Notes on the British Columbia
Protestant Orphans’ Home
NORA LUPTON

Bishop and Mrs. Cridge were asked to take an orphaned child into their home, and
having accepted one child, were requested to take several more. It became evident to
the Cridges that a home was needed in Victoria to accommodate orphaned and
destitute children.
Bishop Cridge engaged the interest of a group of philanthropic citizens to support an
Orphan’s Home. The Home was opened in 1873 in a very small house accommodating
a matron and five children. This rented house became inadequate very quickly but the
idea of an Orphan’s Home was established. The group next erected a two-story frame
building on Rae Street (now Courtney Street) on part of the Present YMCA site, where
the Orphans’ Home remained until a large gift made another move possible.
John George Taylor was an adventurer who had prospected in the California gold
rush in 1849 and in the Australian gold rush of 1851, returning to Victoria in 1859 to
settle down as a policeman. He died in 1891 leaving a cash legacy of $30,858 to assist
orphaned children. This bequest was used to build “a modern, up-to-date, brick building
in large grounds that would be useful for generations to come in caring for our less
fortunate children and turning them out as useful and Christian citizens.”1
Twelve and one-half acres at Hillside and Cook were purchased for $12,500. A
competition was held to plan a one hundred-bed structure, and Mr. Thomas Hooper’s
plans were accepted. The present structure was built for $20,310, and officially opened
on November 18, 1893. The event, according to the newspaper report, ‘was largely
attended, both by those in active sympathy with the objects of the institution and the
general public”. Bishop Cridge spoke a few words and referred tot eh fact that he was
the oldest of the first movers of the Home. He also wrote a brief history of the rise and
progress of the B.C. Protestant Orphans’ Home, which was placed with other items in a
cavity in the cornerstone, and published in the Annual Report for 1893.
The B.C. protestant Orphan’s Home had been incorporated in May, 1873 under the
Benevolent Societies Act. The aims of the Society were stated as follows: “the object
of this Institution is to receive and to provide a Home for orphaned, destitute and other
children, under the age of ten years, requiring such care; and to educate them in the
Protestant faith, and instruct them in the elements of secular knowledge”. These goals
were to be reached by volunteer administrators using money raised entirely through
voluntary subscriptions.
The Committee of Management was to consist of three men elected by each of the
major Protestant churches: Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, Reformed Episcopalian,
Congregational and Baptist. The Committee of Management was responsible for
raising funds and administering the finances of the Home.
The Constitution provided for another group to take on a more direct service: “The
Committee shall also, at their first meeting after election, appoint a Committee of Ladies
composed of an equal number from each domination to take charge of the internal

In Her Own Right

management of the Institution. Such Committee of Ladies shall appoint their officers
and make their won regulations equitable according to the spirit of this Constitution, and
the basis on which the Association is formed. On approved monthly requisition they
may draw on the Treasurer for necessary funds, and shall therewith pay all bills. They
shall also present the President a monthly report of the state of finances and the
condition of the Institution.”
The role of the Ladies Committee was clarified in the by-laws: “The Ladies
Committee shall have power, and it shall be their duty (subject to the approval of the
General Committee) to superintend the internal business of the Home; to make, alter
and amend by-laws or rules for the proper guidance of the matron and other employees,
and for the discipline and control of the inmates; to exhibit in the public office at the
Home, the house rules, time tables, bill of fare, etc., in force for the time being; also the
name, age, and sex of all the children and when and how received; to elect their own
servants and officers; to meet at least once a month; to receive and consider all
accounts for supplies, etc., and after approval forward same to the Secretary for
payment.”
Women contributed to the Orphans’ Hone in very practical ways, by supplying food,
clothing and ‘extras”. Participation in the B.C. protestant Orphans’ Home ladies
Committee was an indication of status, but it appears to have required a great deal of
hard work. In the early Annual Reports monthly supplies donated by the women were
listed. For example, the report for February, 1888 stated: “Milk, daily, Mrs. Cridge;
clothing, Mrs. Jordan; school books, Mr. Hibben; samples of cloth, Mrs. A. Harvey;
clothing and sundries, Mrs. Roso; milk, Mrs. McDonald; child’s crib, Mrs. Geo.
Henderson; underclothing and stockings, the “King’s Daughters”, Vancouver, per Mrs.
Maitland Dougall; clothing and boots, Mrs. Ward; underclothing, Miss Langley; cakes,
the Misses Shield, Fried, and Jones”.
Financial contributions also were listed, and voters in the annual meeting must have
donated at least $2.50 during the previous year.
The essential role of the ladies Committee in the running of the Home was
acknowledged in the President’s Report for 1898: “So economical a result ahs been
maintained mainly by the exertions of the ladies Committee who, assisted by a host of
friends with needlework, clothing, provisions, etc., have thus been enabled to keep
down the working expenses to so satisfactory a point.”
Certainly economy was practiced; in 1889, 32 children were given care, all for less
than $150 per month. In 1893, the cost for care for each child was just under $77 for
the year.
The role and hopeful expectations of the members of the ladies Committee are
reflected in the reports of the presidents of the Ladies Committee. The Ladies
Committee president in the Annual Report for 1905 comments with typical high hopes
about children, nature and nurture:
The Committee does not, from their
experience, contend that the whole problem is
in proper surroundings; that there is everything
in the pasturage and nothing in the stock, but it
does know – for a certainty – that the removal
to new and stimulating associations works

B.C. Protestant Orphans’ Home

wonders, often in the most unpromising
material.
It is one instance of greatest
satisfaction, to workers among neglected and
unfortunate little ones, to see the veritable
miracle of growth that takes place under these
vitalizing conditions. It is as a garden of weeds
had been made to blossom like a rose. This is
the secret of the devotion of the workers who
choose to labour in the children’s home. They
acquire, from positive results, a boundless faith
in
human
possibilities.
There
are
discouragements and disappointments as in all
efforts of philanthropy; stubborn heredities,
deeply rooted; impulses to overcome;
sometimes sudden relapses into old conditions,
but even here some hopeful signs that better
impressions are gaining the mastery, and
slowly laying the foundations of better things.
Clearly their optimism was tempered by the recognition that failure was possible.
The 1913 depression affected the Orphanage too. Expenditures had increased
$3,638.79, while receipts had only increased by $1,734.38, “leaving a balance on the
wrong side of about $2000”. For the first time in many years, the books did not balance.
The decision was made to suggest that the honour of a seat on the Management Board
should imply an obligation to personally assist in the collection of the necessary funds.
Through the greatest economy had been practiced by the Ladies Committee in the
internal management of the Home, the costs of maintenance had gradually increased
“due to causes over which the ladies [had] no control, vis., the higher cost of food,
clothing, etc. and the necessity for employing a larger staff, at increasing salaries, to
adequately provide proper attention to the additional umber of inmates”. Costs had
reached $11.88 per month per child “with no prospect in the immediate future of its
being reduced.”
The Manager, mindful of another deficit, in the 1914 Annual Report stated, “We are
very hopeful that before another year rolls by we shall be living in more peaceful times,
when confidence will be restored and improved financial conditions will naturally bring
about a return to those pleasant days when revenue more than equals expenditures”.
The Orphanage did not receive government funds or civic aid.
Still the Managers maintained an open door. The policy of the Home was to keep
brothers and sisters together, so all the children from any given family were accepted
for care. In addition to orphans, other children were accepted for periods of need,
varying from a few months to a few years. Employers expected adults to work long
hours, six days a week, so child care was at best inadequate. On the other hand,
destitution was a reality for the children of the unemployed, since no government
welfare system existed and mothers’ Allowances did not begin until 1920.
During the hundred years between 1873 and 9173, over 150 children were cared for
at the B.C. Protestant Orphan’s Home. Children were given a practical education to
train them for work: manual training for the boys, cooking and sewing for the girls.

In Her Own Right

However, children with special aptitude were permitted to remain at the Orphanage for
post-secondary education.

Inside Cover of the Annual Report, 1893.

B.C. Protestant Orphans’ Home

Children were well-fed, well-cared for and healthy. The Annual Reports show
regular surges of childhood illnesses, but record very few deaths in a time when
children were very vulnerable. The goals of the B.C. protestant Orphans’ Home, to give
care, secular education and practical training and Christian education to the children,
were fulfilled throughout the years of its services. The women of the Ladies Committee
worked to bring about the success of their project. One matron, Ada Barner, remained
for more than 36 years, caring for more than 500 children.
The orphanage began in 1873 and continued to give much of the same service a
hundred years later. Changed concepts of social service and social welfare meant that
poor and separated parents were usually able to provide for their children unless there
was some family disturbance. This meant that fewer children were orphaned. By the
1960’s no child in the orphanage was without at least one parent. The children were
from disturbed families or were disturbed themselves and in many cases required a
different kind of care from the one provided in the orphanage. The number of children
in the orphanage had decreased and community support was lessened. In fact, some
negative comments were made about the orphanage in Victoria newspapers. Because
the Committee of Management wished to provide a useful community service, it decided
to turn for evaluation and suggestions to an organization which had shifted its form of
service, the parry Centre for Children in Portland, Oregon.
Richard D. Boro, director of the residential program at the Parry Centre, who
conduced the evaluative survey for the orphanage, made some recommendations for
future changes in service and in administrative style. His report also emphasized the
excellent service that had been provided through the many years of the Home’s
existence.
The recommendations made in Boro’s Report take into consideration the needs of a
community one hundred years older in a society and a world much changed. The
Report suggested some possible directions the changes in service might take, including
residential treatment for the disturbed; day treatment; day care service; group care for
adolescents; group home services; special services for the retarded; special programs
for children with learning problems; and shelter care programs. The survey also pointed
out some factors that limited the usefulness of the services provided to the children
currently living in the Home. These factors had become serious problems as the Hone
now served many children who were disturbed, personally or situationally.
Boro also suggested that the Home begin to hire professionally trained staff. In the
past, staff selection was often based on personal acquaintance rather than on special
training and aptitude. He said that the program continued to reflect the original goals
set up in the Constitution in 1893, but the staff was less able to achieve these goals with
the children in residence in the 1960’s. It was found that the Board of Management
needed a clearer idea of welfare trends and changing social needs in order to respond
with suitable programs to provide a new kind of service.
After consideration of the recommendations, the Board decided on a changed
direction of service. The name of the institution was changed to Bishop Cridge Centre
for the Family, and a proposed plan for development was made in 1970. While this plan
has not been finalized, and some of the original services have been discontinued
through lack of funds, much has been accomplished.

In Her Own Right

It was perceived that family disturbances still accounted for many of the sufferings of
children. The decision was made to use some of the orphanage property for lowincome housing. Twenty-nine townhouses were build to accommodate single-parent
families with two or more children. Three group homes were established. A one-day
care opened to serve the needs of the children in the family housing, and an afterschool program was provided for older children. A summer program serves school-age
children all day during school vacations. A teenage drop-in centre was opened, but
later discontinued because of problems in establishing a suitable program. Family
counselling was also dropped because of insufficient participation. Perhaps too many
programs were started with not enough advance planning and experience, and
insufficient and uncertain funding.
It is useful to think about the services for children and parents provided in the past by
the Orphans’ Home when planning future services. We must look behind the flowery
language in the ladies Committee Reports to see how their work could be applied to
present times. Many family problems are still to be solved, and the problems have not
changed very much from the point of view of the child.
Families then and now are in distressed circumstances due to poverty and family
disruption. Death now is a less frequent cause of distress but separation and divorce
continue to dislocate families. Now, as then, the poor are particularly subject to social
stress, and are often viewed as being “at fault”. Society and the economy still function
in a way that inevitably results in a difficult life for many children.
In earlier times, many people used Christianity as a basis for interpreting people and
problems and for judging behaviour and providing solutions. Middle-class people seem
to have seen themselves as having special privileges, and special responsibilities to
encourage stability in the community. Middle-class women derived considerable
satisfaction and status from taking a helping role in the community. Still, prosperity and
social status were not guarantee against death; the Cridge family lost three sons and a
daughter to scarlet fever in 1864. Perhaps this common vulnerability gave people some
feeling of community that went beyond the barriers of class.
Christianity was a genuine force in individual and community life. Although
judgments on conduct may appear harsh, the early Annual Reports of the Committees
expressed a strong belief that changes could be effected in young children and even in
adolescents, given kindly care, a decent place to live, Christian training, and some
education and skills. Community opinion, as reflected in the Reports, was firmly on the
side of family life as a Christian responsibility. It seems clear that parents were
expected to put aside their personal antagonisms and set about providing homes for
their children. Self-expression was not considered important. Committee decisions on
giving temporary help to parents were based on the belief that parents should be
responsible for their children.
People working with the children hoped for an expected change and improvement.
They were confident in the possibilities of helping children make a better life and
orphans and destitute children were considered as perfectible as anyone else. The
President of the Ladies Committee in 1905 said that the work of her committee had
been “productive of the happiest results. We must have money to meet constant
emergencies, but better spend our money on [Homes] than on prisons and reform

B.C. Protestant Orphans’ Home

schools. As we gather them in, may we feed their hungry hearts and groping minds
with the Bread of Life.”
The world has changed since 1873. The industrial revolution has been replaced by
the technological revolution; machines produce goods, and people are valued mostly as
consumers; religious interpretations of life have largely been replaced by psychological
interpretations. But perhaps the needs of children have not changed very much. It may
be that children need hope and high expectations and a clear set of values to help them
on the way into whatever kind of world values to help them on the way into whatever
kind of world they find. The successful lives of many ex-orphans from the B.C.
protestant Orphans’ Home, the warm feelings they express about the Home and about
each other, suggest that there is more thinking to be done on the question of caring for
children whose parents are unable to provide homes for them. Old Annual Reports of
the B.C. Protestant Orphans’ Home might be a place to begin looking for some new
approaches.
FIRST COMMITTEE, 1873 – PROVISIONAL
Armstrong, Hon. W.J.,
Cridge, Rev. Dean,
Langley, A.J., J.P.
Macdonald, Hon. W.J.,
Jessop, J.,
McMillan, J.E., J.P.
Pollard, Rev. W.,
Spencer, D.,
Macgregor, Rev. S.
Munro, Alex.,
Robson, J., M.P.P.,
Wallace, R.

Mrs. Cridge,
Mrs. Dupont,
Mrs. Kent,
Mrs. W.J. Macdonald,
Mrs. Jeffree,
Mrs. Pollard,
Mrs. Sargison,
Mrs. Stafford,
Mrs. Finlayson,
Mrs. McGregor,
Mrs. Raymur,
Mrs. Watt.

(above) Members of the first Committee of Management.
Number of Children:
in the Home at last report....................................................43
admitted during the year .....................................................18
removed by guardians during the past year ..........................6
placed at service during the past year ..................................5
adopted during the past year ................................................3
at present in the Home........................................................47
Jessie F. McCulloch, President, Ladies Committee, BCPO
Home, 1905
(above) Children in attendance.

In Her Own Right

(below) Applications for admittance.
Girl, 11 years, Aug. 6, 1928
…This child has been in the Solarium with a bad
leg, and now has to leave. Mother working in an
hotel and could not take this child with her. The
mother has been paying the amount agreed for
the other three children’s keep…
Decision: Application approved on condition
that mother gets a certificate of health from the
doctor at the Solarium and also passes our own
doctor, and that mother pays $10 per month for
support of the child.

3 boys, ages 4 – 12, Aug. 1921
Father died in Seattle during influenza epidemic.
These children were in the Home and taken out
by the other when she was given a widow’s
pension. Just recently this widow’s pension was
taken away from her because the Pension
Board say they find that owing to the father
having died out of Canada, she does not come
under the head of those allowed pensions. Thus,
this leaves the mother in the same position as
she found herself after her husband
died...(approved).

B.C. Protestant Orphans’ Home
Footnotes

1

Quotations come from the several Annual Reports of the British Columbia Protestant Orphans’ Home
and from the Minute Book. A complete set of documents for the Orphans’ Home does not exist.

Bibliography
Annual Report. British Columbia Protestant Orphans’ Home, Victoria, B.C., 1888, 1893, 1903 – 06, 1912
– 18, 1923, 1942, 1957.
B.C. Protestant Orphans’ Home. Minute Book, No. 3, 1892 – 1931.
Bishop Cridge Centre for the Family. Proposed Plan for Development, 1970.
Boro, Richard D. British Columbia Protestant Orphans’ Home. Report to the Board of Management:
Survey and Recommendations, 1967.
Brown, Terry. Bishop Edward Cridge, 1817 – 1913.
Cridge, Edward. Volume IV, Folder #2. B.C. Provincial Archives.
Serup, Sheila. “The Orphanage”, Victoria Daily Colonist, September 2, 1979, p. 13.
Skipper, Colleen. “Report on Bishop Cridge Centre for the Family”, prepared to fulfill requirements of U.
Vic. Course, 1976.