Injustice on an industrial scale

As the government finally apologises to the victims of historical forced adoption, KAREN ROCKETT speaks to the academic researcher who has uncovered evidence that sick babies born at one mother-and-baby home in England were neglected and even left to die

- KAREN ROCKETT

WHEN Dr Michael Lambert and his wife were thinking what they should call their two newborn children, many baby names were painfully off limits. Yet the reason was nothing to do with their personal circumstances.

Dr Lambert, a lecturer and academic from Lancaster University, has spent more than a decade investigating the scandal of historic forced adoptions in England between the 1950s and 1970s. It involved tens of thousands of women being made to give up their children because they were unmarried when they gave birth.

The heart of his research has been uncovering a cruel regime at St Monica’s home for unmarried mothers in Kendal, Cumbria, where some babies born with disabilities were denied medical help simply because they were judged unadoptable.

His shocking findings have now been handed to Cumbria Police.

“I discovered so many heartbreaking and harrowing stories over the years and so many names belonged to those poor children, so it felt they were out of bounds when it came to my own family,” Dr Lambert says today. “I associated so many names with trauma and sadness, such was the scale of forced adoptions, not just at St Monica’s but homes all over the country.

“The more I delved into this, and the more I found out, it took its toll emotionally and on my marriage too at times. I found it is very hard to switch off from what happened to these women and their babies and it resonates even more when you have your own family. It is deeply upsetting.”

Around 185,000 women were made to give up their babies for adoption at mother-and-baby homes between 1949 and 1976, a 2021 inquiry found. On Thursday Prime Minister Keir Starmer formally apologised in the House of Commons, acknowledging the role of the state in the appalling practice he called “a stain on our history”. Mr Starmer also unveiled a package of practical support worth £4million over three years.