT, Alice1877ENG,     Oct 1893 : Labrador CAN Barnardos  
3022 ABBOTT, Bertie1894ENG, SFK, Ipswich May 1909 : Corsican CAN Barnardos sharonmx5 , patty_in_ms  
3025 ABBOTT, David Henry1891ENG, ESS, Grays Mar 1901 : Tunisian CAN Barnardos  
3055 ABBOTT, Douglas Groves1910ENG, HAM, Hartley Wintney Apr 1924 : Montclare CAN Barnardos  
3858 ABBOTT, Emily Jane1886ENG, YKS, Guisborough Jul 1903 : Dominion CAN Barnardos  
8354 ABBOTT, Frederick Albert Prosper1885ENG, LND, Homerton Apr 1895 : Parisian CAN Barnardos  
3036 ABBOTT, George1894ENG, MDX, London Jul 1904 : Southwark CAN Barnardos  
3038 ABBOTT, Herman Henry1882ENG, MDX, Hoxton, London Apr 1895 : Parisian CAN Barnardos  
10624 ABBOTT, John1913ENG,     Apr 1929 : Duchess of York CAN Barnardos  
3045 ABBOTT, Leslie1883ENG,     Mar 1893 : Labrador CAN Barnardos  
3060 ABBOTT, Lilian1903ENG,     Jun 1912 : Tunisian CAN Barnardos  
3026 ABBOTT, Mary1888ENG, ESS, Maldon Oct 1902 : Colonian CAN Barnardos  
3049 ABBOTT, Penelope1901ENG, KEN, Sidcup Jun 1912 : Tunisian CAN Barnardos  
5046 ABBS, Bertie Cecil John1914ENG, LND, St. Pancras Mar 1930 : Duchess of Richmond CAN Barnardos  
3061 ABDALE, John George1873ENG, NBL, Newcastle Upon Tyne Mar 1891 : Norwegian CAN Barnardos  
3063 ABEL, Albert Edward G.1901ENG, ESS, West Ham Aug 1910 : Tunisian CAN Barnardos  
3066 ABEL, Charles1891ENG,     Mar 1906 : Dominion CAN Barnardos  
3065 ABEL, Florence1902ENG, ESS, West Ham Aug 1910 : Tunisian CAN Barnardos  
3067 ABEL, Frederick1889ENG,     Jul 1900 : Tunisian CAN Barnardos  
3068 ABEL, George1887ENG,     Aug 1905 : Dominion CAN Barnardos  
3069 ABEL, George1897ENG,     Mar 1907 : Dominion CAN Barnardos  
3071 ABEL, John1886ENG,     Jun 1897 : Labrador CAN Barnardos  
IDNameDOBPlace of birthArrivals & ShipsDest.AgencyFamily links
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