RootsChat.Com
Research in Other Countries => Australia => Topic started by: grandarog on Tuesday 27 August 24 12:02 BST (UK)
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Wonder if any one recognises their ancestors on this photo. 1948 leaving England.
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What a wonderful photo do you have the name and date of the ship
Maybe there is a list somewhere
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The boys seem to be all dressed the same - were they from an institution (orphanage) perhaps?
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In the 1980s someone started uncovering stories of children sent to Australia from UK . . from orphanages etc.
This is not the same . . .but similar. I presume you know that story.
The film 'Oranges and Sunshine' comes to mind.
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It was a complete scandal, the child migration schemes, the children were nearly all not orphans, when reaching Australia, they were often used as child slave labor on farms etc, many of them were subjected to physical, mental and sexual abuse.
Maragret Humpries was the first to expose what had happened to many of these children, she was subject to death threats and shots were fired at the house where she was staying.
see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Humphreys
see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Children
see https://www.childmigrantstrust.org/
eventually both the Australian and British government apologized for the treatment of these children.
This photo makes me sad to know what faced these children, once they got to Australia
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OP says 1948 and the clothes these children are wearing look more like that era than 1980s.
It is some time since I've seen the film and I can't remember if it spoke about children of that decade or children from the decade pictured in OP's post.
I do remember that film depicted children NOT mainly from orphanages. Very sad episode.
I might have taken the thread right off track. If so, I'm really sorry.
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book 'Empty Cradles' by Maragret Humphreys
movie based on the book
Oranges and Sunshine
The child migration scheme to Australia run from shortly after WW2 to the early 1970's
The migration scheme also saw more than 100,000 children sent from Britain to Canada between 1869 and the 1930s.
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David Hill: The Forgotten Children
https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/pubresource/the-forgotten-children-fairbridge-farm-school-and-its-betrayal-of-australias-child-migrants/
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Leaving_of_Liverpool_(TV_series)
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It happened in the United States, too, although the children were not sent overseas, but rather too farm families in the western states.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphan_Train
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Grandarog where did you get this photo and can you identify one of the children
I'm sure someone could find a shipping list if we had an exact name and date to start with .
I'd be happy to look.
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Grandarog where did you get this photo and can you identify one of the children
There is a fairly good chance that many in the photo are still alive, and therefore they should not be identified in a public forum such as this.
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As OP is not replying, for those who are interested, here is the image:
https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/group-of-young-emigrants-from-the-fairbridge-farm-schools-news-photo/3352835
"18th December 1948: A group of young emigrants from the Fairbridge Farm Schools at Tilbury, England sailing on the liner Ormonde to a new life at the Kingsley Fairbridge Farm School at Pinjarra, Western Australia."
Agree with Neale1961 that the children should not be identified lest they still be living, but thought it would be good to identify the image.
For those who want to know how to identify the origins of images, you can upload a copy of the image into Google Lens (https://images.google.co.uk/ - click the little camera icon on the search bar), which will then inform you of matching images online.
Queenie :)
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I agree this is a very sensitive topic. Thanks for posting Queenie.
It is the top pinned topic on the Australia forum given its sensitivity:
A RootsChat Database for British Home Children in Australia
added: https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=720118.0
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Thankyou for all your replies and interest. Sorry I could not respond until now as I suffered a major internet failure on 27 Aug which has taken until today to sort out.
As some you think this subject picture is too sensitive as many in the photo may still be with us I will delete the Post.
Could a moderator please advise whether i Should delete or let the post run . Thankyou Grandarog :)