Description:Mary Jane, Ernest, and Sydney S before and after they were "received into the homes". John Middlemore was a rich benefactor in Birmingham who opened the Children’s Emigration (or Middlemore) Homes in 1872 as a charitable concern. They were called “Emigration Homes” as they took in children from the slums of Birmingham and sent them to what was considered to be a better life in rural Canada and later on, to Australia. A large number of the children were not orphans but had been taken away from their families due to poverty, neglect or sometimes cruelty.