Fairbridge - Empire and Child Migration (Hardcover)

In the half-century after 1913, approximately 5000 children were sent from Britain to Australia, Canada, and Rhodesia under the auspices of the Child Emigration Society, established by the South-African born Kingsley Fairbridge in 1909. The Fairbridge Society's child emigration scheme became the best known and most celebrated of the 20th-century juvenile migration schemes from Britain to the Imperial Dominions. This study investigates the motives for the establishment of the Fairbridge child migration scheme, examines its history in Australia and Canada, and outlines the experiences of many of the former child migrants. The book is based on material from Australia and Canada as well as archives of the Fairbridge Society in England, Western Australia and New South Wales, plus surviving records of the Society in British Columbia, and on interviews with former Fairbridge children. It aims to place the Fairbridge scheme in its historical context, and uses oral history, interviews and photographs.