Smyllum Orphanage: Lanarkshire children's home scandal revealed

Posted on 11 Sep 2017

Our Research Director for Scotland, Janet Bishop has been working with BBC Radio 4's File on Four programme researching the Smyllum Orphanage in Lanarkshire where up to 400 children died at the Scottish Orphanage run by nuns. The children were buried in an unmarked grave, new research has revealed.

Now research carried out by BBC Radio 4's File on Four programme and the Sunday Post newspaper, including a trawl of more than 15,000 official records, has revealed hundreds of children died at Smyllum - far more than the charity that ran it has admitted.

No details are recorded of the children's lives, apart from their names, date of birth and when they died. Causes of death include accidents and diseases such as tuberculosis, flu and scarlet fever. Some died of malnutrition. The research was carried out by Janet Bishop, she trawled through more than 15,000 official records. Most of the deaths occurred between 1870 and 1930.

You can read the full article in the The Telegraph and Sunday Post newspapers

File on 4: The Secrets of Smyllum Park will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday 12 September 2017 at 20:00 BST. You can also catch up on the BBC iPlayer.