Home for Children at Lawson, 3 September 1945
Details
Lawson Rural Centre, in Lawson in the Blue Mountains, was a children's home established by the Homes and Hostels Committee of the Home Mission Society, part of the Church of England's Sydney Diocese, in 1944.
The Lawson Rural Centre is mentioned in a Sydney Morning Herald article about children's homes run by the Home Mission Society. According to this article the property was given to the Church of England by the owners and was still in development as a small home in 1945.
A five year old boy placed at the Lawson Rural Centre by his father in April 1945 died in August of that year. Subsequently the matron of the Home was charged under the Child Welfare Act with failure to procure medical attention for the child, and sentenced to 12 months' hard labour. The tragic death resulted in a number of newspaper articles, notably in the Truth, raises questions about the Church of England Home Mission Society's supervision and management of children's Homes.
Sources used to compile this entry: 'Control of Church Homes: Bishop Hilliard's Comment', The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 September 1945, http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/17952158; 'Church refuses queries on Lawson Children's Home', Truth, 6 January 1946, p. 22, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article168767398.
Prepared by: Naomi Parry
Created: 19 July 2013, Last modified: 17 May 2017
Last updated: 4 August 2023
Cite this: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/nsw/biogs/NE01320b.htm
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
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