Empty Cradles (Oranges and Sunshine)

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I met her shortly before the British government formally apologised for the part it played in child migration.

The longing to know who we are and where we come from, to know who we belong to lies deep inside each of us. A remarkable book about unspeakable pain inflicted on generations of British children by government policies and volunteer or charitable organisations entrusted with their care. The book started with an interview between a child migrant and a social worker and documented a 23 year crusade to achieve freedom, reunion and rehabilitation for thousands of child migrants.

Despite the sadness and anger at its centre, hope remains the principle message of this remarkable book. For three decades (1940s - 1967), thousands of English and Irish children were taken from their homes and shipped to Commonwealth countries (namely NZ, Canada, Rhodesia and Australia) to populate the colonies and provide (slave) labour to farms.

The secrets of the lost children of Britain may never have been revealed if it had not been for [the actions of] Margaret Humphreys. As I mentioned in my review, Margaret Humphreys is just an incredible woman and shows us what is possible when someone decides to fight against injustice. For their suffering and for the appalling inability of governments and organisations to accept their role and responsibilities in this tragedy. Anyone who had parents who were there through their childhood will like me possibly never fully understand the pain in more ways than one these children suffered.

One friend of mine who had been adopted got Margaret Humphries to trace her parents - that's a whole other story, but it did have a quasi-happy ending. Empty Cradles is a harrowing memoir which details the uncovering of an appalling part of British history: Child Migration Schemes. Margaret Humpreys, a social worker in England is also a very brave woman who took on the bureaucracy to help English child migrants also now known as the Lost Children, who were taken to all parts of the then British Empire, but mostly to Australia never to see parents or relatives again.