The National Council of Barnardo's Old boys and Girls meet three times a year at Barkingside. While in the UK Eric was able to attend the meeting of the 5th June 2006. In the notes handed out was the article below that with Eric's permission I would like to share this edited version with you.

Eric Leonard's thoughts of what he should have shared
 with the National Council members June 6th 2005.

At the age of 3 years I was placed in the care of who I now know to be my paternal grandparents Susanna and William Egmore, in the village of Swannington, Norfolk. After five years my grandparents could not look after or maintain my upbringing. On the 9th day of August 1934, I became a Dr. Barnardo's Homes Boy. My initiation at Stepney was a cultural shock, clearly a real feeling of anxiety, nervousness and a frightened eight year old.

The cold hand of a tall woman directed me to a table, where another small boy was seated. In a stern tone of voice, I heard "Derek Egmore, you are now to be known as Eric Leonard, Alec Toplin, you are now to be known as John Franklin, write it down and do not forget it". We were petrified and stunned.

I have often wondered and pondered to this day. "Is this why my first eight years of my infants mind is Blank?" Twenty days on I was fostered to a lovable family of four in the fens of Cambridgeshire.

Over three years love, affection and kindness was shared with me, by the Beckett family. It was my foster father who with a sad tone in his voice calmly and softly said "Eric, you are to be returned to the homes, you may be given a choice of going to Canada, Australia or 'Watts Naval School". I must have chosen Australia.

From July 1937 a small group of us were being gathered and assembled, we were housed in a tent pitched on the side of the Boys Garden City, Cricket Field, Woodford Bridge, just three short miles from here at Barkingside. Our khaki uniforms revealed and we were soon dubbed the "Australian Kids". It wasn't until all medical and I.Q. tests that November 20th 1937 - 25 girls and 25 boys embarked on the S.S. Otranto from Tilbury, London. We disembarked on the 29th December 1937 in view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, yes Christmas that year is still a cherished memory. The Dr. Barnardo Home, Farm Training School, five miles from the small town of Picton has been well documented through the pages of our Guild Messenger, already were caring for approximately eighty boys, those under fourteen years were still at school, those who had left school were being trained in all facets of farming, the girls under 14 years were soon to join us, then on leaving school were returned to Brimwood for their domestic training, this home at Brimwood was under the control of Miss Dobbie and Miss Warrell who we boys thought were ideal task masters or should I say matrons.

Yes Barnardo's had given an undertaking and commitments that the child migrants reaching Australia from Britain should be 'trained as domestic servants and farm hands, yes an old fashioned archaism, which the 3rd day of September 1939 changed, yes, Great Britain and its Empire were at war.

Soon many of our Girls and Boys were enrolling in the services of their country, Australia. Many of our Barnardo Boys soon volunteered to serve their adopted Country, by joining the Australian Imperial Forces. For them it was another ocean voyage, no not back to dear old England, but the desert of North Africa, Middle East, Syria our boys of the 2/33 Battalion, Bob Cooper and John Savage saw the death of Charles Wilson fighting the Vichy French. The Sixth Division and their Battalion were called back to Australia to meet the peril and the great danger of the Japanese onslaught; they fought in the dense jungles of New Guinea, Owen Stanley Range, Kokoda Track and Borneo.

Sadly, twenty-six of our former Dr. Barnardo child migrants who played and worked the soil on the gentle rolling hills of our Mowbray Park, Farm Training School gave of their young lives. Yes we should always remember them. Let's get back on the aspects of Derek Egmore - Eric Leonard. I mentioned the peril of the Japanese onslaught and invasion of Australia, the Department of Labour and Industry compelled many of us with farming skills and experience to stay on the land, I was sent to a sheep and cattle property in Central Queensland, Australia.

It was October 1943, over the next four and half years I gathered and gleaned the best education and country life style any young Pommie B ..... , for that's what the shearers, stockman and cane gatherers called anyone with an English accent, could gain or muster throughout the North West of outback Queensland to the Northern cane fields of Australia. The teaching by so many gained my respect and admiration, their skills, their qualities shared along life's way have been so beneficial to my way of life. Kate, you ask that I talk of the situation in Australia of my contact with "Old Barnardo Girls & Boys"!

My contacts are many, my reunions are many. Four and half years of my wandering ways came to a halt, when the beckoning manner of Barnardo's authorities almost summoned me to Founder's Day June 1947. Yes, I was nearing my "Twenty First" year of life. It was on this day my respect, understanding and the gratitude for our Founder Thomas John Barnardo - the everlasting - bond and strong feeling that unites we "Home Children" became firmly embedded in my mind. I have crossed many long gullies, the. hand of friendship extended to me so freely. Even the hands of the Queensland Police of Torrens, Circk and Blackhall, whose dominant advice was "join the Mounted Police, Eric".

What was it like being sent to Australia "Was I Lonely?" For an 11 year old, it was a real adventure that sparked a new exciting life. Yes, I was lonely for a 16-17 year old, after years of communal dining and dormitories, a horse, and faithful dog to talk to throughout a days mustering for stray stock or riding the boundary fences, is certainly a lonesome way of life, yes, and a real yearn for your young "Barnardo" years.

Eric Leonard

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