100 years on: Mass emigration from Outer Hebrides to Canada

And ahead, at the end of a thrilling voyage across the Atlantic, lay the sprawling Canadian prairie lands, hard work on its farms, new opportunities and the chance for a better life.

Now, the mass exodus of hundreds of men and women from their Hebridean island homes on board the SS Metagama and SS Marloch is being remembered, 100 years since they departed - many never to return home again.

A series of poignant events will mark events of April 1923, when an astonishing number of islanders from Lewis and Harris answered the call from the Canadian government to leave their Hebridean lives behind and carve new futures working on prairie farms.

Although emigration had already swept countless young, fit and able young people away from the islands, the wave of departures in 1923 were on such an immense scale that they would cast a long shadow for decades to come.

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For as well as the heartbreak of families who waved off loved ones knowing they would probably never see them again, the islands – already battered by losses inflicted by war and poverty – lost a vital layer of its young generation, creating a gap that would never really heal.

Some emigrants went on to carve out new lives – in some cases rising to heady heights of success in business, academia and politics.

Others, however, had their dreams shattered. Some toiled in brutal conditions and struggled to settle, while many were caught up in the chaos of the Great Depression before returning home.

The mixed experiences of emigrants and the loved ones they left behind are currently being told in a series of semi-fictional monologues, Marloch and Metagama: Voices, written by Iain Finlay Macleod and Hannah McKirdy, now being screened on BBC Alba.

The stories, which are available to view on BBC iPlayer, have been inspired by the real-life experiences of some of the nearly 600 islanders who departed the islands in a single week in April 1923 on board the two steamships, Metagama and Marloch.

Children onboard the Canadian Pacific liner the SS 'Marloch'. (Image: Getty)

Unusually for the time, the vessels picked up emigrants directly from the Western Isles rather than from ports such as Glasgow or Greenock – leading to highly emotional departures as they were waved off on their new lives by loved ones.

In the case of the 400 young men and 20 or so young women boarding the Canadian Pacific Liner, Metagama, exactly 100 years ago today, their departure was marked by the skirl of the pipes, cheers from the 1500 passengers who had already joined the vessel at Glasgow, and the presentation of a bible in Gaelic from the Highland Ladies Association.

They were also sent a bouquet of flowers from Viscount Levenhulme – whose father’s policies of breaking up crofts for sheep farming had created disquiet among islanders - wishing them “heartiest, sincerest best wishes for a good voyage… and a successful and happy life in Canada.”

While hundreds from Lewis and Harris made their way on board the Metagama, similar numbers were boarding the SS Marloch, which left Lochboisdale and Castlebay with passengers mainly from Eriskay, Barra, South Uist and Benbecula.

Their departures were the first of many: over the following two years, more than 1500 islanders would leave in search of a better life across the Atlantic.

Events of April 1923 will be marked by a wide variety of performances, exhibitions and gatherings, including a major new performance this weekend by leading Scottish musicians, singers, writers and actors, in a multi-layered stage show at Stornoway’s arts centre, An Lanntair.

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In The Wake Of the Metagama: An Atlantic Odyssey In Story And Song, has been created by award-winning Lewis writer Donald S Murray and Inverness-based musician Liza Mulholland, whose grandparents were both single when they emigrated on board the Metagama, later meeting in Detroit where they married.

The new performance includes appearances from Gaelic singer and piper Calum Alex Macmillan, whose grandfather worked for Ford in Detroit, with contributions from actor and singer Dolina MacLennan – one of the original cast of the The Cheviot, The Stag And The Black, Black Oil, fiddler Charlie Mackerron, singer-songwriter Willie Campbell, cellist Christine Hanson and visual artist Doug Robertson.

It will later be staged in South Uist, Barra and Inverness.

The April 1923 departures have been marked by the unveiling of a monument  at Lochboisdale, while Gaelic culture, heritage and arts organisation, Ceòlas, has also arranged a series of events, including a symposium later this month focused on the theme of emigration.

Ecumenical services and exhibitions are also planned, including The Leaving Home exhibition at Stornoway Town Hall, which will span six weeks and tell the story of Hebridean Emigration from 1770 through to the 1923/24 emigrant departures on the Marloch, Metagama and Canada. It will then visit venues in other locations.

Islanders at the pier at Lochboisdale (Image: Getty)

Stornoway Historical Society is also preparing a separate exhibition which will tell individual stories of  the ships and the men and women who emigrated. 

While tomorrow (SAT) renowned Gaelic singers Gillebride MacMillan, Mairi Macmillan and Mairi Morrison will appear at Glasgow’s CCA for a Metagama inspired performance of exploring themes of migration through traditional song and music, and in Stornoway, pipe bands will gather at No 1 Pier – a throwback to the poignant departure of islanders a century ago. 

According to Donald S. Murray, who is currently working on a novel that draws on the experiences of emigrants from the islands, the emotional turmoil of the 1923 departures was a blow for islanders already hammered by desperate events.

“Lewis and Harris were badly affected by the Iolaire disaster in 1919, when just over 200 men were lost.

“The First World War had already taken a huge toll: more men per head of population lost their lives in Lewis and Harris than any other part of the country.

“There followed the collapse of the fishing industry - a large part of the market was in Germany and Russia - and the failure of crops between 1922 and 1924 in certain districts throughout the islands.

“There were issues with property and land after WW1 too. All had an adverse effect.”

Islanders were encouraged by assisted passage schemes which meant their ticket on board the steamships was almost entirely paid for, on the basis that once in Canada they would work to repay their fares.

Many ended up working in agriculture in places like Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Northern Ontario. Red Deer in Alberta, became a hub for islanders from Barra and South Uist, encouraged to settle by an islands’ priest who had despaired at the poverty and lack of prospects for young people at home.

Mr Murray says while the departures were undoubtedly emotional, it was tempered by hope, while the sense of loss and longing for home inspired a wave of creativity.

“There was no doubt a sense of loss: even when I was growing up, my next door neighbour was still mourning their absence.

“But at least when they departed on the Metagama, there was hope - there were probably quite mixed feelings. People would be thinking their sons and daughters might achieve prosperity. It was not wholly a dark time.

“It was also a period of immense creativity, with some of the most famous Gaelic songs written from that time about emigration."