The mysterious disappearance of Tom

On the 9th October 1896 a policeman turned up to the Children’s Shelter on Chatham Street bringing with him a 15 year old boy. After many months tramping around the country Tom had found himself in Manchester, destitute and alone. Originally from Liverpool, the family had moved to Dartford where Tom’s father drove an omnibus. A ‘very wild character and of loose habits’ Tom was abandoned when his father fell heavily into debt and ran off. 

 Tom's Application Form

Written on Tom’s admission form to the Central Refuge was the note ‘wants to go to Canada’. The following April, Tom was aboard the Vancover, on his way to Belleville. His first reports describe how he liked his place, had learned milking and was delighted by Canada. Within 3 years he was married and had gained a job at a lumber shanty in Sudbury.

A letter arrived to the Refuge in June 1900 from Amelia in regards to her husband. After not hearing from him in three months she had decided to ‘write all particulars as you would know what to do and perhaps you will kindly find out his whereabouts’. Letters to his family in the UK were to no avail and sadly no further information remains in the archive as to what had happened to Tom.

Letter from Amelia, June 1900

The lumber yards were notoriously dangerous as his wife highlighted – ‘I have been told that he might have had an unlucky blow as the lumber woods are not the proper place for a young man to be in’.

Fortunately for Tom, whatever happened in those woods was not fatal. Although no more personal archives remain for him after this letter, Tom visited the Central Refuge fifteen years later whilst on leave during World War One. As Sergeant-Major of a Canadian Regiment he had recruited hundreds of soldiers in Toronto, by public appeals, to the allies’ side. He delighted the Refuge staff with tales of his time in Canada and as part of the Canadian army. Despite this letter in the archive, Tom's was a happy ending.