Havelock Reunion

Monday, 9 December 2013 09:27

Current Headmaster at Kingham Hill Nick Seward and educator Harriet Dearden

Former Havelock Farm workers meet with educators from England in unique reunion

It was a chance to rebuild the relationship between Havelock Farm and Kingham Hill School, near Oxford in England.

Between 1895 and 1946 ten boys a year left Kingham Hill School to be trained in agriculture on a farm in Woodstock purchased by the school's founder.

On Friday, two staff members of the school in England were in Woodstock to meet the relatives of some of the students who had come to the City to work and learn what became of them.

Educator at Kingham Hill School in England, Harriet Dearden tells Heart FM she thinks it's a fascinating story.

"I just wanted to hear more about how people fared when they came over here and to find out what happened to them and what made them be in a position where they came out to Canada in the first place. I love stories and it's just great to hear them."

Current Headmaster at Kingham Hill School, Nick Seward says the school's founder, Charles Baring Young wanted to provide a home and education to boys who were down on their luck and wanted each boy to make something of their lives through hard work which was one of the reasons he purchased the farm in Woodstock, Ontario.

"At the time, there were opportunities to come out and make a life in agriculture out here. It was pretty tough I think in the cities, you look back at some of the letters there was a lot of unemployment in Canadian cities at the time but if you were prepared to work hard and get stuck in agriculture there was a life to be had and the opportunity to be a useful citizen and that's one of his major goals for people as they left the school."

Percy Henry Smith, a Kingham Hill student who arrived at Havelock Farm in 1911,his granddaughter Shirley was at the event Friday and says she remembers her grandfather telling stories of coming to Canada with a very long train ride.

"For a young boy of 17 coming from England to a strange country, it was quite a rude awakening to arrive to a Canadian winter in the middle of March. When they did get to the Woodstock station, the storm was so bad, his recollection was that there wasn't someone there to pick them up and so they had to have someone take them to the farm and they were actually hanging on to ropes so they didn't lose one another in the snow storm in order to get there."

For more information on Kingham Hill School and contact information if you have a Havelock connect visit www.kingham-hill.oxon.sch.uk