The Forgotten Children (35 page)
Read The Forgotten Children Online
Authors: David Hill
Lennie recalls reaching rock bottom one night in Soho when he was so drunk and stoned that he collapsed in the garbage out the back of a club.
Then there was an amazing moment. At my mum’s council house I found an old black Bible in the cupboard and I started reading it. Genesis, the beginning, and I came under the conviction of sin. I knew I was a sinner, yet I knew there was a God.
I slid off the bed and began to cry. You know Fairbridge kids don’t cry. I cried out to God to save me. I wasn’t conscious at first that it was Jesus. I was filled with an indescribable peace, better than any drug I’d known, and I felt a sense of forgiveness. I was crying with joy because at last I had in God a father for the first time. I spent three months crying out all the bitterness.
Shortly after his epiphany he felt God calling him into the ministry. He studied for the next five years to become a full-time pastor and evangelist. Lennie started singing again and became Britain’s most popular gospel singer-songwriter. He sold 150,000 albums and was in high demand, travelling around the country to preach and sing at evangelical churches.
In 1979 he was invited to visit a group of evangelical churches in Australia. He felt ‘God calling me back to Australia’ so he returned with his wife, Heather, and became a highly successful preacher. Lennie is at pains to say that his success is not something he achieved.
It was not of my doing. It was something that happened to me. It was a miracle.
One of the Fairbridge boys said to me recently, ‘Let me ask you a question: you’re a minister; do you ever feel you don’t belong anywhere? That you don’t fit in, that you can’t settle anywhere?’ I have different reasons, more Christian reasons, for none of those things fazing me today, because I had an amazing deliverance from that, a healing from that. But I look at these other dear guys today who don’t know who they are and don’t know where they’ve come from. And a lot of these guys still feel lost.
Malcolm ‘Flossy’ Field says that God has been his ‘strength and refuge’ since leaving Fairbridge. Flossy was one of only a few Fairbridge children to matriculate from Orange High School. He then won a scholarship to train as a primary-school teacher at Bathurst Teachers College. After training, he was appointed as the sole teacher in a tiny school at Tenandra in the Warrumbungle Mountains in the remote north-west of the state. He taught for ten years then headed off to England.
In the UK he managed to track down his father’s brother and became close friends with his family for the next twenty-nine years. In 1995 he returned to live in Australia and visited his mother, who had moved to New Zealand. ‘Sadly, she had little involvement in my life after I went to Fairbridge,’ he says. Malcolm has never married and has remained active in his local church and Bible study fellowship.
Mary O’Brien’s life turned around when she was in her thirties. She has no fond memories of Fairbridge and recalls being regularly sexually abused there by the after care officer.
My spirit was crushed, and Fairbridge did that more than anything else … Had somebody patted me on the back, or put their arms around me, as I was growing up and [said] ‘You can do it,’ I probably would have done a lot better. I lost twenty years of my life as a consequence.
I was still very, very embarrassed about where I had come from and what I had been doing and I hated anyone asking me where I was from … It took me a long time to turn my life around.
Do you want to know the experience that changed my life? Okay. I was about thirty, in my early thirties, and I was reading a
Reader’s Digest
magazine and it … was a MENSA article. I completed this test and sent it away because it was the sort of thing that I did enjoy doing … even though I felt inadequate in so many ways … Then I sent away to them to ask if I could sit for one of their tests and they said, ‘Come on in.’ I went in and sat their test and it took hours; it was quite in-depth. But I did it and when I got the results a few weeks later and they told me that I had an IQ in the 99th percentile I was just dumbfounded. I sat and cried and I thought, This is ludicrous. Why have I not accomplished anything with my life? And I sat down and thought about my life and where I’d been and what happened and I thought, Well, I just never had the opportunities, and I’ve never had the guidance; I’ve never had the direction … Nobody had ever taught me that I was worthwhile and that I could accomplish anything.Since then, I’ve gone on, I got a degree in nursing and then a Masters degree in health administration and, considering the circumstances, I’m very happy with the way my life had turned around and my accomplishments. I know I should have done better had I had a better start early in my life, but I’ve got great kids and I’m really quite comfortable with my life and where I’m at.
I was one of the lucky few who managed to get a decent education … after I left Fairbridge. My school record was poor and at fifteen I left Molong Central School with an unimpressive Intermediate Certificate. After my first job in the hardware store I drifted from job to job over the next few years, working as a messenger boy, mail order clerk, builder’s labourer, printer’s assistant, waiter, barman, pub bouncer, garbage collector, sandwich maker and driver of a dry-cleaning van. In the year after I left Fairbridge I applied to become a police cadet but failed the fairly simple spelling and arithmetic test when I sat for the entrance exam at Sydney’s Bourke Street Police Centre.
After a few years of drifting from job to job, living in a rented flat with my mum and two brothers, I was driven – largely by boredom – to do something else. I enrolled in a one year, full-time ‘crash’ matriculation course at East Sydney Technical College. I worked as a waiter in a pub at night and on weekends and skipped the odd day at college to work as a builder’s labourer, because I still had to pay my board.
The course didn’t get off to a great start. I was one of a handful of students out of 120 who failed the arithmetic and spelling test at enrolment. I am still bitter about being pulled out of class in the first week by a career advisor who tried to persuade me to cancel my enrolment and take up panel beating or spray painting. I persisted and thoroughly enjoyed the year, though I had to struggle and juggle study and work. At the end I was surprised to matriculate with my first-ever strong results and a scholarship to Sydney University. After completing an economics degree, I was offered a job on the academic staff as a tutor, and completed a Masters of Economics degree two years later.
I was one of only a few Fairbridge children ever to reach university but I reject the suggestion that I am a good example of what Fairbridge kids have been able to achieve. My experience is in spite of Fairbridge, and not at all typical or representative of the far less fortunate experiences of most of the children who went there.
The best thing that can be said about Fairbridge is that it was well-intentioned. It had widespread support and was highly regarded for ‘rescuing’ destitute children and providing them with a ‘fresh start’ they would not have received had they stayed in Britain. However, no concerted effort was made to address the problems that beset the scheme from its inception and the files of the Fairbridge Society in the UK and the New South Wales Fairbridge Council corroborate almost all the disturbing episodes recalled by the former Fairbridge children who recounted their histories to me.
The Fairbridge scheme was a product of the upper classes of Imperial Britain, who saw great virtue in putting the ‘orphan and waif class’ to work in order that they became good and useful citizens of the Empire. Fairbridge never pretended that the children it rescued from the destitution of the lower classes would climb the social ladder, and the Fairbridge scheme only reinforced in Australia the appalling inequality of the British class system.
Many former Fairbridge children feel they were betrayed. Some feel they were betrayed by their parents – for abandoning them to Fairbridge and denying them a childhood in a loving home.
Gwen Miller had an extensive network of family in England and feels it wasn’t necessary for her father to send the children out to Fairbridge when her mother died.
After my mother died I remember a great aunt [who was a nun] telling me my mother was in heaven watching. I used to talk to her at night. I was happy about that, but when my father gave us away I didn’t want there to be a heaven because if there was, my mother would look down on us and cry every day because the man she trusted gave away her babies.
Fairbridgians feel betrayed by the child welfare and education departments – for failing to ensure that Fairbridge provided for their welfare and education. They feel betrayed by the British and Australian governments, which had ultimate responsibility for ensuring the protection of the children and did not intervene even when they knew Fairbridge was failing them.
But most of all they feel betrayed by the farm school – for depriving them of a peaceful and happy childhood; for, in many cases, seriously abusing them; and for failing to deliver on the promise of a better future.
Christina Murray perhaps sums it up best:
When I look back at Fairbridge I think, Did it happen? Did it happen? Then you think, Well, yes it did. And you think of what you’ve got now and you ask, Why did they do it? Why? They were there to look after children, and they didn’t.
OTES
1. Journey Out
1.
By 1960 there were Fairbridge honorary secretaries in Aldershot, Alresford, Arundel, Ashvale, Barnham, Bath, Bedford, Berkhamsted, Bicester, Bolton, Boston Spa, Bramley, Bristol, Bury, Canterbury, Carlisle, Clockham Mill, Cornwall, Darlington, Eastbourne, Eton and Windsor, East Grinstead, Forest Row, Hailsham, Hampstead, Haslemere, Hawkhurst, Heathfield, Hemel Hempstead, Henfield, Hornchurch and Upminster, Hove, Kendal, Kings Lynn, Lewes, Lytham St Annes, Sturminster, Malton-Driffield, Middlehurst, Minehead, Newcastle, Newton, Oxford, Penrith, Petersfield, Preston, Sheringham, Salisbury, Seaford, Shrewsbury, Southampton and York
2.
‘The Fairbridge Society: Founded 1909 to Provide a New Life for Children in the Commonwealth’,
c
. 1958, Fairbridge Farm School NSW files, Fairbridge Foundation, Sydney
3.
Sherington papers, box 4, ML 1781/79, State Library of New South Wales
4.
Ibid.
5.
Strathaird
breakfast menu,
http://ozhoo.net.au/~strathsisters/strathaird/
6.
Strathaird
luncheon menu,
http://ozhoo.net.au/~strathsisters/strathaird/
7.
Strathaird
dinner menu,
http://ozhoo.net.au/~strathsisters/strathaird/
2. Origins
1.
Fairbridge, Kingsley,
The Autobiography of Kingsley Fairbridge
, Oxford University Press, London, 1927, chapter 1
2.
Fairbridge, Ruby,
Pinjarra: The Building of a Farm School
, Oxford University Press, London, 1937, p. 12
3.
Fairbridge,
Autobiography
, p. 171
4.
Sherington, Geoffrey and Jeffery, Chris,
Fairbridge, Empire and Child Migration
, University of Western Australian Press, 1998, p. 25
5.
Fairbridge, Kingsley, ‘The Emigration of Poor Children to the Colonies’, speech read before the Colonial Club at Oxford in 1909, reprinted by the Child Immigration Society, 1930, Fairbridge Society archives, D296 A2, University of Liverpool, UK
6.
Fairbridge,
Autobiography
, p. 171
7.
Ibid., p. 173
8.
Fairbridge, Kingsley, ‘The Emigration of Poor Children to the Colonies’
9.
Ibid.
10.
The Times
, 24 May 1910
11.
Fairbridge, Ruby,
Pinjarra
, p. 32
12.
Fairbridge, Kingsley, ‘The Emigration of Poor Children to the Colonies’
13.
Fairbridge, Ruby,
Pinjarra
, p. 66
14.
Ibid., p. 83
15.
352 1967/13, Public Record Office, Western Australia
16.
Fairbridge, Ruby,
Pinjarra
, p. 109
17.
Ibid., p. 168
18.
Sherington and Jeffery,
Fairbridge, Empire and Child Migration
, p. 168
19.
CO 721/12 ff 8:9, Public Record Office, London, UK
20.
Sherington papers, ML 1781/79, State Library of New South Wales
21.
Fairbridge Society NSW annual report, 1935, University of Liverpool, UK
22.
Report to the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs and Interdepartmental Committee on Migration Policy, British Parliamentary Papers, cmd 4689, p. 48
23.
Fairbridge Society NSW annual report, University of Liverpool, UK
24.
The Times
, 21 June 1934
25.
Sherington and Jeffery,
Fairbridge, Empire and Child Migration
, p. 160
26.
Ibid., p. 164
27.
Ibid., p. 182
28.
Fairbridge Farm School NSW annual report, 1938 and 1939, Fairbridge Foundation, Sydney
29.
Minutes of meeting, 30 July 1936, Fairbridge Foundation, Sydney
30.
DO 57/188 15330/1, Public Record Office, London, UK
31.
Fairbridge Society archives, D296 J3/1, University of Liverpool, UK
32.
Fairbridge Farm School NSW annual report, 1937, Fairbridge Foundation, Sydney
33.
Sydney Morning Herald
, 24 February 1937
34.
Fairbridge Farm School NSW annual report, 1939, Fairbridge Foundation, Sydney
35.
Tuder, Len,
A Pommie Kid
, 2003, unpublished autobiography of Len Cowne
36.
Sydney Morning Herald
, 28 November 1938
37.
Fairbridge Farm School NSW annual report, 1946; the Fairbridge Family Chronicle, 1946, Fairbridge Foundation, Sydney
38.
Minutes of meeting, London Fairbridge Society, 14 December 1948, D296 B1/2/6, University of Liverpool, UK
39.
Fairbridge Farm School NSW annual report, 1952, Fairbridge Foundation, Sydney
40.
‘The Fairbridge Society’,
c
. 1958, brochure, Fairbridge Farm School NSW files, Fairbridge Foundation, Sydney
41.
Report of the Care of Children Committee, British Parliamentary Papers, cmd 6922, 1946–7
3. A Day in the Life
1.
Fairbridge weekend notice (undated), Fairbridge Foundation, Sydney
4. Settling in
1.
Letter from Billy King to Dorothy Watkins, 23 June 1959, personal papers of Billy King
2.
Interview with author, 8 August 2006
3.
Letter from John Ponting to author, 20 May 2006
4.
Magee, Lennie, unpublished autobiography, 2001, chapter 13
5. Families
1.
‘Child Migration to Australia’, report for the British Home Office by John Moss, 1953, para 15
2.
Letter from W. B. Vaughan to E. H. Johnson, 10 September 1956, DO 35 6383, Public Record Office, London, UK
3.
Letter from Dora Lee to London Fairbridge Society, 5 September 1954, personal papers of Ian Bayliff
4.
Ibid., 8 September 1954
5.
Ibid., 15 September 1954
6.
Extract from a letter from Dora Lee contained in a letter from F. K. S. Woods to W. R. Vaughan, 7 November 1955, personal papers of Ian Bayliff
7.
Letter from F. K. S. Woods to W. B. Vaughan, 7 November 1955, personal papers of Ian Bayliff
8.
Letter from W. R. Vaughan to E. M. Knight, 15 November 1955, personal papers of Ian Bayliff
9.
Letter from E. M. Knight to W. B. Vaughan, 29 November 1955, personal papers of Ian Bayliff
10.
Letter from F. K. S. Woods to W. B. Vaughan, 7 November 1955, personal papers of Ian Bayliff
11.
Letter from Dora Lee to E. M. Knight, November 1955, personal papers of Ian Bayliff
12.
W. B. Vaughan, file note, 6 February 1957, personal papers of Ian Bayliff
13.
Letter from Dora Lee to Australian Immigration Office, Australia House, London, 28 March 1958, personal papers of Ian Bayliff
14.
Letter from W. R. Vaughan to E. M. Knight, 19 November 1954, personal papers of Ian Bayliff
15.
Letter from G. C. Watson to W. B. Vaughan, 28 August 1958, personal papers of Ian Bayliff
16.
Ibid., 22 January 1959
17.
Magee, unpublished autobiography, chapter 19
6. The Boss
1.
Letter from W. D. Stewart to Sir Charles Hambro, 1 October 1940, Fairbridge Foundation, Sydney
2.
Tuder,
A Pommie Kid
, chapter 3
3.
Minutes of meeting, 23 October 1940, Fairbridge Society, Fairbridge Foundation, Sydney
4.
Letter from Sir Charles Hambro to R. Beauchamp, 25 September 1940, D296/19/27, University of Liverpool, UK
5.
Magee, unpublished autobiography, chapter 3
6.
Ibid., chapter 20
7.
Letter from Sir Charles Reading to Sir Charles Hambro, 5 February 1946, D296/19/25, University of Liverpool, UK
8.
Letter from Ruth Woods to Miss Hart, December 1945, D296/19/25, University of Liverpool, UK
9.
Ibid., 29 January 1945
10.
Letter from W. B. Hudson to Sir Charles Hambro, 16 March 1948, D296/19/25, University of Liverpool, UK
11.
‘Investigation at Fairbridge Farm School’, report by V. A. Heffernan, 5 March 1948, D296/19/25, University of Liverpool, UK
12.
An account of Ruth Wood’s death and funeral are contained in a report by Jack Newberry, who at the time was the After-care Officer at Fairbridge, Fairbridge Foundation, Sydney
