William Edward Atterbury

  General Notes:

Emigrated to Canada in 1927 at age 17, with 47 other orphans sponsered by Mr. Fegan's homes. William was on the Montrose, departing Liverpool and arriving in Quebec on 22 Apr 1927. William was to temporarily stay at Fegan Distribution Homes, 295 George Street, Toronto, Ontario, with the intent to become a farm hand.
In 1933 WIlliam married Grace Hurst, who's father was also born in England.
In 1935 William was a mill hand living in Cornwall, Ontario.
In 1940 William was a mill hand living at 428 First Street, Cornwall, Ontario.
Was a member of the S D G (Stomont, Dundas and Glengarry) Highlanders during WW2. The Glens Assocation used the Cornwall Armoury as its meeting place. When the Second World War began, the Regiment once again guarded the St. Lawrence canals. Mobilization came in June 1940, and the Regiment absorbed companies from the Princess of Wales' Own Regiment and the Brockville Rifles to form an overseas battalion that went to England in 1941 as part of the 9th (Highland) Brigade, 3rd Canadian Infantry Division.[4]
The SD&G Highlanders landed in Normandy on D Day and was the first regiment to enter Caen, reaching the centre of the city at 1300 hours, July 9, 1944.
In 1949 Bill was a farmer living with Grace at Newington, Stormont, Ontario.
On Bill's return from the war, he was an assistant manager of Kraft Foods. When Kraft Foods moved to Brockville in 1955, Bill moved with them.
In 1965 was a foreman in Newington for Kraft, before becoming manager in Newington. Kraft then moved to Brockville where Bill went as assistant manager, then manager. Kraft then enlarged moving to Ingleside Ontario, where he was plant foreman before retiring.
Bill had a very difficult time as a youngster losing his mother when he was 9. It had nowhere to live and little food. Going without at an early age is probably the reason Bill spent his life as an adult helping others, especially his nephews and niece who he helped tremendously in their transition from England to Canada. Bill was a hero to others, but humble to himself.

From the late 1860s right up to 1948, over 100,000 children of all ages were emigrated right across Canada, from the United Kingdom, to be used as indentured farm workers and domestics. Believed by Canadians to be orphans, only two percent truly were. These children were sent to Canada by over 50 organizations including the well-known and still working charities: Barnardo's, The Salvation Army and Quarrier's, to name a few.
For the most part, these children were not picked up from the streets but came from intact families, who, through sickness or even death of one of their parents, had fallen on hard times. Because there was no social system in place to help them get through these difficult circumstances, the family had no other way than to surrender their offspring to the organizations. This was certainly the case for Bill who's mother had died 8 years before.
Sometimes this was meant to be a temporary solution until the family got back on their feet and there are cases on record where some parents went back to pick their children up, only to find that they had already been sent away. Sometimes the parents received an 'after sailing' notification, informing that their children had been emigrated a week before.
Once in Canada, the children were sent to receiving homes right across the country until farmers picked them up or they were sent on to their destinations with a cardboard sign around their necks. There were at least seven applicants for every child shipped to this country. This was very sad times for our Atterbury family. We do not know whether Bill worked on a farm when he arrived in Canada, but he married 6 years later. It is possible Bill and brother John had found each other by 1933 when Bill lived in Cornwall, Ontario. John was living in Cornwall in 1940.

William married Grace Isabel Muriel Hurst, daughter of Living and Living, on 17 Jun 1933 in Cornwall, Stormont, Ontario, Canada. (Grace Isabel Muriel Hurst was born in 1914 in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada.)