A Presentation by Sheila Dodd
Wednesday, October 21, 2026, 7 p.m.
Newcastle Community Hall
Free admission
Explore the history of the British Home Children child migration scheme and the lives of children placed in the Clarington area. Through local case studies, Sheila Dodd will highlight the sending agencies, receiving homes and the challenges many British Home Children faced once in Canada.
Over 100,000 children were sent from Britain to Canada from 1869-1948 and it is a forgotten part of Canadian history that Sheila and others help to keep alive.
Sheila Dodd grew up in Toronto and Whitby moving to Eastern Ontario in the late 1990s. She is a retired Master Florist with over 45 years on the industry and taught the 1 year Florist Training Program at Loyalist College in Belleville from 2000-2011. She retrained in 2023 as a medical laboratory technician and phlebotomist. Sheila lived in Kendal from 2018-2021 and fell in love with the area.
She discovered her grandmother and her grandmother’s brother were British Home Children around 1998. Sheila got first hand memories from her grandma and great uncle while they were still alive and that started her journey and passion for the British Home Children.
She became involved with Home Children Canada in 2019 by joining their Beacons of Light campaign and committee. She writes to Clarington Council every year to proclaim September 28th as British Home Children Day. She is also one of their researchers, HCC Registry updaters and in 2026 she became an accredited speaker for Home Children Canada.