Dedication
This book is in memory of my mother, Marjorie, her siblings Frederick, Norman, Phyllis, Joyce, Kenneth, Audrey, Jean, Lawrence, Richard, and David and to my grandfather, Thomas Frederick Arnison. However, this book is most especially dedicated to my grandmother, Winifred Arnison.
Authors Note
W hile only a child, Marjorie was removed from her family in the Tyneside area of northeastern England and sent to Canada as part of the British child migration scheme. She was doing her duty to her king and country and, as Kingsley Fairbridge in 1909 and then the Prince of Wales in 1935 both emphasized, she was seen as an imperial investment in the British colonies.
Marjorie arrived at the Prince of Wales Fairbridge Farm School near Cowichan Station, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, on September 22, 1937, one day after her eleventh birthday.
Propaganda, in a variety of forms, such as brochures, newspaper ads, as well as newspaper and magazine articles from the philanthropic organizations seeking to be involved in the migration of children to the colonies, portrayed British child migration in the brightest of lights. Opposition was voiced but rarely heeded.
This venture is backed by His Majestys Government the consent of the Canadian Government and of the Provincial Government in British Columbia has already been secured for the starting of a school in that great province in the Great West.
Fairbridge Farm School, The Times (London), July 25, 1934
Marjories mother had little power to prevent three of her young children from being sent overseas to be trained as domestics and farm workers in the colonies, as this family was up against a system that was supported by the powerful in both Britain and Canada. Marjorie told me in an interview in January 2015 that she wasnt brought up, she was dragged up at this Canadian farm school. She survived because that is what her instincts told her to do. She had her two siblings and a few close friends in her cottage, and she got by because we had each other and because we had no choice.
This full-page article leaves no doubt that the Fairbridge Farm School scheme was fully endorsed by the Royal Family. Surrounding these three men are hundreds of donor names. The Fairbridge Society (a.k.a. The Child Emigration Society) had the backing of many influential people.
Britain alone of the European Colonial powers seems to have made an industry of the export of its children.
Geoff Blackburn, The Childrens Friend Society, 1993
Strictly speaking, the Fairbridge Farm School is somewhat in the nature of a broker. They ask these public assistance authorities, who are like wholesalers, to supply the children to ourselves, who are the retailers.
Letter to Frederick Charles Blair, Canadian Department of Immigration and Colonization, Ottawa, Ontario, regarding the material submitted for the Fairbridge Farm School, 1935
Farm School Plan is British-Backed. Number of English Children will be Trained on Vancouver Island to Become Canadians. They will know Canadian farming thoroughly when they are through with us.
The Gazette (Montreal), February 14, 1935
What better for the Empire than that in the newer lands it should be fed with trained material from the homeland, and its scattered elements united by the common culture and loyalty of those who from childhood had owed everything to St. Georges England?
Youth and the Empire, The Times (London), April 25, 1935
Child emigration pamphlet, circa 1910, and Building Young Canada on the Playing Fields of Fairbridge, circa 1949. Both images were from the Fairbridge Societys appeal for support, one at the beginning of Kingsley Fairbridges campaign and the other when the Fairbridge Society found itself at a crossroads in Canada.
Foreword
T his is a worthy sequel to Marjorie Too Afraid to Cry , which told a painful but critically important story of lives turned upside down by the then U.K. governments policy of sending children overseas and away from their families forever.
In February 2010, when I made a formal, full, and unconditional apology to the victims of the child migrant program on behalf of the British people, Marjories life was one of the stories at the forefront of my thoughts.
What happened at the Prince of Wales Fairbridge Farm School, where 95 percent of the 329 children sent there were not orphans but had families from whom they were cut off, continues to distress everyone who hears what went on there.
It was right that we said sorry to Marjorie and to all those who were truly let down.
Now we have another important chapter in her story. Marjorie: Her War Years recalls a childhood filled with loneliness, pain, and a sense of rejection. The children had no one to turn to and did not feel that anyone cared. Communication to the outside world was censored. Letters home had to give glowing reports or the children were punished. Letters coming to Marjorie from her mother had sections blacked out or cut from the page.
This account shows how wrong it was that Marjorie and so many others like her were sent away at the time when they were at their most vulnerable. It was wrong that our country turned its back and did not see the tears or hear the cries for help. It was wrong that it took so long for an apology to be made and for Marjorie to be united with her brother.
The determination shown by Marjorie and all former child migrants to have the failures of the past acknowledged challenges us to do more. Like so many others, I am inspired by her spirit and resilience.
Marjorie Too Afraid to Cry shared a moving story of courage in the face of suffering, and this important sequel educates us about the callous and cruel mistakes that were made by decision makers mistakes that should never happen again. While we cannot wipe out the pain, we can show that we understand it, that we are trying to make amends, and that we really do care.
Gordon Brown, prime minister of the United Kingdom, 20072010
Marjorie (Arnison) Skidmore receiving a personal apology from the former British prime minister, Gordon Brown, London, February 2010.
Winifreds Children
She wrapped her heart
Around their imaginary little bodies
