Young Immigrants to Canada

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Fegan Homes

James William Condell Fegan was born April 27, 1852 in Southampton. As a young man Fegan started teaching in a ragged school in London. In 1872 he started a home on High Street, Deptford. This home was followed by many others, for example, The Little Wanderers' Home in Greenwich, the Southwark Home and The Red Lamp at Westminster. Fegan became known at "Fegan of Deptford" for his work among the youth of this notorious section of London.

Fegan had camping trips for the boys and bought three country homes at Stony Strafford, Greenwich and Goudhurst, Kent. It was at Goudhurst where he trained the lads he sent to Canada.

In 1884, Fegan made his first trip to Canada. He sent boys west to Manitoba and established a home in Toronto, Ontario at 295 George Street. About 100 lads a year came to Canada with the Fegan organization. These boys were encouraged to repay their passage so that others might also make the journey.

When Fegan died December 9, 1925 his work was carried on by others. Fegan Homes still exists and they maintain a web site.

The book "J.W.C. Fegan: A tribute" by W.Y. Fullerton, D.D., has been reprinted by Global Genealogy. This will be followed by reprints of the newsletters.

In The News

These are items which have appeared in various newspapers about the parties usually as they arrived.

Records

The records from the Fegan Canadian home are in the possession of Mr. Douglas Fry. Mr. Fry is willing to do searches but charges a fee of $10 for the search. After you have contacted Mr. Fry, he will tell you how to go about contacting Fegan's Homes in England.

Mr. Fegan's Homes Inc.
160 St. James Road
Tunbridge Wells,
Kent, TN1 2HE
England
Phone: 01892-538288 Fax: 01892-515793 email: info@fegans.org.uk

UWInfo | Young Immigrants | 19th Century Immigration | Genealogy | Local History