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This is a sub-project of the Child Emigration - Britain to Canada.
This one is for the children from the Boy's Home on Great Queen Street in London, England. Most of them came from the Society's Farm at Risley.
On the whole the profiles linked to this project do not have any information about the parents, what they did in Canada or exact dates of birth. What they do have is a source document showing their immigration to Canada. Because of the numbers involved the names are not listed in the body of the project - please refer to the profiles added listed (right) for links.
Some profiles may be linked to their families as someone from the family has contacted us with information.
Great Queen Street
Roughly half of the south side is occupied by Freemasons' Hall, the headquarters of the United Grand Lodge of England. The first English Grand Lodge was founded in 1717, which explains the dates on the top of the current building. Their first buildings on this site were replaced in 1860 by the architect Frederick Pepys Cockerell. However, this is the third Freemasons' Hall, which was built by international subscriptions in 1927-33 as a Masonic Peace Memorial after the Great War. It is a grade II listed building, and the only Art Deco building in London that is unaltered and still used for its original purpose. There are 29 meeting rooms and the 1,000 seat Grand Temple, which with the Library and Museum are open to the public with hourly guided tours.
The four Masonic Charities are also located in Freemasons' Hall. They are The Freemasons' Grand Charity, a grant-making charity; the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution(RMBI), which operates 17 care homes for Freemasons and their dependants; the Royal Masonic Trust for Boys and Girls, provides education for the children of Freemasons; and the Masonic Samaritan Fund, providing medical care and support.
Great Queen Street has been the headquarters for the freemasons in England since 1717 at which time they would meet in various taverns and livery halls in the area. They inaugurated their first permanent Lodge at 61 Great Queen Street in 1776 which has been sporadically extended and rebuilt both to the east and west in the intervening years; the present Freemasons’ Hall was completed in 1933. Within, the building is majestic, heroic and bold, each room has its own centrepiece amongst an overall theme of art deco grandeur.
http://www.coventgarden.uk.com/streets/great-queen-street
http://www.hamarks.co.uk/node/226
The Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys was established following the amalgamation of two previously separate institutes for Girls and boys. The overall aim of the organisation is to relieve poverty and advance education of children of all ages.
The Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys
In 1788 Chevalier Bartholomew Ruspini (1728-1813 was an Italian-born British surgeon-dentist and philanthropist) and the Duchess of Cumberland, founded a school for the daughters of distressed Masons, “The Royal Cumberland Freemasons’ School for Female Objects”. A similar provision for boys was established in 1798.
Some time later it was realised that sending a poor child away to school was not always the best solution, so the trustees of the schools later began to give what they termed ‘Out Relief’ as well; this took the form of financial assistance to be used to support the child at the family home.
Over the next 200 years the Girls Institution and the Boys Institution grew larger and helped ever increasing numbers of Masonic children at their schools and, from time to time, they relocated to larger premises to accommodate the increases.