A Hiccup for the Dreadnought Scheme

 

After the break caused by World War 1, the Dreadnought Scheme resumed in 1921 and reached full swing by the start of 1922. By the end of 1924, the number of these new arrivals had just passed the pre-war total, with 1803 more working age lads being brought to Australia from UK. This ultimately proved to be the halfway mark of the whole Dreadnought Scheme.

During 1924, a new player began promoting the need for more of these lads to be brought to Australia. Richard Linton, a recently retired businessman, was keen to see a scheme based on his own experience. When he arrived in Sydney from his native New Zealand many years before, he was helped to settle by his older brother who had arrived in previous years. While Linton was in England for the British Empire Exhibition, a group of his colleagues met in Sydney on 15 April 1925, and began what was later called the Big Brother Movement. This movement would provide mentors (Big Brothers) for the lads it brought from UK (Little Brothers).

The first one of these Little Brothers reached Sydney on 31 October, on the SS Sophocles as one of 44 Dreadnought Boys. Another group arrived on the SS Jervis Bay on 14 December 1925, after over a hundred of that contingent had been landed in Perth and Melbourne.

So, what was the problem?

The way Richard Linton chose get his scheme under way in UK, resulted in widespread confusion among prospective Boys and their parents, Immigration officers here and in the UK, amongst others. It had the potential to derail the Dreadnought Scheme, angering the Dreadnought Trustees. The Prime Minister’s file Dreadnought Scheme and Land Settlement 1921-29 provides some behind-the-scenes insights.

As the first large group of Little Brothers was being farewelled, with great publicity, in London, the Australian High Commissioner there received a disturbing Cablegram, on 2 November 1925. “…little brothers sailing…under Dreadnought Scheme. Trustees do not approve such arrangements, parents and lads should be so advised.” Having learnt unofficially about what was happening, the Dreadnought Trustees had re-acted.  The London HC staff had been assured by Richard Linton “… that Dreadnought Trustees had accepted his Scheme”, and that the PM’s office “were advised on 31 July and 2 October, that Dreadnought Boys were included in the Big Brother List”. Meanwhile, Mr Linton was aboard ship on his way back to Australia.

Following a meeting here in Australia with the Dreadnought Trustees, Deputy Director Hurley of the Commonwealth Immigration Office tersely messaged London on 15 December 1925, “Misunderstanding with Dreadnought Trustees adjusted who now agree all future Dreadnought Lads may be enrolled as Little Brothers.” Some adjustment! This was the polar opposite of the Trustees’ previous position. One suspects that it had been a robust meeting, with the Trustees being reminded that the Commonwealth Government had the final say over who and how migrants came to Australia. Ironically, the High Commission in London had already stopped further inclusion of Dreadnought Boys in the BBM arrangements.

Meanwhile, the High Commissioner Sir Joseph Cook had sent a long cablegram to the Prime Minister, about the “difficulty” with the Movement. In true bureaucratic style, Cook asserted that “the whole cause of the trouble is absence of reply to my cablegram of 3rd November…” (That particular cable did not actually pose questions requiring a specific response!) He went on to express his frustration with Richard Linton, the lack of clear arrangements between the BBM and his office, and bemoaned the (unauthorised) £548, already spent on the movement by his office.

During the following years, operating separately, both the BBM and the Dreadnought Scheme were kept busy bringing working age lads to Australia. But it is little wonder that the Dreadnought Trustees took a dim view of Richard Linton and the BBM. It was unfortunate that, for some years, relations were strained between two effective organisations, who were major contributors to Australia’s immigration story.

And what of the Boys who came on the SS Jervis Bay?

From newspapers of the day, it is quite clear that the group arriving in Sydney, comprised 28 Wembley Exhibition Scholarship winners and 56 Dreadnought Boys.  Of the latter, according to Dreadnought records, 37 Boys went to Scheyville for farm training, 11 went to Cowra, 5 to Glen Innes and 3 went to Grafton for their training. The Big Brother Movement was said to be “co-operating “, and on completion of training each boy was linked to their mentor. So now they were all “Little Brothers.”

 

References

Alan Gill, Likely Lads and Lasses – Youth Migration to Australia 1911-1983. (Sydney NSW: BBM Ltd, 2005).

Dreadnought Scheme and Land Settlement 1921-29. (Prime Ministers Department file held in the National Archives of Australia).

Sydney Morning Herald, Wed 9 December 1925, p11. Boy Migrants.(http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16260096) 

Sun, Mon 14 December 1925, p10. Little Brothers – Welcome to new home.(http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223923661)

Bill Miller

William John Ernest Miller was born on 11 May 1908 at Catford, London to Ernest and May Miller. Soon after this the family moved to South Croydon in Surrey, where his father worked in the footwear industry.

In the years that followed World War I, conditions were tough and prospects seemed limited for many young people. Then Bill saw

                                            ‘Boys Wanted for Australia, Apply Within’

As Bill later wrote: “This is the advertisement that changed my whole life around. In 1924, at the age of sixteen, I applied to come to Australia and, with the approval of my parents, everything was arranged through the Dreadnought Scheme”.

SS Demosthenes

Bill travelled from London to Tilbury Docks and boarded the SS Demosthenes, which took about six weeks to reach Sydney on 19 March 1925. Bill arrived in Sydney with another 60 boys connected with the scheme, and, with 36 of them, was transported by train and road to Scheyville Training Farm. Here they stayed for the next three months to learn Australian farming methods. Following this farm training, Bill was sent to work on a farm at Dyraaba (21 km north west of Casino) in northern NSW.

During the next eight and a half years, Bill finished his time at Dyraaba and moved on, working on a number of farms in the Casino district. Then, after his marriage to Lorna Oliver on 20 January 1934, he commenced share-farming at Hogarth Range (west of Casino) and later at Ellangowan (south of Casino). The couple went on to have six children.

By 1938, Bill had a growing family and needed a more reliable income than his farmwork was providing so he applied for work with, and was accepted by, the NSW Department of Railways. His decision was well-timed. Drought conditions which had begun occurring in 1937, worsened in 1938 into what became known as the World War 2 Drought. Bill was initially based in Casino for several years before being transferred to Murwillumbah, where he remained until he retired from the Railways in 1970.

A reserved, reliable man of modest expectations, Bill Miller passed away in 2001, aged 93. His parents and sister had predeceased him, and wife Lorna passed away in 2002.

Among the thousands of boys who emigrated with the Dreadnought Scheme, there was a great variety of reasons for doing so. Difficult family relationships and family breakdown were part of the story for many of them. But there were also many who left home, with the approval and assistance of parents who wanted a better future for their son. In Bill Miller’s case, there was always a strong family connection, with his parents and sister Margaret coming as “Ten Pound Poms”, to join him in Murwillumbah in 1948.

Ironically, they each paid the same fare as Bill did, 23 years earlier.

Bert Bridges

 

“Whoah, that was close!”

Probably not the words used, on the day Bert learnt how dangerous machinery could be. He had fallen off a steam-powered road engine and was run over by one of its big rear wheels. Being a small boy, Bert fitted between the high grips on its tread and escaped with his life, but with serious injury to his pelvis.

Albert William (Bert) Bridges was born on 25 March 1908 in Hendon (North London) to Robert and Rose Bridges, the fifth of seven children. His father had served in the British Army in the Sudan, Egypt, and the Boer War. Bert was six years old, when his father re-joined the Army to serve in France.

Young Bert got work in a picture theatre at Marble Arch. His job was to provide sounds during the screenings of the silent movies. Movies like The Retreat from Moscow and The Angel of Mans called for drums to be beaten off-stage for the thunder of gunfire. It needed imagination and good timing to create realistic sounds, and Bert enjoyed doing it. In 1922, Bert got work with leather goods specialist Garstin’s, in Hendon. He was there for three years, and received a valuable reference from them when he was about to leave England.

Bert had decided to emigrate. Bert, with his younger brother Tom and their friend Dick Willis, applied to travel with the Dreadnought Scheme, which brought them to Australia. They left on the SS Bendigo on 11 November 1926. Bert and Dick were 18 years old and Tom was a year younger. They reached Cape Town and, while there, decided to continue to Australia, on the toss of a coin. And so to Sydney, arriving on 7 January 1927.

In Sydney, they were given £2, put on a train to Cowra, sent to its Agricultural Experiment Farm. Bert’s first eight (hot) weeks were mainly spent cutting burrs. After training at the Farm, he went to Jack Pierce’s dairy in Taragala, South Cowra. This was followed by a brief time back at the Experiment Farm and then with Ernie Goodacre at Penrose, a farm north of Cowra. This was a positive time for Bert, the Goodacre family were very good to him.

The farm jobs were temporary at best, times were difficult, and men needed work. When construction of Wyangla Dam began, jobs became available on road-works to the site. In the hope of getting work, Bert and others were camped in a reserve on Waugoola Creek. They were living off rabbits, and food scraps from a bush kitchen which had been set up for the men working on the dam road. Dick Willis was working at a Mr Scott’s dairy at Warwick, a few miles down from Cowra on the Lachlan River. In 1929, Dick managed to get work in Newcastle, and when he gave notice, the Scotts asked whether he knew of someone to take his place. He went to Waugoola Creek to find Bert. Bert started with Scotts straightaway.

Dick and Bert were not the first Dreadnought Boys to work at the Scott farm. Before them were John Frith and Les Hirst (Check out the story posted back on 31 May 2017).

Despite the Depression the farm remained viable. People still needed to be fed and the farm was self-sufficient in fruit and vegetables. Mr Scott had died in 1926 so his wife and daughters, Maud and Lil, were running the farm.

Tom Bridges had eventually left the Experiment Farm and found work locally, but he gradually went further away, from Grenfell to Young and then Western Australia. He had become a travelling show-man, moving around Australia before staying in the west.

Bert was able to go back to UK for five months in 1933. On return, aged 25, he settled into dairy farming life with the Scotts, who became his family. Then, just before World War 2, he met Grace James. War intervened in their plans - Bert enlisted in December 1941, being posted to the 2/7 Australian Field Ambulance in Canberra, and then in Gympie (Queensland). Brother Tom had also enlisted and was in Darwin when the Japanese attacked. When both Mrs Scott and her daughter Lil had died, Bert was manpowered out of the army in 1944, and returned to the farm.

                                                         

                                                                               Bert Bridges’ Army Photo

Bert and Grace married in April 1945, and had four children in the ensuing eight years. Maud Scott continued to live with the Bridges family. In 1955 the family, with Maud Scott, sailed on a trip to UK. When the ship called into Perth, Tom met them. It was their last contact for some years.

When Maud Scott sold the farm to Bert, he continued to supply milk to the factories at Cowra and Canowindra. He also supplied to the kitchens at Fagan’s Mulyan and Edgell’s Lombardy, which operated at harvest time on these large asparagus farms. His side-line in vealer production also prospered.

Through his contacts Bert heard that Dick Willis was in hospital, ill with lung cancer. Dick lasted until 3 April 1967, aged 58 years. Meanwhile, Bert’s brother Tom had re-established contact with a surprise visit in the early 1960s. In 1974 Bert became ill with failing kidneys. He died on 10 June 1975. Tom continued to visit until his last trip in 1995. Tom died in Perth in 1996.

Back in 1911, one of the Trustees of the Scheme was confident that the young Dreadnought Boys would be our ‘future farmers and soldiers’. Bert Bridges fulfilled that hope and, with his family, made a lasting contribution to the Cowra District as well.