Smock & Petticoat
Not all the girls sent from Quarriers to Canada came from Scotland. In the first twenty five years of child migration, 270 children were sent from the Douglas Industrial Home on the Isle of Man. One girl recalls that on their last night before leaving the island they all gathered to sing the hymn Shall we gather at the river? The following day they sailed for Greenock, Quarriers Homes and eventually Canada.
Girl home children mostly worked as domestic servants on the farms. Frequently they were despised by the other girls in the family where they had been placed. They would be called ‘the hired girl’ and this made many of them feel that they had done something degrading or wrong. If asked, as they most certainly were not, most girls preferred to be called the maid.