Person:Sydney Hampton (1)

Sydney Hampton was a Home Child.

Home Children is a common term used to refer to the child migration scheme founded by Annie Macpherson in 1869, under which more than 100,000 children were sent to Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa from the United Kingdom.

Link to the Wikipedia entry for Home Children: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Children

In 2003, I wrote to Barnardo's Orphanage and asked them to send me the records for my grandfather. The detailed records that I received were released to me with the promise that I would not publish them publicly without their consent. So the following is a paraphrased version of a portion of the records.

Admission to Barnardo's Orphanage

Admitted: 1st June, 1894

Age: 6 weeks

Date and place of birth: 14th April, 1894, at Leytonstone

Sydney's father, William Henry Hampton, died on October 4, 1893, in West Ham Infirmary from pneumonia, aged twenty-nine. William's widow, Alice Annie (nee Murphy), was left with four young children, and a fifth (Sydney) was born afterwards. The family lived at 19, Catt Hall Road, Leytonstone. Alice was unable to work because of her "confinement" and therefore she could not care for so many young children. She applied to place Sydney and his older brother, Walter John, in the Orphanage. They admitted Sydney but advised Alice to re-submit her application for Walter John in three months time (he subsequently was admitted). Alice had three other children: William Lawrence., Richard and Mary Ann Maud. There is a note in the records that applications had been made at the Stockwell Orphanage to admit William and to the Rev. Archibald's Orphanage to admit Richard. There is no mention of Mary Ann Maud other than to list her as a sibling of Sydney's.

The admission record also lists other immediate family members which I've recorded in the family tree.

Shipped to Canada

Sydney was "boarded out" several times until he was sent to Canada aboard the SS Southwark which left from Liverpool on July 21, 1904, and arrived in Montreal on July 31, 1904.

Link to the searchable records for the Home Children on the Library and Archives Website: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/home-children/index-e.html

Sydney was sent to live and work on a farm near Elsinore, Ontario (Concession D, Lot 3). He stayed there until about April 1, 1910. He then worked for various employers in and around Elsinore until about June, 1912. The records show that at that time that he had moved to Toronto with his brother, Walter. The next entry says that he joined the army in 1915 and is training at Wolseley Barracks in London, Ontario..

Ethel, Robert, Marjorie and Sydney Hampton

1. ↑ .

   Information provided by Sydney's daughter, Dorothy

2. ↑ Canada. Soldiers of the First World War. (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Library and Archives Canada).
3. ↑ Canada. Passenger Lists, 1865-1935. (Ottawa: Library and Archives Canada).
4. ↑ Canada. 1911 Census of Canada. (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Library and Archives Canada).

   Ancestry.com, Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. .Original data - Library and Archives Canada. Censu, [1] "Birth date: April 1894 Birth place: England Residence date: 1911 Residence place: Bruce North, Ontario, Canada Arrival date: 1904 Arrival place:."

5. ↑ Christening Record from familysearch.org
6. ↑ Headstone - Sydney Hampton
7. ↑ Attestation Papers - Sydney Hampton, Page One
8. ↑ Attestation Papers - Sydney Hampton, Page Two