Summary

Letter from Peggy Bannister of 25 Monson Street, Lincoln, England to (Mrs) Violet Barker, 21 Truman St, Bentley, near Doncaster, England, 25 Sep 1940. Peggy was asking Violet whether her daughter Sheila could live with her for a short while as there was nowhere other than a children's home for her to go.

Part of a collection of documents, photographs and an oral history inteview relating to Shelagh (formerly Sheila) Philpott (nee Bannister), an unaccompanied British child migrant. The material documents her time in care in the National Children's Home and Orphanage in England at Bramhope, near Leeds; her migration to Australia in 1950 and her efforts to trace her family later in life. The research file includes photocopied material.

Physical Description

A letter of three sheets of lined paper, handwritten in pencil on one side only of two sheets and on both sides of the third sheet, accompanied by a paper envelope with a blue King Geoge VI English 2 1/2d postage stamp, with overstamping in black ink and an address handwritten in pencil.

Significance

Statement of Historical Significance:
This collection documents the experience of an unaccompanied British child migrant who was relocated to Australia under the UK child migration programmes of the post War period, and to whom an apology was formally made in 2010 and reparations made under the UK Child Migrants Fund in 2019.

The documents are enriched by an oral history interview of the former child migrant, now in her eighties. The material covers the period before her migration as well as the lengthy period in Australia when she suffered from the ongoing impact of that migration programme. It documents her later return as an adult to England to find her family and her mental struggle with her identity. The material includes items showing the part played by local Australian social welfare organisations and their relationship to the after-care efforts of the UK National Children's Home.

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