402 dead Scottish Catholic orphanage children discovered

This video from Britain says about itself:

11 September 2017

Bodies of hundreds of orphan children who died at a home run by Catholic nuns ‘are found buried in a mass unmarked grave’.

Up to 400 children who died at a Scottish orphanage are believed to have been dumped in a mass grave, research has revealed.

The Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul ran the Smyllum Park orphanage in Lanark from 1864 until it closed in 1981.

The nuns previously acknowledged that children had been buried in 158 compartments in the town’s St Mary’s Cemetery.

After the babies’ mass grave discovery at a Roman Catholic children’s home in Ireland …

From the Daily Record in Scotland:

Bodies of 402 children discovered to be buried in mass grave near Scottish orphanage run by nuns

The nuns who ran the Smyllum Park orphanage in Lanarkshire previously acknowledged that 158 children were buried there

By John Jeffay

18:49, 10 SEP 2017

About 400 children died at a Scottish orphanage run by nuns and were buried in an unmarked grave, research has revealed.

The Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, who ran the Smyllum Park orphanage in Lanarkshire, had previously acknowledged that 158 children were buried there.

But research, including a trawl of more than 15,000 official records, has revealed 402 babies, toddlers and children died there between 1864 and when it closed in 1981.

Children who died after being sent to live at the orphanage were buried in an unmarked mass grave a mile away at St Mary’s Cemetery in Lanark.

Headstones mark the graves of the nuns and staff members buried nearby but no stone or memorial has ever recorded the names of the dead children.

Former first minister Jack McConnell, who apologised to victims of care home abuse on behalf of the then Scottish Executive in 2004, said: “It is heartbreaking to discover so many children may have been buried in these unmarked graves.

“After so many years of silence, we must now know the truth of what happened here.”

The order of nuns who ran Smyllum, where orphans and children of desperate Catholic families were placed, previously claimed they had records of 120 children who died there and were buried in 158 lairs at a cemetery.

On average, one child died every three months there, with many believed to be buried in unmarked graves at St Mary’s Cemetery.

Former residents of the orphanage have accused the nuns and staff who ran the home of beating and neglecting some of the children.

Their allegations formed part of the campaign that inspired the ongoing Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.

The charity who ran Smyllum gave evidence to the inquiry earlier this year in which they claimed that abuse allegations were a “mystery” with “no evidence” of mistreatment.

The care given at Smyllum will be scrutinised during the second phase of the inquiry starting in November. Relatives of children who died at the orphanage are also calling for an investigation at St Mary’s using ground-penetrating radar to establish how many bodies are buried there.

The probe, carried out by the BBC Radio’s File on Four programme and the Sunday Post, involved scrutiny of death certificates.

In 2003, burial records given to campaigners by Smyllum bosses suggested 120 children had been buried at St Mary’s but relatives believed the figure was too low.

Research by Janet Bishop of the Association of Scottish Genealogists and Researchers in Archives, found 402 certificates listing Smyllum as the place of death or normal residence.

No details are recorded apart from their names, date of birth and when they died. Causes of death included accidents and diseases of the time such as tuberculosis, flu and scarlet fever. Some died of malnutrition.

Janet Docherty, the widow of former resident Frank, said: “He always feared there were more kids buried there and this is proof of that. He would have been content that it has come out now.”