British Home Child to Australia. repatriated

[Pinjarra1929]

does anyone have advice on tracing the minority of so called British Home Children who were eventually repatriated from the colony that Britain had sent them? Grandad at 13 years old was sent in 1929 by Middlmore emigration Society to live and work in Western Australia farms on himself until Fairbridge who had the receiving and distribution farm school in Pinjarra repatriated him. That was in1937 when age 21. I would like to know of other like us who had a returned relative. thankyou.

[ciderdrinker]

Hello
I have 3 home children who were sent to  Canada .One briefly came back while he was in the Army during World War I but that was on leave. I've never heard of anyone being sent  back.

Ciderdrinker

[Pinjarra1929]

Hello
I have 3 home children who were sent to  Canada .One briefly came back while he was in the Army during World War I but that was on leave. I've never heard of anyone being sent  back.

Ciderdrinker

Hi Thankyou for replying Ciderdrinker. I love cider!
Yes Pinjarra Old Fairbridgians Association chairman Derek Smith said it was rare but I know grandad was with three others also repatriated on same sailing.  Was ss Ormonde in october 1937. There was a farm worker possibly an ex Fairbridge boy who escorted the 4 young men. Grandad's file/folder has a letter from Psychiatrist to Fairbridge Principle saying after quick appointment as requested he recommends repatriation,  due to attempts at suicide.
I saw a news article where a different Fairbridge chairman,  possibly Rick Hinch  said 40 something people were sent home  by Australia Fairbridge,  unsure if he just meant Molong in New South Wales.

[tornado]

Hi Pinjarra . I have a distant relative whose Uncle was a child migrant in the 1950s and was sent from Liverpool to Queensland to work on sheep farms . We still don't know what happened to him back then , only that he paired up with an Aboriginal Lady and had a Child with her . This child never properly new her Father . Apparently he left and went on to be a painter/decorator in the 1960s in another location!.

[Jackiemh]

One member of my extended family was sent out in 1932, via Barnardo's, age 11, to NSW.
He returned to England in 1937 under his own steam.
Similarly for 2 brothers who were sent to Canada - one stayed there, the other returned to England after a couple of years.
Jackie

[Pinjarra1929]

hi Thankyou for your help in my quest to work out what families also ended up in England again, after their relative had done time in Australia/Canada etc as a British child Migrant.
To the post who said their British child migrant married an aboriginal lady and their daughter hardly knows their dad...is she living in Australia still?
To the next poster who speaks of 2 family members,  British child Migrants,  returning,  one from Australia in 1937. Because my grandad was also returned in 1937, please have you details of the ship they went back on? Did they, and your BCM from Canada,  settle down in UK? Did they have children?
I am grandchild,  unsure if makes me 3rd generation BCM. wonder if are others.  I am keen to share support with anyone and particularly the descendants like me of bcm who for any reason lived out the rest of life in UK. Leaves mum, me, my dad, my siblings  quite isolated as nobody hardly can get their heads around this nuanced non standard  and not planned for outcome!

[Pinjarra1929]

please forgive my unintentionally not reading the posts adequately. annoying to us all!
Think indicative of their disconnected situation that the percentage of British child Migrants' volunteering for the world wars was higher than with the population as a whole.  This is little known but probably symbols their overwhelming need for reconnecting with their origins of country, family, society customs and values etc. Absence makes the heart grow  finder, The grass on the other  side is greener. I'm sorry I over write posts. It's sad though because they had to seriously risk their lives by agreeing to go to fight,  knowing  they most likely  could die, because they had no money to travel to Britain to do what they should  have  had a god given right to do; look for family they had been taken from without  informed consent.  without being given the option  to stay in the UK whatever  the events  (birth  mum's death and step mum reluctant to raise him,  was my and  many  other cases) . Suspect such unforseen challenges were used against some families.   to thieve children for "good of empire". Leaves many questions do you agree?
Sorry Jackiemh I re read to see your relative returned on their own choice and not from Fairbridge , Pinjarra in Western  Australia as mine had been made to (or helped to, even his records aren't giving the sufficient information to understand what I need to).  Was he at New South Wales Fairbridge institution, which was at place  called  Molong? Where was he living from birth in Britain before Barnardos took him? Maybe like mine was put in Middlemore emigration home for 6 months prior to sailing away. In 1929 my grandad was put on SS Largs Bay, by Barnardos,  Fairbridge  and the company responsible for the shipping, Royal overseas league.

[Jackiemh]

Okay to more detail about the child sent to Australia (actually my father-in-law). He was put into Barnardo's Home in Stepney or their main one in Barkingside. I haven't requested a copy of his file (due to the fee required by Barnardo's) so don't have the complete details, only oral family history.
He travelled to Australia on SS Balranald arriving 21/7/1932 Sydney aged 12. I know that he worked on farms in the Parramatta and Newcastle areas but was not connected to Fairbridge (confirmed by Fairbridge).
He returned to England on 15/7/1937 on SS Moreton Bay, occupation farm hand; married in 1940; had 3 sons. I married one of these sons, and we emigrated to Australia.
My father-in-law didn't really talk much about what happened in Barnardo's and Australia; just sort of glossed it over.
The other child, (who returned from Canada) was placed in Fegan's Boys Home in Stony Stratford, with his brother, at his grandfather's request (mother had deserted boys, father abroad in the army). He was born in 1913, sent to Toronto on 'Montnairn' 22/4/1928; returning to England 22/2/1932 on 'Melita'. He married in 1944 but I haven't found any children for him.
It must have been very traumatic for the children to be sent such a long way and in many cases, to be mistreated.
On a happier note, the brother who remained in Canada, joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force for WW2 and visited his parents in 1940 whilst stationed in England (newspaper report). I believe that he married and remained in Canada.
Jackie

[Pinjarra1929]

Jackie thank you for your reply.  The experiences are  fascinating as I feel most of society never knew, or discloses or discusses this. Yes I agree  it is unimaginable the trepidation and vulnerability of the children. A dangerous gamble which at least for our family,  from what I discovered,  seems to have been not in my Grandad's interests. It shocks me to the core everyday because we're struggling with the fall out.