Horace Gordon Cox

[bildeston]

Horace Gordon Cox Born London 30 June 1910
My father left the UK to sail to Australia on 9 January 1926 at the age of 15. I can see no record of him sailing with a relative or friend and am trying to find out where he went and who he stayed with.
I am assuming that he was met by relations and a number of Cox’s emigrated to Australia at the end of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century.
He landed in Melbourne and I am aware he spent some time at the Yanco experimental farm in NSW leaving there about April 1926 – before it became a training farm for delinquent boys!
Interestingly, Yanco is close to Wagga Wagga where I believe there is a large Cox cemetery.
I also believe he worked on one or several sheep farms and I have a wages slip from Young Bros & Co , Stock and Station Agents in Horsham Victoria. He was very keen on Prahran football club which makes me think, at one time, he worked fairly close to Melbourne.
It is possible that he was recorded in The Werriwa area of NSW in 1930.
He returned to the UK in November 1932.
Any information anyone can give me about his whereabouts during his time in Australia would be gratefully received and hey I might even find some new relatives.
My father died on 30th January 1989.
Andy Cox

[rosball]

Hi Andy,
   Did he arrive on the Otranto?   If so his address on arrival is given as C/o the  Immigration Dept Sydney
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01m00/

   I see the Otranto brought out 31 Dreadnought boys and 5 "Little Brothers".   Could your father have been a part of one of these groups?
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article153737330

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43908077 (the ship and the voyage)

Ros



   

[rosball]

In 1926 they are advertising for Big Brothers for boys undergoing training at Wagga Experimental Farm

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article145270251

Ros

[rosball]

An article about the Big Brother movement - helping unemployed British boys by training them in farm work in Australia
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223725945

Ros

adding :  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article203664785
 ....The purpose is to stimulate boy migration by means of an organisation
which will take the place of the absent relatives and friends, and accept a moral
responsibility to make of each boy arriving under the scheme a good Australian citizen.

[rosball]

An article about the Dreadnought Scheme http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article168717006
and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheyville_National_Park#The_Dreadnought_Scheme

Boys from England were also brought out for training and employment and spent the first 3 months at a  state government farm for agricultural training.

Ros

adding : Boys from 15-19 years and after the 3 months training are guaranteed employment
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article210057370

Boys are carefully selected and are of an excellent type http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article195782738

adding : some interesting insights into life as a Dreadnought boy -  complaints from Dreadnought boys at Grafton Experimental Farm (a different farm but possibly similar conditions)
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article195632844

[rosball]

Some contacts for info on the Dreadnought Boys
http://thedreadnoughtboys.blogspot.com.au/search/label/Dreadnought%20Association
https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/nsw/NE01250
https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/collections-and-research/guides-and-indexes/child-youth-migration-the-20th-century

Ros

[majm]

Here is a live link that should give you many hours of reading.  A 15 year old lad would not have needed to be accompanied by a family member on the voyage to Australia in the 1920s, nor would he have needed to have relatives in Australia to receive him on arrival.

http://guides.naa.gov.au/good-british-stock/index.aspx

Between 1901 and 1983, thousands of unaccompanied young people, mainly from Britain, came or were sent to Australia as permanent settlers. For some it was a fresh start and relief from grinding poverty; for others it was a heartbreaking wrench from family. Records in the collection of the National Archives of Australia are a rich source of information about the processes of government decision-making and administrative practice on child migration, as well as the service organisations and churches that sponsored the children and provided for their education, placement and after-care.

JM   

[majm]

Re Werriwa and 1930.

Werriwa is the name given to one of the Federal Electorates for the House of Representatives.   You don't need to include it in a person's street address. 

There are quite a number of males named Horace Cox to be found on the various electoral rolls uploaded to Ancestry including one in the NSW town of Mittagong, shown as a lineman (so unlikely to be trained for farming - linemen usually involved in installing the lines for carrying electricity or telephonic and/or telegraph signals, etc .)   That chap's electoral roll entry does NOT include any middle name, although many others in that township do. 

JM

[majm]

There is a Horace G COX, aged 23, a Farm Labourer, embarking Melbourne, proposed address in the UK as  8 Clover Rd, Forest Gate, on the Esperance Bay, heading for Southampton December 1932.   Is this your chap?

JM