In 1618, a group of orphaned and destitute children left Britain for Richmond, Virginia in the United States. It was the start of an extraordinary era in British history, formally referred to as Britain's child migration scheme. The extraordinary part of this entire story is that the British public had, and still has, little or no idea that thousands of children were being sent out to the colonies. A few of these young migrants were lucky: their existence in Britain was so bleak that they welcomed the hope of a better life in a new country. Some boys were excited about the idea of going to places like Canada, Africa and Australia. Many child migrants, particularly those sent immediately before and after the last war, describe a deep sense of loss. They remember their childhood as dominated by a deep feeling of loneliness, whether on the Canadian prairie or in the Australian outback.