Fairbridge Chapel

"The Fairbridge Society developed from the Child Emigration Society, established in 1909 by Kingsley Fairbridge. Its purpose was to send British child migrants to different parts of the Empire where they would learn farming at special farm schools"

The Prince of Wales Fairbridge Farm School, a residential school for underprivileged British children, opened in 1935. It was established by the Fairbridge Society and located at Cowichan Station, near Duncan, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. About 350 children – some as young as 4 years of age – were sent to the facility. The majority of the children came from Newcastle, Glasgow and other distressed industrial cities. Many of the children were selected from welfare institutions, notably the Middlemore Home in Birmingham, but some were surrendered by parents who saw no future for them in Britain. Resettlement in Canada was supposed to offer educational and economic advantages to the children.

Abuse followed.

But for too many, the dream became a nightmare. Hundreds of migrant children have given accounts of poor education, hard labour, physical beatings and sexual abuse.