04
August
2011
Port of emotional call for shipped out orphan
Thurrock Enquirer
A MAN who was shipped to Australia as an 8 year old orphan made an emotional return to Tilbury last week.
David Lister had no idea he was being used to help stock Australia with new blood when he was put on board the recently launched SS Arcadia in 1954.
He, and five other orphans from an Enfield home, were told they were going on holiday, but were quickly moved from the ship, when it docked in Freemantle, to a Catholic orphanage in Perth.
David Lister had no idea he was being used to help stock Australia with new blood when he was put on board the recently launched SS Arcadia in 1954.
He, and five other orphans from an Enfield home, were told they were going on holiday, but were quickly moved from the ship, when it docked in Freemantle, to a Catholic orphanage in Perth.
David, now 65, struggled to tell of life in the orphanage and the Catholic orphanage system in which he stayed until he got a job as an auto engineer as a teenager.
“What went on in those places has been well documented, there’s no point in going back into it,” said David, who remains upbeat and stoical about what happened to him.
“It was the sort of thing that happened in those days. My mother had put me in an orphanage soon after I was born because of the stigma of being an illegitimate war baby.
“She had been married and had another son, my half brother, but her husband was killed in the war. When I was born I was put into an orphanage in Enfield, which was what was done in those days.”
However, out of that awful start, David has forged a good life for himself and even discovered that he was not the orphan he thought he was, eventually discovering his mother and being reconciled with her before her death.
He also discovered he had a sister, Susan, who was just three years younger than him. The two are now close and when David returned to the UK recently, they travelled together to Tilbury’s cruise terminal to share his memories to being shipped to the other side of the world.
“Coming here brought back many memories of my journey. It was night when got here and the rain was pouring down but I can remember this building, and looking back at it and England as the ship pulled away from the quay.
“We had been put on the boat and told we were going on holiday.The next morning we were woken up with tea and biscuits and found we were in the Bay of Biscay. The ship was loaded down at that point and we were so low in the ship our porthole was under the water, but when they lost the ballast after going through the Bay at least we were able to see out of the window.
“They were good to us on the ship and I remember the voyage, which took a month, fondly. We eventually docked at Freemantle and were then whisked away, still not knowing that we wouldn’t be going home - not for 45 years.”
In those intervening years David survived the orphanage system with his ex-pat friends - he is still in touch with one of them, Patrick Barclay.
Having first got a job he then signed up for the Australian army, though an eye problem meant he was only put in their reserve, the equivalent of our TA. Australia was embroiled in the Vietnam conflict at the time, though he never saw active service, but played a support role to the troops there.
Despite being in the army, and being raised as an Australian, there was a shock for David when he met the love of his life, Cheryl, and decided to get married.
“I found out that I wasn’t an Australian. In fact I was nothing. None of us orphans were. I had to go through the Citizenship ceremony, so I could call myself an Aussie,” he said.
There was a further shock for David when he decided to get a passport and return to England in 1999. “I needed to get a birth certificate and Cheryl made the enquiries back in the UK through the Catholic Church Society and found my mother was still alive.
“We decided to write to her and though it was a shock for her and quite distressing at first, we were reconciled.”
Susan takes over the story.“I had no idea about David. I knew about mum’s first son, my half brother, but we had lost contact with him, but mum never said anything about David. When she got the letter she rang me to tell me and then eventually I was able to meet up with the brother I never knew I had.”
David first returned to the UK in 1999 and revisited the Enfield area where he grew up, con-incidentally finding that Susan lived very close to where the orphanage had once stood.
“We went to find out about the past and then met a former sister at the orphanage, who remembered David and was able to tell us about his early life,” added Susan.
David, who has two children, Darren and Megan, and a grandson, Dylan, returned again to be with his mother shortly before her death and then came back again, to realise more of his dreams.
“I’ve always wanted to come back to Tilbury and it is very special to be here,” said David.
Susan had approached the port to see if they would be able to visit and received a warm welcome from Lynda Viccars, the port’s cruise and marine co- ordinator.
“We were delighted to welcome David and Susan after hearing his extraordinary story,” said Lynda. “And to make the visit a bit more special we arranged for them to take a short cruise to London and back on the steam ship Balmoral, which has been cruising up and down the river all week.”
That was something that delighted David, a self-confessed transport buff, who also took the opportunity on Sunday to visit RAF Duxford and complete another ambition, to see and step in a Concord aircraft.
“It’s been wonderful and I am very grateful. I’ve seen London from the air, from the London eye and from the top of St Paul’s but it was lovely and very special to see it from the river,” he said.
“What went on in those places has been well documented, there’s no point in going back into it,” said David, who remains upbeat and stoical about what happened to him.
“It was the sort of thing that happened in those days. My mother had put me in an orphanage soon after I was born because of the stigma of being an illegitimate war baby.
“She had been married and had another son, my half brother, but her husband was killed in the war. When I was born I was put into an orphanage in Enfield, which was what was done in those days.”
However, out of that awful start, David has forged a good life for himself and even discovered that he was not the orphan he thought he was, eventually discovering his mother and being reconciled with her before her death.
He also discovered he had a sister, Susan, who was just three years younger than him. The two are now close and when David returned to the UK recently, they travelled together to Tilbury’s cruise terminal to share his memories to being shipped to the other side of the world.
“Coming here brought back many memories of my journey. It was night when got here and the rain was pouring down but I can remember this building, and looking back at it and England as the ship pulled away from the quay.
“We had been put on the boat and told we were going on holiday.The next morning we were woken up with tea and biscuits and found we were in the Bay of Biscay. The ship was loaded down at that point and we were so low in the ship our porthole was under the water, but when they lost the ballast after going through the Bay at least we were able to see out of the window.
“They were good to us on the ship and I remember the voyage, which took a month, fondly. We eventually docked at Freemantle and were then whisked away, still not knowing that we wouldn’t be going home - not for 45 years.”
In those intervening years David survived the orphanage system with his ex-pat friends - he is still in touch with one of them, Patrick Barclay.
Having first got a job he then signed up for the Australian army, though an eye problem meant he was only put in their reserve, the equivalent of our TA. Australia was embroiled in the Vietnam conflict at the time, though he never saw active service, but played a support role to the troops there.
Despite being in the army, and being raised as an Australian, there was a shock for David when he met the love of his life, Cheryl, and decided to get married.
“I found out that I wasn’t an Australian. In fact I was nothing. None of us orphans were. I had to go through the Citizenship ceremony, so I could call myself an Aussie,” he said.
There was a further shock for David when he decided to get a passport and return to England in 1999. “I needed to get a birth certificate and Cheryl made the enquiries back in the UK through the Catholic Church Society and found my mother was still alive.
“We decided to write to her and though it was a shock for her and quite distressing at first, we were reconciled.”
Susan takes over the story.“I had no idea about David. I knew about mum’s first son, my half brother, but we had lost contact with him, but mum never said anything about David. When she got the letter she rang me to tell me and then eventually I was able to meet up with the brother I never knew I had.”
David first returned to the UK in 1999 and revisited the Enfield area where he grew up, con-incidentally finding that Susan lived very close to where the orphanage had once stood.
“We went to find out about the past and then met a former sister at the orphanage, who remembered David and was able to tell us about his early life,” added Susan.
David, who has two children, Darren and Megan, and a grandson, Dylan, returned again to be with his mother shortly before her death and then came back again, to realise more of his dreams.
“I’ve always wanted to come back to Tilbury and it is very special to be here,” said David.
Susan had approached the port to see if they would be able to visit and received a warm welcome from Lynda Viccars, the port’s cruise and marine co- ordinator.
“We were delighted to welcome David and Susan after hearing his extraordinary story,” said Lynda. “And to make the visit a bit more special we arranged for them to take a short cruise to London and back on the steam ship Balmoral, which has been cruising up and down the river all week.”
That was something that delighted David, a self-confessed transport buff, who also took the opportunity on Sunday to visit RAF Duxford and complete another ambition, to see and step in a Concord aircraft.
“It’s been wonderful and I am very grateful. I’ve seen London from the air, from the London eye and from the top of St Paul’s but it was lovely and very special to see it from the river,” he said.
