Eliza Showell

Eliza Showell (1895–1978) was an English-born child migrant sent to Canada in 1908 as part of the British Home Children programme. In Canada, she was placed in indentured service. Her story inspired The Home Child, a poetry collection by Liz Berry, Showell's great-niece.

Life Eliza Showell was born in 1895 in England, in the Black Country area of the West Midlands. She was orphaned by the age of 12, and became resident at the Middlemore Children's Emigration Home in Birmingham. The home arranged the emigration of poor children to Canada from the United Kingdom, where they were placed in work until reaching adulthood. The Middlemore Home was one of many organisations involved in a broader child migration movement known as the Home Children. About 100,000 children are estimated to have come to Canada this way between 1869 and 1948.

In May 1908 Showell was sent to Canada, crossing the Atlantic from Liverpool aboard the ship Carthaginian, arriving in Halifax, Nova Scotia. On arrival, Showell was placed in indentured domestic service,