‘Give Us The Power To Make A Golden Bridge Across The Atlantic’ – Honouring the story of Glasgow’s child migrants

The Canadian government estimates that a staggering 11% of the country’s population are descendants of children who arrived as minors, many from William Quarrier’s Children’s Homes. This initiative was part of a broader movement led by Scotswoman Annie MacPherson, founder of the ‘home children’ child migration program. Between 1869 and 1939, an estimated 100,000 children were sent abroad from the UK, with 7,000 coming from Glasgow alone. While some children found comfort and loving families, many others endured traumatic experiences—siblings were often separated and not reunited until adulthood, if ever, and many suffered abuse and mistreatment in their new homes. In 2001, the Heatherbank Museum of Social Work, now part of Glasgow Caledonian University, hosted a public exhibition that shared the stories of the child migrants from Quarrier’s Homes. A few years later, the exhibition and the extensive archival material behind it were curated, digitized, and published online by IRISS, the social care charity. Hear from the team who created this poignant resource, finally giving a voice to the thousands who were sent to new worlds, with little or no say in their fate.