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Record #15883
Name :
: Stewart HARRIS


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
: 7 Jun 1910
Country
: Canada

Ship
: Mongolian

Placement Family
: Andrew Settle
Homes / Agencys
Institution (GB)
:

Agency
: Middlemore
NotesIn 1910, Stewart Harris, 5, arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, in a group of 154 Middlemore children.


Almost forgotten
Published on October 2nd, 2009
Staff ~ Halifax News Net

Celebration to be held to remember Canadas 100,000 British Home Children
By Joanne Oostveen - The Weekly News

A celebration will be held next week in Cole Harbour to recognize an almost forgotten part of Canadian history.

Between 1879 and 1948 approximately 100,000 British Home Children were shipped to Canada to work as farm labourers and domestic servants. Many of these children, aged four to 15, were scooped out of the British slums, poorhouses and the streets by well-meaning social organizations to give them a better life in Canada.

This year, the Nova Scotia government has declared October as the month of the British Home Children and one Cole Harbour man is doing his part to keep that heritage alive.
Melvin Harris, who is an active member of the British Home Children Descendents Assc., has helped organize a tree planting on Oct. 5 at 10 a.m. at the Cole Harbour Heritage Farm.

"My father came to work at that farm as a nine-year-old boy in 1914 for the owner, Andrew Settle. And I grew up there too," said Harris.

Visitors to the Cole Harbour Heritage Farm may not know anything about these children, said Harris, and although Andrew Settle was good to his father there were many children in Canada who were not as fortunate.

Harris said his father had to be removed from his first Canadian home in Cape Breton because of unfit living conditions.

When the children first arrived in Nova Scotia they were housed in a distribution centre on the Bedford Highway called the Middlemore Home or the Fairview Home which was opened in 1898 at 50 Bedford Hwy, the site of the old Bayview Motor Inn.

"After 1924, the child emigration laws were changed," said Harris. "It is hard to believe that places such as distribution centres for children even existed in Canada."

But the Harris family story did have a happy ending.

Andrew Settle, the original owner of the present day heritage farm, never had any children. He loved Stuart Harris like a son, and left the farm to him upon his death.

"The Settle family looked after my father and thought a lot of him," he said. "So it is only right for me to plant a tree there."

There have been four or five reunions of the descendents in the Maritimes. "And everytime they get together they learn a little bit more about what life was like for these children," said Harris. People share memories, pictures and stories that paint a picture of a different time in this country. A time when children were brought to a new world and to a new life all on their own.

"Today, there is only one of the British Home Children alive that I know of in the Maritimes," said Harris. "But we as descendents have to keep the memory alive and teach the children today about the contributions they made to our community."

Harris invites everyone to attend the tree planting and is open to talking with anyone about his heritage.

His most recent accomplishment was to make sure that the street named in honour of his father, Stuart Harris was spelled correctly.

"They tell me they finally changed the name to Stuart Harris Drive," he said. "And that is a good thing because even the premier lives on that street."

For information, contact Melvin Harris of the British Home Children Descendents Assc 
ContributorsCreated : 2012-01-15 13:59:10 / From original database

Last Updated : 2015-07-02 11:35:11 / alanmack

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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 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 1495 Entries        
IDNameDOBPlace of birthArrivals & ShipsDest.AgencyFamily links
5126 ABBOTT, Emily1886ENG,     May 1898 : Siberian CAN Middlemore  
3011 ABBOTT, Frederick1896ENG, WAR, Birmingham Jun 1906 : Siberian CAN Middlemore  
3012 ABBOTT, George1893ENG, WAR, Birmingham Jun 1906 : Siberian CAN Middlemore  
3058 ABBOTT, Herbert William1893ENG, WAR, Aston, Erdington Jun 1906 : Siberian CAN Middlemore  
3140 ACKROYD, Frances May1899M__,     Jun 1915 : Carthaginian CAN Middlemore  
3143 ACKROYD, Mabel Emma1904IRL,     Jun 1915 : Carthaginian CAN Middlemore  
3144 ACKROYD, William Henry1906IND,    , Quetta Jun 1915 : Carthaginian CAN Middlemore  
6924 ADAMS, Ann Elizabeth1867ENG,     Jun 1878 : Sarmatian CAN Middlemore  
8778 ADAMS, George1875ENG,     Jun 1887 : Lake Ontario CAN Middlemore  
8128 ADIE, Dorothy May1914ENG, WAR, Birmingham Jul 1928 : Newfoundland CAN Middlemore  
10057 ADIE, Henry1896ENG, WAR, Aston Jun 1906 : Siberian CAN Middlemore  
10056 ADIE, Mary1895ENG,     Jun 1906 : Siberian CAN Middlemore  
5834 ADKINS, Edith May1907ENG, WAR, Alcester Jun 1910 : Mongolian CAN Middlemore  
9641 AGAR, John1905ENG,     Jun 1911 : Carthaginian CAN Middlemore  
8129 AGER, Arthur Charles1915ENG, WAR, Birmingham Jul 1928 : Newfoundland CAN Middlemore  
23376 ALEXANDER, Walter1906ENG,     May 1920 : Minnedosa CAN Middlemore  
4645 ALLDRIDGE, Arthur1897ENG, WAR, Birmingham Jun 1904 : Carthaginian CAN Middlemore  
4640 ALLDRIDGE, Francis1889ENG, WAR, Birmingham Jun 1896 : Corean CAN Middlemore  
4644 ALLDRIDGE, Harry1892ENG, WAR, Birmingham Jun 1904 : Carthaginian CAN Middlemore  
4639 ALLDRIDGE, John Leonard1884ENG, WAR, Birmingham Jun 1896 : Corean CAN Middlemore  
4641 ALLDRIDGE, Ruth Rebecca1890ENG, WAR, Birmingham Jun 1896 : Corean CAN Middlemore  
4643 ALLDRIDGE, Violet1893ENG, WAR, Birmingham Jun 1904 : Carthaginian CAN Middlemore  
4642 ALLDRIDGE, William Henry1886ENG, WAR, Birmingham Jun 1896 : Corean CAN Middlemore  
9650 ALLEN, Dorothy1903ENG,     Jun 1911 : Carthaginian CAN Middlemore  
17060 ALLEN, Edward1887ENG,     Jun 1899 : Siberian CAN Middlemore hlomiller  
3860 ALLEN, Florence Elizabeth1891ENG, WAR, Birmingham Jun 1902 : Siberian CAN Middlemore  
4703 ALLEN, Thomas Henry1899ENG, WOR, Kings Norton May 1907 : Carthaginian CAN Middlemore  
12871 ALLEN, Walter Harry1883ENG, WOR, Kidderminster Jun 1895 : Carthaginian CAN Middlemore  
16328 ALLMAN, Sophia Mary Ann1875ENG, MDX, St. George in the East Jun 1885 : Lake WWnnipeg CAN Middlemore  
6925 ALLSUPP, Eliza Matty1865ENG,    , Upton on Severn Jun 1878 : Sarmatian CAN Middlemore  
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 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 1495 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