A reminder that the mass emigration of children from the care system was never a secret

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When Barnardo's policy of encouraging the emigration of children in their care, which was in place until 1967, was rediscovered years later, it seemed so unbelievable that people assumed it had been a secret.

In fact, as I made clear in a post in 2011, there was nothing secret about it. It was a practice that had once been discussed in every relevant report on children in care and had later been forgotten.

I was reminded of this when I came across this photograph, which is dated 20 March 1956. Its caption runs:

A group of orphans from a Barnardo's orphanage in London prepare to emigrate to Australia. Comedian Tommy Trinder sees the children off. 

 And a search of the British Newspaper Archive came up with the story below. It bears the same date and is from the Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette.

Tommy Trinder was a leading comedian of the day, though his career was to dwindle to nothing - that link will take you to a discussion of his bitter rivalry with Bruce Forsyth by Graham McCann.