Records of Red Cross Children's Homes

Records of Red Cross Children’s Homes is a collection held by the Australian Red Cross relating to Homes run by the Junior Red Cross around Australia. Part of the Junior Red Cross’s peacetime programs were funding Children’s Homes for the temporary care of children of Australian servicemen, needing a holiday or to convalesce from an illness.

Access Conditions

Email the archivist to apply for access to records about someone who spent time in a Red Cross children’s Home.

All applications are treated as requests for access to personal information under the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988.

Records

In 2014, the Australian Red Cross made a Centenary Gift to the Nation, donating records to the University of Melbourne Archives. Another collection of records was deposited at the State Library of New South Wales, including records relating to Red Cross children’s Homes in NSW.

The Red Cross transferred the ‘Australian Red Cross Heritage Collection’ (1914-2014) to the University of Melbourne Archives in 2013. This collection contains records from the National Office and Victorian Division of the Australian Red Cross Society.

The Australian Red Cross has a webpage with some details of the records it holds relating to children’s Homes. Unfortunately few records remain about individual children who spent time in Red Cross children’s Homes. There are however some administrative records (such as minute books, correspondence and administrative files) and photographs, relating to its children’s Homes around Australia.

The Red Cross holds a series of admission index cards relating to some of its Homes in New South Wales, for the period from the early 1950s up to the 2000s.

The Red Cross website provides these details about the records relating to these Homes in its custody:

NSW
Berida Junior Red Cross Home, Bowral: “Patchy admission records. Small quantity of photographs of the house and grounds c 1930-1940. Summary references and photographs of grounds in Annual Reports”.

Eleanor Mackinnon Memorial Home, Cronulla: “Some admission records 1950-1994. Small number of applications 1992-1994. Small number social work reports.”

Glen Mervyn Junior Red Cross Home, Randwick: “Some admission records 1973-2010. Small quantity more detailed records.”

SA
Junior Red Cross Home, Glenelg
“Admission Registers. Some resident details held in management committee minutes 1925-1935. Some scrap books and photographs. ”

Please note that there are records about Red Cross Children’s Homes held by other institutions.

The State Library of South Australia has records relating to Homes in that state.

WA
Lady Lawley Cottage by the Sea: “Admission Registers. Some recent records available. Minutes of management committees 1978-1989. Quantity of photographs of buildings, residents and services provided, not all identified.”

Please note that Find & Connect web resource has a page with more detailed information relating to the Lady Lawley Cottage By The Sea, Records (1940s-2000s).