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Dave Green and Mark Snowdon sitting on the bench outside After Care at Barkingside, covering the old school motto FINIS CORONET OPUS engraved into a brass plate.
LAST September, when Dave Green was told of the forthcoming Goldings reunion, he made a snap decision to return to England. I didn't tell my family, I just booked the ticket. For 54 years, Dave had heeded the advice of Mr Dudley Evans, one of Barnardo's managers, who had advised him when he left England to 'forget the home country and not to make comparisons' I took him at his word.' Dave says. But last summer, he felt it was the right time to go back. I contacted After Care in England on the advice of David Lorente, who helps a lot of Home Children. I had thought about exploring my past at different times, but wasn't sure it was the right thing to do. I didn't want to resurrect bad things. However there was something at the back of my mind that told me I have no roots here (in Canada),' he continues.’ So last year when my daughter attended the ceremony unveiling the plaque to the Home Children and she told me about the Child Migrant Fund, that started the ball rolling. Seeing his file, Dave discovered he has no close living relatives and that he is definitely an orphan, as he had suspected. His file was also marked 'illegitimate'. Dave was placed in Barnardo's care after his mother died when he was 10 years old. 'Of course my file contains disappointments, but it has made things more authentic,' he says, 'everything I remember and have told my children and friends is on my file and in the photos. As he already knew, Dave was boarded out when he first came to Barnardo's with an older couple where he remembers being very settled. Then he was taken away from them in the night and not told anything about what was happening or where he was going. After a couple of days of bewildering and distressing checks at Boy's Garden City, he was transferred to Watts, where a most painful part of his childhood began, On Dave's file, it says he was' a very quiet boy' at Watts. 'That was because I was so miserable. I found life there very harsh. When I ran away, I remember being caned and having my hair shaved off,' Being wounded by shrapnel as he ran to a shelter during a 1944 air raid, gave Dave the opportunity he needed to get away. He was now unfit for military service. 'I transferred to Goldings in 1945 and though it was still strict, I found the regime much more humane,' Dave says.' I loved sports and was the school cricket captain. I was presented with a cricket bat and took it to Canada with me.' Ironically, when Dave rang After Care recently, there was another Goldings Old Boy there, Mark Snowdon, who remembered him. With After Care's help, they were put in touch with each other and after 54 years met up at Barkingside. 'Thanks Mark for the wonderful time I spent with you and your wife Jacqui,' said Dave. After years of hard farm work and various jobs in Canada, Dave set up his own company running Ottowa's vehicle licensing office in 1982, which has provided him with security and a comfortable living. One of his daughters now runs the company. 'Canada has been exceptionally good to me and I can say I've been good to Canada,' says Dave, who has been presented with numerous awards for voluntary service, including Citizen of The Year in his hometown of Brockville for his loyal service to charitable causes. These include the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Diabetes Association, for whom he has campaigned rigorously after suffering a heart attack in 1993 and having both legs amputated due to diabetes. 'Whatever has happened through the years, I don't feel one bit sorry, not one bit. I think for starting out as a kid, who came to Canada with $20 in his pocket, I have done pretty well.' He concludes: I have a motto in life that there is no point regretting anything that happened in the past, and I don't.' Barnardo Guild Messenger Winter 2002 issue 324 While at the reunion I had a chat to Dave about his time as a BHC in Canada, what was said is private between David and myself as I forgot to ask him permission to post the info to site, but one thing he said did hit home, like most BHC he had some rough times, but he added 'quite a few children living at home with their own mother and father had bad times. We were clothed and fed, and we are who we are today thanks to Dr. Barnardo's FINIS CORONAT OPUS The deed justifies the end'. Frank Cooke |
Dave
Green was the first child migrant to fly to Canada. that was in 1948.
Recently he returned to England for the first time.