FORTY
NINE
Boarding Out 1913
Boarding Out 1913
Mrs Gatehouse of 2 Crown Street in Woolloomooloo was the first
woman who was offered the opportunity to take care of Clyda in her home.
The Boarding Out Service was charged with ensuring that children
in her position were found suitable homes to be fostered in, for an indefinite
period of time. Under the remit of the department, it would have been possible that
Clyda would stay in the home until she was twenty one years of age, until she
reached her majority. However, in Mrs Gatehouse’s case this was not so. Although
she had been responsible to the service for caring for Clyda, she apparently
was unable to do so. After only a few weeks she was taken from Mrs Gatehouse's
home in August of 1913 and handed over to the care of Mrs Abraham of a house
called Armargh, Rocky Point Road, Armcliffe close to Botany Bay. During that
month Clyda was again removed and placed in the children’s home at Ormond House
in Sydney. At this time long overdue efforts were started to find a person who
would be prepared to take Clyda back to England.
On 31st August 1912 Mr Stephens of the Intestate Estate
office received a bill from a press agency in Sydney, Gordon and Gotch (Sydney)
Ltd for the sum of eighteen shillings. The invoice from the agency was for the
placing of a notice in the Sydney Morning Herald on 25th July and
the World News on 2nd August in relation to Clyda.
The Worlds News, August 2, 1913.
Re estate of FLORENCE LOWE deceased
Would some person about
to proceed to England (White Star Line preferred) kindly communicate with the
undersigned with a view to taking charge of a little girl, aged 5 years, on the
voyage? Premium. R.C. Monday Acting Curator of Intestate Estates, Queens
Square, Sydney.
Within a short time the advertisement realised a shoal of hopeful
fish nibbling at the enticing bait, as some of them obviously saw it, to take
the child back to England. One of the letters received by the Intestate Estate
Office was from a Miss Violet Tarling. In her initial response to the
advertisement she wrote:
c/o Mrs W G Layton
Mundara
Homebush Rd
Strathfield
Sydney
August 3rd 1913
Dear Sir
Re; Advert of the Worlds
News caring for a little girl aged five, whilst on the voyage to England. I beg
to apply for the responsible position, as I am shortly returning to England
owing to family reasons.
I dearly love little
children, and it would be company for myself to take care of the little child.
I am twenty four years
of age and am a good sailor, can give best of references if required.
Trusting you will favour me with a reply.
Believe me yours
Faithfully
(Miss) Violet Tarling
Three
days later the acting Curator wrote to Miss Tarling asking her to attend his
office at her earliest convenience, which she obviously did. There is no
indication of what sort of qualifications the Curator was looking for, but Miss
Tarling was almost the same age as Florence had been when she had died. Perhaps
that was a consideration.
Some of the applicants for the job of accompanying the child were
bold enough to suggest a sum of money to be paid them for the task of taking
the girl back home, some offering to do the job for fifty pounds, others felt
it necessary to tell the curator their height, others told of their connections
in society and their professions. It appears that Violet got the job because
she was honest and youthful, but probably because she was also experienced as a
children's nurse.
At the same time as arrangements were being made by the Curator of
Intestate Estates for the transport of Clyda back to England, the Assistant
Curator, Mr Stephens, was in postal communication with his opposite number, Mr
Turner, in the Central Depot for State Children at Ormond House. They exchanged
letters to and fro regarding the proposed date of departure of Clyda, and the
purchase of clothing for the child on the journey.
In the end a long list of clothing was purchased from Anthony
Horden and Sons Ltd, Universal Providers of the New Palace Emporium, Brickfield
Hill, Sydney. The account was sent directly to the Intestate Estates office who
in turn sent it to Mr A W Green, the Boarding Out Officer in Sydney. The
account was made out as follows.
To maintenance of and clothing supplied to Clyda Elsie Lowe
To Maintenance to 16th September 1913 £9.15.0
Clothing etc
Per A Horden & Sons.
Trunk 18/6d
1 doz handkerchiefs 2/6d
1 tunic 6/11d
1 coat 7/11d
1 skirt 7/3d
1 jersey 3/11d
1 frock 2/6d
1 hat 1/6d
1 hood 2/-
Sub
Total £3.1.0d
Per Ormond House
2 pair combinations 7/-
2 do 13/-
2 petticoats 4/4d
1 pr bloomers 4/4d
1 stay bodice 1/1d
4 prs knickers 3/9d
4 blue pinafores 5/4d
4 pr shoes 15/-
12 prs socks 6/-
2 yards ribbon 11d
Brush and comb 2/9d
3 dolls 3/9d
1 book 10/-
Sub
total £3.18.5d
Total
£16.16.1d
On 8th September 1913 Mr Russell Roxburgh, solicitor
for the estate of Florence sent a cheque for £50.00 by post to the Curator of
Intestate Estates. The cheque was to pay for the ticket for Clyda to be sent
back to England by the Aberdeen liner 'Marathon', due to sail from Sydney on
the 20th of that month in the company of Miss Tarling. A one way
ticket was purchased from the Aberdeen Line agent in Sydney, Dalgety and
Company. Where the £50.00 came from is unknown, simply that Mr Roxburgh wrote
the letter enclosing the cheque on 10th September 1913. Did George
and William and Grace find the money from somewhere and pay it to the solicitor
to put to an end the distress of the child being moved from one foster home to
another, and finally to the Ormond House State Children’s Home, or did the
circumstances soften the heart of Mr Roxburgh to pay the money himself?
At the same time, the decision had by then been made to request
Violet Tarling to take Clyda to England, for which service she would be paid
the sum of £15.00. Half of it would be paid at the onset of the voyage, the
second part at the offices of the Bank of New South Wales in Threadneedle
Street in London on delivery of the child, where her signature, having been
compared with a specimen signature, already sent ahead for this purpose. The
agreement was reached during the first week of August that year when Violet
Tarling was asked to visit the office of the curator, when she was appointed to
her task, and a sum agreed for her efforts. Sadly the two offices involved in
the care and custody of Clyda seemed almost incapable of corresponding with
each other with any degree of urgency. At the end of August the boarding Out
office was still writing to the Intestate Estates office asking if anyone had
been appointed to take the child to England.
After Florence had died in September 1912, Clyda lived at Phillip
Street with George Kent, being moved from there in March 1913 to the first of
two foster carers. By August that year the child had been in the care of Mrs Gatehouse
in Woolloomooloo near to Finger Point, then on to Mrs Abraham near Botany Bay,
and finally she was moved into Ormond House at Paddington. It was only then
that the Boarding Out Department became possessed of any sense of urgency to
return to the child to her grandparents in England. It would be wrong to say
that no one cared for the welfare of the child, quite the reverse. It was
simply that she did not present a problem to the various bodies concerned,
until such times as the office of Intestate Estates started to galvanise the
others into action, and then arrangements were hurriedly made to effect her
passage to England.
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