David Lorente, a pioneer in the work for Home Children in Canada, will be forever remembered and respected for his years of service to their memory. David's own father, Joseph, was a Home Boy. But like many, traumatized by their experiences,  he never told his family. One day, in 1963 David drove his father to Killaloe, not knowing that was where his father was placed. His father seemed to become more agitated and upset the closer they got to their destination. Passing the train station his father said “That’s where they left…the boy….”  Joseph's agitation heightened as they drove by the ghost town of Brudenell. The source of his father's pain lay hidden until 14 years after Joseph's death. At that time, David had read the Phyllis Harrison book "The Home Children: Their Personal Stories", realized that his father must have been a Home Child - and that took another 11 years to prove.

His research showed that his father Joseph had been born in Cardiff, Wales but was living in London, England when his parents separated, leaving his mother unable to adequately support her family of six. Joseph was sent to Canada, at the age of 15, to work on farms by the  Roman Catholic Emigration Society's Westminster Branch. He was placed with a farmer in Killaloe, where he waited to be picked up by him at the train station for four hours. Joseph was treated badly here and left without proper sleeping accommodations. One day, after he was attacked by a farmer with pitchfork, he ran away and stayed on his own in the forest for two days. After neighbors found him, he was returned to the St. George's receiving home in Ottawa and reassigned to a new farm. Here he found a better home and a better life.

David,  after speaking about the Home Children at the local heritage society in Renfrew realized that these children were stigmatized. A man in attendance recalled that as a child he was not allowed to play with Home Children.  David knew he needed to do something about this. He organized a reunion for Home Children and their families, where over two hundred people showed up, both Home Children and their families. When he offered free help with finding their records, he was swamped with requests. 

With the help of his lovely wife Kay, for the first time, Home Children had a voice, Home Children had support, and Home Children had somebody who cared what had happened to them. Thus in 1991 "Home Children Canada" ( HC ) was born. 

From 1991, until shortly before his death in January of 2021, David worked tirelessly to promote this story and to help the people involved. He has held and attended hundreds of meetings and events and was in attendance when the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologized to Home Children on behalf of England. 

David, a respected teacher for over 30 years, was also a wonderful husband and a beloved father of six children and many Grandchildren. We are grateful and honored that we have received his family's blessing to carry on our good work under the name of Home Children Canada. We continue his legacy of offering free help to descendants, caring for our last few surviving British Home Children ( BHC ), and ensure that the voice of David for the HC is never, ever silenced again.

Edited by Kay Lorente and her family.