British children working at a farm near Parramatta, Australia, in 1953. One British migrant recalled, “We were told it was the land of milk and honey.” Published: November 22, 2009
LONDON — Laurie Humphreys, at least, had the advantage of being a teenager — if anything about being uprooted from family and homeland in 1940s Britain and sent 12,000 miles to brutal and often sexually abusive orphanages in western Australia could be called advantageous.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia, left, during a ceremony last week to apologize for the program.
Mr. Humphreys was 14, old enough to understand at least some of what was happening to him.
Others among the boys and girls known in Australia as the “lost innocents” were as young as 3, children abandoned by single mothers or impoverished families, placed into institutional care in Britain, then transported across the world, often without parental consent, with certificates bearing wrong names and birth dates, and falsely noting that they had no living parents or siblings. FULL ARTICLE>>>>
LONDON — Laurie Humphreys, at least, had the advantage of being a teenager — if anything about being uprooted from family and homeland in 1940s Britain and sent 12,000 miles to brutal and often sexually abusive orphanages in western Australia could be called advantageous.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia, left, during a ceremony last week to apologize for the program.
Mr. Humphreys was 14, old enough to understand at least some of what was happening to him.
Others among the boys and girls known in Australia as the “lost innocents” were as young as 3, children abandoned by single mothers or impoverished families, placed into institutional care in Britain, then transported across the world, often without parental consent, with certificates bearing wrong names and birth dates, and falsely noting that they had no living parents or siblings. FULL ARTICLE>>>>
