On Their Own: Britain’s child migrants
From the 1860s to the 1960s, more than 100,000 British children travelled alone across the world to face new lives.
The exhibition explores the government-endorsed schemes and the motivations behind them. Individual stories enable visitors to meet a number of former child migrants and learn about their experiences.
Few of the children were orphans. Many came from poor families who could no longer look after them. Sending them overseas, it was thought, would improve their opportunities while increasing the population of ‘good British stock’ and labour in the colonies.
On Their Own: Britain’s child migrants is a travelling exhibition from the Australian National Maritime Museum, in association with National Museums Liverpool, UK.
