Did you know... that Fairbridge operated in Canada after the Government restricted the entry of unaccompanied children?

Group of girls outside the Fairbridge Farm School, Duncan 1930s. Reproduced courtesy Royal BC Museum, BC Archives I-68569.

In 1934 the Prince of Wales launched an appeal in London for £100,000 to establish three more Fairbridge Farm Schools based on the school at Pinjarra, Western Australia. The first of the new schools, the Prince of Wales Fairbridge Farm School at Cowichan Station near Duncan, Vancouver Island, was opened in 1935 – seven years after the previous Canadian Government banned the entry of children under 14.

This was possible because the new Government, under Prime Minister Richard Bennett, supported closer relations within the Commonwealth and agreed to lift restrictions.

In Canada children were housed in a cottage setting rather than being distributed to isolated private farms across the country. The Prince of Wales school received 329 children between 1936 and 1948.