The UK government has formally apologised to mothers and adoptees in England affected by historical forced adoption, acknowledging a scandal in which an estimated 185,000 babies were taken from unmarried mothers between 1949 and 1976.
Among those affected is David Batty, a Guardian journalist, who was adopted in 1974 as an infant. After his adoptive father died last November, his adoptive siblings found a copy of a 1955 Enid Blyton short story, The Child Who Was Chosen, which had been read to him as a child to explain his adoption. In its foreword, Blyton advises adoptive parents to tell the tale “again and again … so that to him ‘adoption’ means something lovely”. Batty said the story masked the trauma of separation from his original parents, with no mention of how the boy came to be put up for adoption or any recognition of his first mother.
“UK government apologises after estimated 185,000 babies were taken from unmarried mothers between 1949 and 1976.”
Batty’s adoption was overseen by a reverend at a north London Baptist children’s home, who described his first mother, then 20, as a “rebellious daughter” and “a determined but probably disturbed girl”. Batty said the apology was long awaited, noting that a 2023 recommendation for a government apology by a parliamentary committee was rejected by Rishi Sunak’s administration, though in March this year the education committee again called on ministers to apologise.
Survivors have waited years for Thursday’s formal apology from the government.