Notes In 1885, William Baldwin, 12, arrived at Quebec, Canada, in a group of 50 Fegan boys en route to Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
On August 30, 1913, a marriage was registered between William Jeffrey Baldwin and Sarah Elizabeth Cartwright.
Three children were born of this marriage.
William died on May 9, 1945, in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, at the age of 68. Sarah Cartwright Baldwin died in 1964. They are buried at Hazelmere Cemetery, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.
William Jeffrey Baldwin, as told by his daughter, Miss Geraldine Baldwin, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada (from The Home Children, by Phyllis Harrison):
My dad said that his mother arrived at the dockside to see him off and he could remember her sobbing as she watched the ship sail away. He never saw her again.
My dad's name was William Jeffrey Baldwin. He was born in Surrey, England, May 27, 1876. His own father, Robert Gordon Baldwin, was killed in the African Zulu War when dad was about five years of age. After this, his mother (born Anne Jeffrey, a governess) went to France taking her boy with her. Eventually she came back and put dad in the care of elderly aunts but it is presumed they were unable to cope with the small boy; his mother, as a governess, was not permitted to have him with her. He was put in Mr. Fegan's Home -- which one I do not know. While there the headmaster asked the boys if any of them would like to go to Canada and my dad say 'Yes.'
I expect he arrived in the Toronto Home and from there went to a farm where he remembered having to get up at daybreak and feed, water, curry, and harness horses before ploughing the fields. He was nine years of age and how long he worked there, he never said. But from there he went to work for a doctor, driving the horse and carriage while the rounds were made and avidly learning all he could.
What he earned he must have saved and when 18 or 19 years of age he came to British Columbia, settling on the lower mainland in the District of Surrey where he eventually bought property. He went to school in Cloverdale to get his primary education, and then studied at home to become a stationary engineer. Dad died in 1945 and since he has gone I realize how much more about his life I would love to know. But he would never talk about it to any extent and being so young when he came to Canada he could not remember many details of his early years. He kept his letters, Bible, and pictures of his mother in the church at Hazelmere, which he helped build, and where he thought they would be safe. The church burned down and he lost all of this including his mother's address. He never knew what happened to her.
Contributors Created : 2012-10-05 15:44:36 / From original database Last Updated : 2012-11-01 22:14:04 /
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