Glen Mervyn Junior Red Cross Home

The Glen Mervyn Red Cross Home at Randwick was operated by the Australian Red Cross from around 1973. It took in children whose families were experiencing a range of problems, or who were experiencing health problems. Glen Mervyn Junior Red Cross Home closed in 1992. From 1993, the site housed the Young Parents Program day centre.

Like other Junior Red Cross Homes in New South Wales, Glen Mervyn Home specialised in receiving children whose families were in crisis, due to hospitalisation, desertion, illness, death, confinement, financial or housing problems, or where children had health problems and needed to recover from malnutrition or illnesses.

The building that housed Glen Mervyn was given to the Red Cross by Thomas Field in 1942, on the condition that it was used for philanthropic or charitable purposes (Dictionary of Sydney). During World War Two, the Red Cross ran a convalescent home for ex-servicemen, and then leased the property to Sydney Legacy from 1946.

Legacy ran a hostel on the site for orphaned children of servicemen, Glen Mervyn Legacy House. According to the ‘Protecting vulnerable children’ Senate report, Glen Mervyn Legacy House, Randwick, accommodated ‘up to 30 students, generally ranging in age from 14 to 21 years, being educated in Sydney’ (‘Protecting vulnerable children’ report, 2005).

In 1973 Legacy handed the site back to the Red Cross, and Glen Mervyn Junior Red Cross Home opened.

After the closure of Glen Mervyn Junior Red Cross Home, in around 1992, the site continued to be used by Red Cross as a child care centre, and, from 1993, as the home of its Young Parents Program.