Extra Information From Quiz Committee:
Havelock Farm, where the boys were housed and fed, was on the 13th Line, north-east corner of the 3rd Concession. The farm included 320 acres of
good arable land, and was owned by Charles Edward Baring Young, a man of considerable wealth and a former Conservative MP in England. Squire Young
had also founded Kingham Hill School, Worcestershire, in 1886. He chose its students from among the orphaned 7 or 8 year-old urchins of London’s
streets. Educated at his expense at Kingham Hill School until they were 16-17, they were then sent to where they might get work that suited their
training. Some remained in England, some went to Australia and about 10 a year came to Canada, to live at Havelock Farm, Woodstock. All the Havelock
boys either worked on the farm, or for neighbouring farmers.
Havelock was connected with Church of England, and the boys always attended, en masse, the Sunday evening service at Old St. Paul’s Church, Woodstock.
Very sports oriented, they formed a good soccer team that played local teams and always won the Woodstock City League during the late 1920s.
Some of the Canadian group grew up to later become leading lights in the Woodstock community, such as Dick Clowes, a Mayor of Woodstock.
At the time, many of the young men in England were unemployed, but there was work in Canada (before the Great Depression years).
Sources:
- History vertical files, Oxford Historical Society
- Ed Bennett (local historian)