Violet Louise Gowers Beard (1898-1967)
Violet came through Annie MacPherson Home to their institutional receiving home in Stratford, Ontario. She sailed on the Corsican and arrived in Quebec on August 3, 1912. Violet married George Ernest Beard (1899-1955) in Tillsonburg on August 5, 1918. Violet and George had five children: Percy, Bessie, George Marcus, William, and Ronald. Violet died in 1967 and is buried in the Best Cemetery in Elgin County.
Violet’s children have played a part in preserving British Home Children’s and Tillsonburg’s history. George Marcus (1931-2016) was involved with Tillsonburg’s museum in its early days and even played E. D. Tillson at the Town’s 125th celebrations. Bessie Herman (nee Beard) (1922-2019) wrote the history of her mother in 1998.
Violet's name appears third last on the list of Outgoing Passengers.
The following is an excerpt from that history,
“… Now I am going to tell you why this story is near and dear to my heart. I am a direct descendent of a Barnardo girl… my Mother, Violet Louise Gowers, born December 17, 1898. Her mother had died leaving 7 children. My mother and her twin sister Frances, used to sing on the street, holding a tin cup for pennies, to help out at home. The same story in their home … no jobs … no money. Their older brother Charles had went in the Home and sailed to Canada aboard the Tunisian May 9th, 1908.
My mother and Aunt Frances told of being in school one day, when a couple came to show slides and talk about Canada. The man said that if they worked hard, were good and kept out of trouble, they could be as good as being in the land of milk and honey. He asked if anyone there would like to go to that country. Guess who put their hands up? Violet and Frances! Their younger brother George, who also went to that school, got volunteered that day as well, possibly by his sisters! The three soon entered the Home and all sailed to Canada aboard the Corsican August 5th, 1912...”
Bessie was also featured, talking about her mother, in the Toronto Star on Jan. 30, 1999,
“…Bessie Herman’s mother, Violet Gowers, and Violet’s twin sister Frances, were home children who came to Canada in 1912. She thinks that on the whole the program was a good one.
‘It’s a terrible thing to take children away from their families, but you have to put it in the context of the harshness of the times,’ Herman says. “Before they came to Canada, my mother and her sister used to stand on a street corner with a tin cup and sing to get a few pennies to help out at home.”
Herman says her mother kept her early life a closely guarded secret. “She never, ever talked about being a home child, not once. I only found out by listening through closed doors when she talked to Aunt Frances when I was a little girl.”
After Herman’s mother died in the 1960s, she became curious about her roots and began talking to her mother’s friends and writing to the British authorities. She discovered her grandmother had died and four of seven children were sent to Canada when their father, a labourer, found it hard to raise them alone.
“My mother worked in five different homes and as far as I know she was treated well. Her last two moves brought her close to Frances, so they walked together on Sunday afternoons,” she says.
One home where her mother worked was in Simcoe and “they must have bonded well because I remember we visited back and forth for years. There was a lot of hugs and kisses when they came to visit,” she says.
She also discovered that her father’s brother was a home child who did well for himself in Canada and sponsored Herman’s father to join him.
“So I’m a double home child descendant,” she says.
Last year [1998], Herman organized a home children reunion in her hometown of Tillsonburg.
“I was told I’d be lucky if anyone showed up, but more than 170 people came. Eleven were home children, the rest descendants of home children. It was amazing,” she says.”