Title of error

See Help

Fairbridge Empire Settlement through Child Colonization

Glasgow children leave behind their families and poverty to seek a better life on the other side of the world.

Documentary 1931 69 mins Silent

Overview

Will handing your kids to strangers 9,000 miles away free them from poverty? Some of these children from the Calton district of Glasgow are shoeless, but all seem happy. Their smiles continue for the cameras as they leave Waterloo Station for Southampton Terminus and a ship onward to Fremantle, Australia. Their own kin have been replaced by the 'big family' at the Farm School in Pinjarra, but have they swapped destitution for an education in paradise or something more like child labour?

This film serves a propaganda purpose, aiming to win public support for the Child Emigration Society, seven years after the death of its founder, Kingsley Fairbridge. Child migration was a controversial child care strategy, and the use of the terms 'Empire Settlement', 'Colonization' and 'Dominions' in the film's title cards reveals its other purpose - populating the empire with white people. Eventually the improved economic and social conditions provided by the welfare state in Britain would overtake schemes such as these, but the Farm School at Pinjarra remained open until 1981.

Original title

Fairbridge Empire Settlement through Child Colonization

Genres

Documentary

Country

United Kingdom

Location

AncoatsSouthampton

Language

No Dialogue with English subtitles

Subjects

Elizabeth, Queen Consort to George VI (1900-2002) George VI (1895-1952) Australia Agriculture Emigration Children Holidays Schools Western Australia

Watch for free

My Pipe Dream My Pipe Dream

Amateur film 1987 16 mins Location: Ancoats

Up in smoke - an era draws to a close for the clay-pipe makers of Manchester.

Watch for free

Layla - Exclusive Q&A Layla - Exclusive Q&A

Short interview 2025 27 mins

Writer, director and performer Amrou Al-Kadhi talks to Rico Johnson-Sinclair about their debut feature.

Watch for free

All We Imagine As Light - Exclusive Q&A All We Imagine As Light - Exclusive Q&A

Short interview 2025 28 mins

Payal Kapadia discusses her Cannes prize-winning and Bafta-nominated drama with Ashanti Omkar.

Watch for free

Khichdi Khichdi

Animation & Artists Moving Image 2023 16 mins

The interwoven stories of four best friends who reunite in the UK, thirty-five years after training together as nurses during their teens in Ferozepur, Punjab.