HOME      FORUM      HELP      SEARCH      
News : The Surname Interests Table (SIT), the Database for Special Interests Groups (DBSIG) and Ancestral Anniversaries
are now "mobile friendlier" more here ...
The RootsChat Reference Library

RootsChat.Com »  RootsChat Reference Library »   Database for Special Interest Groups (DBSIG) »   British Home Children : Quick Search

Record #5554
Name :
: Lionel J. PEARCE (1920 - 1981)


Father
:
Mother
:
BMD and other details
Date of Birth
: 1920 (approx.)

Marriage (1)
:
Marriage (2)
:

Date of Death
: 1981
Abode (1) : Place of BirthEngland, Lancashire
Abode (2) : Place of Death / BurialAustralia
Sailing Information
Date of Arrival
: Nov 1932
Country
: Australia

Ship
: Balranald

Placement Family
:
Homes / Agencys
Institution (GB)
:

Agency
: Fairbridge Homes
NotesIn 1932, Lionel J. Pearce, 12, arrived at Fremantle, Australia, in a group of 27 children from the Child Emigration Society, The Strand, London, England, and en route to Fairbridge Farm School, Pinjarra, Australia.

Lionel told the story of his early life in England and at Fairbridge in his memoir, Feathers of the Snow Angel: Memroies of a Child in Exile. It was reviewed by Bron Sibree:

"Lionel Pearce begins his poignant memoir with a series of evocative images, childhood memories that flower fleetingly on the page as universal images of warmth and familiarity, carefully distilled into potent tools of inquiry.

'I see them,' he writes of a china washbasin and a water jug, 'through the bars of the cot, the essentials of civilisation, passed from generation to generation.'

Peering through these bars, Pearce opens a brief vista of life in early 1920s Lancashire as he sets the tone for a heart-rending journey into the legacy of childhood grief and cruelty. For these seemingly innocent cot bars are a metaphor for what years later is to become Pearce's personal prison -- a powerful invisible jail of inadequacy, loneliness, class-consciousness and shame.

Writing this memoir for Pearce, a retired teacher of zoology and botany and father of five, part of a life-long process of trying to deal with the effects of a painful and traumatic childhood. In the epilogue, written not long before he died at the age of 81, he reveals that 'through all the years I could never forget the sorrows of my early life.'

Yet even the honesty of this sentence cannot prepare you for the emotionaly intensity of Feathers of the Snow Angel. Pearce was five when his mother died, and the book takes its title from his fragmented memory of his mother's death. Her cold body lying in a feather bed with rumpled white sheets left on the child an impression of snow and feathers that was to haunt him for the rest of his life.

The illegitimate son of a Lancashire coalminer, Pearce spent his early years in the care of his mother, living in a household of stern, God-fearing aunts. His father, a shy awkward visitor, unwelcome in the home of his mother's family, is a caring but shadowy figure in Pearce's treasure trove of memories -- a child's universe flavoured with the taste of stale bread puddings and fearsome tales of chimney sweeps and tinkers.

Fragmentary images of his mother sewing, rolling pastry or toiling over a copper, kaleidoscope into memories of her ostracism and shame.

It is is the child Pearce who tells this story. His burgeoning class-consciousness is coloured by hunger and loneliness after his mother's death when he is taken to live with an aunt.

He becomes a desperate and hungry five-year-old roaming the streets searching for his mother, begging for pennies or food. Darkest of all these images are those of the priestly, black-robed visitors, who frequent the house and who eventually come to spirit the unwitting boy away to a convent in London to be put up for adoption.

It is the child's perspective, too, that lends such authority to Feathers of the Snow Angel and such palpable grief to its narration. Pearce is again wrenched away from a foster family he comes to love and placed into the care of a well-to-do family whose attitudes to child-rearing reinforce his self-consciousness, shame and isolation.

He is not yet eight when he receives the first of many beatings by his stepfather, for stealing chocolate.

By the time he is packed off to Fairbridge Farm in Western Australia at the age of 12, his life with his adoptive family is little more than a succession of beatings and small humiliations.

Yet, Feathers of the Snow Angel is also coloured by a curiosity and intelligence that triumphs over shame and isolation to seek elevation in books and in the beauty of nature. He recalls his years as an indentured farm labourer at Fairbridge with characteristic honesty. By this time, no amount of kindliness could penetrate the armour of self-consciousness and shame.

Pearce was to enjoy happiness with his own children, but never wrote of his later life. For him, writing was a process of trying to deal with teh scars of those earlier years. Even as an adult he was, as he reveals in the epilogue, 'Still grieving for my mother. I never believed she was dead.'" 
ContributorsCreated : 2009-03-14 15:31:47 / From original database

Last Updated :

Family History ResearchersRootsChatters with family connections to Lionel J. PEARCE:



 
Readers Comments

Surnames starting with:   A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z  30 Entries        
Page: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 744 Entries        
IDNameDOBPlace of birthArrivals & ShipsDest.AgencyFamily links
3004 AARON, Alfred Robert1899ENG, LAN, West Derby, Liverpool Mar 1911 : Sicilian CAN Barnardos  
3003 AARON, John Richard1895ENG, LAN, West Derby, Liverpool Mar 1911 : Sicilian CAN Barnardos  
3014 ABBOTT, Adelaide1872ENG, LAN, Manchester Jul 1876 : Sardinian CAN MacPherson Homes  
3017 ABBOTT, Alexander1879ENG, LAN, Blackburn May 1889 : Polynesian CAN Salford Catholic Protection and Rescue Society  
3018 ABBOTT, John William1877ENG, LAN, Manchester May 1889 : Polynesian CAN Salford Catholic Protection and Rescue Society  
3092 ABRAHAMS, Amy1892ENG, LAN, Toxteth Park Mar 1897 : Numidian CAN Louisa Birt  
3097 ABRAHAMS, Percy1890ENG, LAN, Toxteth Park Mar 1897 : Numidian CAN Louisa Birt  
3121 ACKERLEY, John1888ENG, LAN, Liverpool May 1900 : Vancouver CAN Liverpool Sheltering Home  
3122 ACKERLEY, Thomas William1886ENG, LAN, Liverpool May 1900 : Vancouver CAN Liverpool Sheltering Home  
3163 ADAIR, Millicent1880ENG, LAN, Liverpool Jul 1897 : Parisian CAN Louisa Birt  
13137 ADAMSON, Arthur1893ENG, LAN, Bury May 1905 : Victorian CAN Maria Rye  
8819 ADAMSON, John 1891ENG, LAN, Oldham May 1905 : Victorian CAN Maria Rye  
9868 ADAMSON, John1897ENG, LAN, Liverpool Jun 1906 : Victorian CAN Louisa Birt  
3970 ADDISON, Florence1893ENG, LAN, Liverpool May 1908 : Corsican CAN Louisa Birt  
12851 ADDISON, Gertrude1886ENG, LAN, Manchester May 1899 : Dominion CAN Marchmont Homes (now Barnardos)  
9143 ADDY, Albert William H.1893ENG, LAN, Liverpool Feb 1907 : Victorian CAN Louisa Birt  
17080 ADGEY, Robert Hugh1885ENG, LAN, Liverpool Mar 1902 : Dominion CAN Louisa Birt  
8820 AINDOW, Albert Edward1894ENG, LAN, Formby Jun 1911 : Virginian CAN Sailing Alone  
5658 AINSWORTH, Ellen 1895ENG, LAN, Liverpool Oct 1906 : Dominion CAN Barnardos  
5662 AINSWORTH, Mary1896ENG, LAN, Liverpool Oct 1906 : Dominion CAN Barnardos  
2852 AIRD, Arthur1895ENG, LAN Apr 1911 : Tunisian CAN MacPherson Homes  
17052 ALDRED, Eric Woodman1894ENG, LAN, Manchester  Apr 1910 : Victorian CAN MacPherson Homes  
7961 ALEXANDER, George1913ENG, LAN, Fleetwood Apr 1930 : Letitia CAN Church Army  
26974 ALEXANDER, Reginald Gordon1917ENG, LAN, West Derby Jan 1928 : Barrabool AUS Fairbridge Homes  
5048 ALLAN, Robert 1914ENG, LAN, Liverpool Mar 1930 : Duchess of Richmond CAN Barnardos  
2735 ALLEN, Harry Edward1898ENG, LAN Jul 1908 : Canada CAN National Childrens Home  
20154 ALLEY, Clara Celia1894ENG, LAN, Liverpool May 1911 : Corsican CAN Louisa Birt  
20159 ALLEY, Emma1891ENG, LAN, Liverpool May 1911 : Corsican CAN Louisa Birt  
6312 ALLEY, Henry Herbert1896ENG, LAN, Liverpool May 1910 : Corsican CAN Louisa Birt  
4706 ALMOND, Elizabeth1879ENG, LAN, Newton, Manchester May 1891 : Oregon CAN Boys and Girls Refuge (Manchester)  
IDNameDOBPlace of birthArrivals & ShipsDest.AgencyFamily links
Page: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 744 Entries        
Surnames starting with:   A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z  30 Entries