Abuse inquiry plea for details on migrant kids
Home sent children across the oceans
Scotland’s Child Abuse Inquiry has asked for information about youngsters from a former Stirling children’s home who were sent abroad as migrants.
Stirling Council staff have been asked to search records relating to the Whinwell Children’s Home which was based at 17 Upper Bridge Street.
The home was opened in 1890 by Annie Knight Croal, daughter of the curator of the Smith Art Gallery and Museum who came from Leeds to Stirling at the age of 19.
Ms Croal who was born in 1854 and died in 1927, was regarded as a deeply spiritual person.
She was moved by the plight of orphans and neglected children after she found a baby on Stirling’s Back Walk. The child had been left there by its mother who had gone into town for a drink and been arrested.
Ms Croal managed to purchase Whinwell House and some of the children who went there became part of schemes through which they emigrated to Canada and Australia.
Whinwell continued to take admissions until 1979 but ceased to operate as a children’s home a short time later. Children’s charity the Aberlour Trust bought the building in 1980 but never operated a children’s home there. They no longer own the property
There has been much evidence that children who were part of such schemes were abused or became a source of cheap labour for those with whom they went to stay.
It is understood the council has been asked to provide any information it has regarding the Whinwell home’s policies and procedures regarding children who left there as migrants.
Inquiry chiefs also want a list of all children who, during the last century, were in care at the home and migrated aboard.
A Stirling Council spokesperson said: “We, along with other local authorities in Scotland, are assisting in searching records held to provide relevant information to the inquiry.
“The council has been asked by the inquiry to supply information regarding the former Whinwell Children’s Home on children who emigrated to Canada and Australia. We can confirm the requested information has been submitted.”
A spokesperson from the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry told the Observer it couldn’t comment on individual cases but added: “Our remit includes children whose care was arranged in Scotland but who were sent overseas as part of the child migrant programmes that operated during the 20th century. There will be case study into child migrants and details of this will be announced in due course.
“The inquiry continues to take evidence from many survivors and other witnesses with valuable information to provide, as well as gathering a wide range of documentary evidence. We continue to actively encourage anyone who has relevant information to get in touch.”
The inquiry, which is being chaired by the Supreme Court judge Lady Smith is currently carrying out investigation into 86 establishments as part of its probe into child abuse.
It was announced last month that Dunblane’s Queen Victoria School — which is for the children of parents who are in the armed forces — had been added to the list of establishments under investigation.
The former Royal Scottish National Hospital in Larbert, which catered for children and adults with learning disabilities until the early 1990s, was another addition to the probe.
Already on the list were the former St Ninians School in Gartmore, run by the De La Salle Brothers, and Ballikinrain School, near Balfron, run by the Church of Scotland’s Crossreach programme.
In recent years, allegations of historic child abuse at QVS, which is funded by the Ministry of Defence, have appeared in the national media.
The main focus of the articles were claims made by a former housemaster, Glenn Harrison, who in the early 1990s reported to police that pupils were being preyed upon, claiming that boys were often taken away by adults for unofficial overnight trips with dignitaries, and that sexual abuse and bullying in the dormitories was ignored.
His claims were passed to the Scottish Government’s historic child abuse inquiry in 2015.
Lady Smith has urged anyone with any relevant information about any of the 86 institutions to contact the inquiry.
People can do so via telephone at Freephone 0800 0929 300; email talktous@ childabuseinquiry.scot; or by post to PO BOX 24085, Edinburgh, EH7 9EA.