Robert was born in 1932 and attended the Foundling Hospital School at Berkhamsted. When he left school he went to an agricultural school at Wallingford and after a very brief time working on a farm in Oxfordshire, and an even briefer time in the army, he worked on an oil refinery in Southampton and became a steeple jack. Shortly thereafter he emigrated to Canada and worked as a steeple jack, before returning to England to work in scaffolding and heavy construction. He was married twice remaining in touch with his children until his death.
Into the World
‘I wanted to go to Canada or Australia… so I decided to go to Canada because I think it was cheaper to go to Canada because I had to pay my own way to go to Canada, no– that’s right, it cost me 54 pound. This is when I applied– I must have been bit mu– 19 when I applied to the– I’d go to the school to get a passport, had to get a passport. No, I got a passport in 1952. I do know this because I looked at it this morning, I still got the old passport now. I got a passport in 1952 and I went to Canada, Halifax, Nova Scotia 1954, that’s when I went. So I– anyway I went to Canada, I got this… I went over on a boat called The Banyers I’ll never forget it, I got a picture of it somewhere and I met some people there on the boat, a lady who had been visiting her family and there was a– three or four of us got friendly with her and the other boys there I got friendly with, my age, was from Italian family and they had a restaurant or something in– in London, and we got friendly with this here woman, we didn’t know where we was going to stay when we landed at– we went to Halifax, Nova Scotia and this lady was from Toronto, so we got on the train, so we went to from Halifax to Toronto and she had a place there in Toronto so we stayed at– she put us up in her bungalow. I heard that there was a big steel works in– not far from Toronto called Hamilton, and they were building and extending the steel works in Hamilton which was more my line in construction so I went there and got myself a job with Toronto Steeple Jacks.’
Reflections
‘I feel very lucky, I feel lucky to have been to the school that I went to, the Coram school because during the war I was fed and clothed, although we was like soldiers dressed up in bright red tunic– red waistcoats and brown– and brass buttons on and stiff starch white collars and we was fed, the education I suppose I can’t really blame them because I was poorly for– with asthma, and since then I’ve had to learn how to read and write myself, otherwise I– well I had to, looking back on my deathbed I would feel… just like an ordinary citizen.’
School Life
‘When I was at school I suffered very badly from asthma and I used to spend an awful lot of time in the Infirmary and the– I had it that bad they thought a change of air would do me good, so they sent me to my foster parents in Kent, Hadlow. I was there for about… 12 months, two years.’
Search for Birth Families
‘We went to this cafe for tea, and we was having tea and the chap who wa– I for– I can’t think of his name, from the Coram, from the– from the offices school, who introduced me, took me there, he said, “The lady who just served you– the waitress, he said, is your mother.” Didn’t sort of mean much to me at all really. It didn’t seem– she was there in her waitress uniform. I don’t remember much about… the– the meeting with her at all, actually, whether we decided to meet again or meet her or, ask her any questions or– I think it was just a brief encounter where we had this tea and I left, and I think– I can’t remember this chap’s name who took me there, he said, “It’s up to her if you want to continue a relationship or be in contact again.”‘
