Description:[Submitted by Angela Skitt, Birmingham Archives and Heritage Department]
The Middlemore Homes were founded in 1872 by John Throgmorton Middlemore as the ‘Children’s Emigration Homes’. The first home, for boys, opened on Beatrice Crescent, St. Luke’s Road in September 1872. In December 1872, a similar home for girls opened at 36 Spring Street, Birmingham.
In 19th Century Birmingham, John Middlemore saw poor children living in overcrowded slums, in unhealthy conditions. Some children were suffering from neglect and at risk of falling into crime through a need to survive. His original mission in establishing the Middlemore Homes was to offer children a healthy upbringing, the chance to receive training and what he perceived as a better life through emigration to Canada. Children were often placed into the care of the homes by the local magistrates or were transferred to the homes from the cottage homes of the local poor law unions. The annual reports of the homes give some examples of children received into the homes. Here are two examples:
"March 3rd. – Cruelty. – Emma C., 8 years: first standard. Father in Stafford Jail, where he is committed for cruelty to this child, who has been sent to us by a magistrate’s order and whose mother, we understand, is dead.’ (Taken from the 24th annual report of the Children’s Emigration Homes for the year 1896)
"September 12th. – Both Parents’ Desertion…Father sentenced to three month’s imprisonment for deserting the children. He had sold most of his furniture, and had kept his children on bread and lard. On his desertion, the eldest boy stole and pawned quilt and perambulator in order to get food. Before desertion, and when mad drunk, he threatened the lives of all his children. The children were in an extremely filthy condition, and quite covered with sores. The evidences of neglect were very shocking. Their mother had also deserted them." (Taken from the 24th annual report of the Children’s Emigration Homes for the year 1896)
The surviving records of the homes, preserved at Birmingham Archives and Heritage department [1], reveal the mixed fortunes of these children once in Canada. Many child migrants, as John Middlemore had hoped, were better off in Canada than if they had remained in England. Others experienced ill-treatment from their employers.
The 25th annual report of the emigration homes dated 1897 summarises the aims of the organisation: ‘The Children’s Emigration Homes were established in 1872 to save boys and girls from lives of crime and pauperism. The principle adopted for this end is that of permanently removing them from criminal and pauper surroundings and transferring them by means of emigration to entirely different and hopeful associations.’
John Middlemore remained actively involved in the work of the homes until his death on 17th October 1924. In 1925, the name of the homes changed from the Children’s Emigration Homes to the ‘Middlemore Emigration Homes’.