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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 41 Entries

ID	Name	DOB	Place of birth	Arrivals & Ships	Dest.	Agency	Family links
19840	HARRIS, Albert	1896	ENG,	May 1907 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys
22890	HARRIS, Albert	1896	ENG,	May 1907 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys
11127	HARRIS, Albert Edward	1894	ENG, LDN, London	May 1907 : Empress of Britain	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys
13184	HARRIS, Alfred	1865	ENG,	May 1875 : Sarmatian	CAN	Canadian Catholic Emigration Committee
15188	HARRIS, Amelia	1872	ENG,	Aug 1884 : Parisian	CAN	Board of Guardians (Various)
24279	HARRIS, Amy	1895		Apr 1906 : Friesland	CAN	Barnardos
7335	HARRIS, Arthur	1869	ENG,	Jun 1879 : Moravian	CAN	Middlemore
23127	HARRIS, Barnett C.	1898	ENG,	Apr 1912 : Empress of Ireland	CAN	Fegan Homes for Boys
7900	HARRIS, Cecil	1914	ENG, , Wembley	Mar 1930 : Baltic	CAN	Waifs & Strays
13814	HARRIS, Doreen Victoria Clavey	1909	ENG, LAN, West Derby	Jul 1924 : Caronia	CAN	MacPherson Homes
9372	HARRIS, Dorothy	1895	ENG,	Oct 1905 : Canada	CAN	Barnardos
4877	HARRIS, Edith	1909	ENG, , Coleshil	Apr 1925 : Montclare	CAN	Barnardos
17704	HARRIS, Edwin George	1893	ENG,	Jun 1906 : Siberian	CAN	Middlemore
6501	HARRIS, Ethel	1890	ENG,	Oct 1902 : Colonian	CAN	Barnardos
14118	HARRIS, Florence	1888	ENG,	Sep 1899 : Arawa	CAN	Barnardos
10574	HARRIS, Frances M	1911	ENG, WIL, Cricklade	Jul 1923 : Minnedosa	CAN	Barnardos
8202	HARRIS, Francis	1914	ENG, GLS, Bristol	Sep 1928 : Antonia	CAN	National Childrens Home
21281	HARRIS, Frederick	1917	ENG,	Jun 1929 : Berrima	AUS	Barnardos
11312	HARRIS, Geo	1884	ENG,	Mar 1901 : Tunisian	CAN	Barnardos
7529	HARRIS, George	1853	ENG,	Nov 1869 : Hibernian	CAN	Maria Rye
25067	HARRIS, Grace	1897		Mar 1910 : Tunisian	CAN	Barnardos
13937	HARRIS, Henry	1873	ENG,	Aug 1887 : Toronto	CAN	Church Emigration Society
14284	HARRIS, Henry G	1889	ENG,	Jun 1901 : Lusitania	CAN	Bristol Emigration Society
27267	HARRIS, Irene Joan	1923	ENG, DEV, Exeter	Jul 1935 : Moreton Bay	AUS	Fairbridge Homes
5090	HARRIS, Jacob	1912	ENG, , Fulham	Aug 1926 : Montrose	CAN	Barnardos
5173	HARRIS, James	1918	ENG, , Market Harboro	Mar 1932 : Montclare	CAN	Barnardos
5941	HARRIS, James Edward Albert	1908	CAN, , London	Jul 1921 : Megantic	CAN	National Childrens Home
25478	HARRIS, Joseph	1900	ENG,	May 1909 : Corsican	CAN	Barnardos
14269	HARRIS, Lily	1892	ENG,	May 1901 : Dominion	CAN	Louisa Birt
25391	HARRIS, Lizzie	1889	SCT,	Jun 1897 : Sarmatian	CAN	Quarriers
24280	HARRIS, Mabel E.	1897		Apr 1906 : Friesland	CAN	Barnardos
25068	HARRIS, Naomi	1899		Mar 1910 : Tunisian	CAN	Barnardos
7237	HARRIS, Richard	1913	ENG, LDN, London	Sep 1929 : Duchess of Atholl	CAN	Barnardos
8691	HARRIS, Rose Emma	1899	ENG, , Medway	Sep 1912 : Sicilian	CAN	Barnardos	RoseMarie2
6472	HARRIS, Rosina	1902	ENG,	May 1909 : Corsican	CAN	Barnardos
17583	HARRIS, Selina	1886	ENG,	Sep 1895 : Sardinian	CAN	Barnardos
3304	HARRIS, Simon Peter	1892	ENG, DBY, Barton	May 1907 : Dominion	CAN	Barnardos
15883	HARRIS, Stewart		ENG,	Jun 1910 : Mongolian	CAN	Middlemore
21219	HARRIS, Thomas Compton	1893		Apr 1905 : Kensington	CAN	Barnardos
24633	HARRIS, Wilbert	1892		Jun 1906 : Dominion	CAN	Barnardos
4814	HARRIS, William	1913	ENG, , Wythall	Apr 1925 : Montclare	CAN	Barnardos
ID	Name	DOB	Place of birth	Arrivals & Ships	Dest.	Agency	Family 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 41 Entries

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