Marjorie Too Afraid to Cry: A Home Child Experience

When Marjories daughter began exploring archival records involving Britains child-migration program, a home-child saga emerged.

Marjorie Arnison was one of the thousands of children removed from their families, communities, and country and placed in a British colony or commonwealth to provide white stock and cheap labour. In Marjories case, she was sent to Prince of Wales Fairbridge Farm School, just north of Victoria, British Columbia, in 1937. As a child, Patricia was angered that her mother wouldnt talk about the past. It took many years to discover why it wasnt because she was keeping a dark secret, but because she had lost her childhood.

For 10-year-old Marjorie, forgetting her past, her family, and England was the only survival tool she had at her disposal to enable her to face her frightening and uncertain future. This is Marjories account as told by her daughter. It is a story of fear, loss, courage, survival, and finding ones way home.