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Record #5509

Name :: : Michael ELLIMAN (1951 - )
aka : Michael Linden
Father: :
Mother: :

BMD and other details

Date of Birth: : 28 Jun 1951
Marriage (1): :
Marriage (2): :
Date of Death: :

Abode (1) : Place of BirthEngland, Yorkshire, Cleveland

Abode (2) : Place of Death / Burial

Sailing Information

Date of Arrival: : Dec 1959
Country: : Australia
Ship: : Strathaird
Placement Family: :

Homes / Agencys

Institution (GB): :
Agency: : Fairbridge Homes

NotesA birth registration was found for Name: Michael R Elliman; Mother's Maiden Surname: Dewse; Date of Registration: Jul Aug Sep 1951; Registration district: Cleveland; Registration county: Yorkshire - North Riding; Volume Number: 1b; Page Number: 778.

In 1959, Michael Elliman, 11 (along with his brother, Christopher Elliman, 9) arrived at Sydney, Australia, with a small group of children from 38, Holland Villas Road, London, England, en route to Fairbridge Farm School, Molong, Australia.

Michael's name was changed to Michael Linden. He grew up in Elsternwick, Australia. He now resides in Melbourne, Australia.

Michael has written verse since his early teens but has rarely published, preferring to privilege the spoken over the printed word.

He studied at Melbourne University, obtaining degrees in English Language and Literature, and Linguistics. He now makes a living as a wholesale vegan baker punctuated with occasional forays into inner-city spoken word venues to keep in touch with his soul. Michael wrote a poem about his life and experiences on his website in 2006 (copyright Michael Linden):

By the time I was ten years old
the memory of my mother
had been almost obliterated.
Apart from the indisputable fact
that both my brother and myself
walked upon this world
and therefore must once have been born
it was if the woman who had given us life
had never existed.

My father ran his own Ministry of Propaganda:
any reference to our mother was expunged
from our past and present lives.
No photographs or documents existed
which might serve to remind us
that once we had enjoyed
the comfort of a mother's love.
And implicitly we knew
that we must not mention her
in any way.

At the end of 1959, my brother and I
embarked from the port of Tilbury in Kent
to sail for Australia aboard the SS Strathaird
of the Peninsular and Oriental Line.

Within the space of less than two years
our feeling of family had been whittled away
until finally we had become child migrants:
ostensibly orphans under the temporary
care and protection of the Fairbridge Society.

Just before Christmas the small group
of children with whom we were travelling
arrived in Melbourne and were then
transported overland to the Fairbridge Farm School
near Molong in New South Wales.

We only spent six months there
but for two young boys aged ten and eight
it might as well have been six years.

Decades later when the tragedy of child migration
had been rightly exposed for the abuse that it was
I was informed by a social worker assigned to
the task of counselling former child migrants
that my my brother's and my own case
did not qualify for assistance because unlike
others less fortunate we had only spent
a short period of time in the hell that was Fairbridge.

I wanted to tell her that after the first month of
systematic neglect, exploitation and endemic bullying
it no longer mattered how long it persisted
for by then the damage was already done
after which it became merely a matter of endurance
and the counting off of the months and years remaining
before the long-term inmates could legally claim the right to leave.

And I also wanted to tell her that although
I wasn't quite certain what damage the experience
had wrought on me, I knew that within two years
of our departure from that wretched place
my brother began exhibiting the first symptoms
of the mental illness that would see him
spend the rest of his life in institutions suffering
the ravages of ECT and chronic medication.

I am sure they would all say they were only doing
their job: the well-remunerated professionals,
the middle-class men and women who counselled my father
that he was doing right by us in giving us a better life
than we could ever hope to have if we were to stay in England:
they who would make decisions on our behalf that would affect us
for the rest of our lives.

And my father who likewise convinced himself
he was doing the best for us but who also
somewhere unacknowledged inside himself
saw our migration as a way of punishing my mother
for her transgressions and her crime
forever.

By the time I was ten years old
the memory of my mother
had been almost obliterated.

But I still remembered the day in 1957
when they took my brother and I
to say goodbye.

ContributorsCreated : 2009-03-11 09:03:52 / From original database

Last Updated : 2009-03-11 09:17:32 /

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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 12 349 Entries

ID	Name	DOB	Place of birth	Arrivals & Ships	Dest.	Agency	Family links
3858	ABBOTT, Emily Jane	1886	ENG, YKS, Guisborough	Jul 1903 : Dominion	CAN	Barnardos
3046	ABBOTT, Lily	1873	ENG, YKS, Leeds	Sep 1883 : Parisian	CAN	Maria Rye
3086	ABRAHAM, Dinah	1889	ENG, YKS, Hull	Jul 1897 : State of California	CAN	Waifs & Strays
3089	ABRAHAMS, Milly Esther	1889	ENG, YKS, Hull	Jul 1897 : State of California	CAN	Waifs & Strays
5397	ADAMSON, Doris	1907	ENG, YKS, Hull	Mar 1915 : Scandinavian	CAN	Barnardos
6852	AGGAS, Clara	1891	ENG, YKS, Leeds	Jul 1902 : New England	CAN	Barnardos
6851	AGGAS, Ethel	1889	ENG, YKS, Leeds	Jul 1902 : New England	CAN	Barnardos
6780	AGGAS, Herbert	1895	ENG, YKS, Leeds	Apr 1905 : Kensington	CAN	Barnardos
6854	AGGAS, John William	1893	ENG, YKS, Leeds	Apr 1905 : Kensington	CAN	Barnardos
10434	ALLENBY, Edward	1908	ENG, YKS, Kirkbymoorside	Aug 1924 : Doric	CAN	National Childrens Home
3463	ALLINSON, Herbert Arthur	1895	ENG, YKS, Harwood Dale	Mar 1906 : Dominion	CAN	Barnardos
3462	ALLINSON, Lancelot	1892	ENG, YKS, Harwood Dale	Jul 1903 : Dominion	CAN	Barnardos	suffolkmawther
4456	ANDERSON, Ethel Rows	1884	ENG, YKS, Normanby	Aug 1890 : Parisian	CAN	Maria Rye
3807	ANDREWS, Vernard Reginald	1897	ENG, YKS, Kingston Upon Hull	Mar 1908 : Dominion	CAN	Barnardos
13294	ANGUS, Agnes Crawford	1892	ENG, YKS, Ecclesall Bierlow	Jul 1905 : Corinthian	CAN	Quarriers
13293	ANGUS, Jennie Anderson	1893	ENG, YKS, Ecclesall Bierlow	Jul 1905 : Corinthian	CAN	Quarriers
5278	ARDINGTON, Thomas	1914	ENG, YKS, Driffield	Mar 1930 : Baltic	CAN	Waifs & Strays
8614	ARGENT, Joseph	1892	ENG, YKS, Sheffield	Mar 1909 : Canada	CAN	National Childrens Home	Lyn 8
23425	ARUNDEL, Eleanor Chapman	1892	ENG, YKS, Swinton, near Rotherham	Jun 1907 : Tunisian	CAN	Mrs. Mooney\'s
23426	ARUNDEL, Elsie Mary	1895	ENG, YKS, Doncaster	Jun 1907 : Tunisian	CAN	Mrs. Mooney\'s
5754	ASHBURNE, Alfred	1892	ENG, YKS, Dewsbury	May 1907 : Carthaginian	CAN	Middlemore
23815	ASHER, Thomas	1889	ENG, YKS, Sheffield	Aug 1905 : Dominion	CAN	Barnardos
15686	ASHFORD, Alice Carter	1908	ENG, YKS, Leeds	Sep 1924 : Melita	CAN	Barnardos
5361	ATKINSON, Thos	1910	ENG, YKS, Keighley	Aug 1925 : Montnairn	CAN	National Childrens Home
5049	BAKER, David	1914	ENG, YKS, Leeds	Mar 1930 : Duchess of Richmond	CAN	Barnardos
4996	BARNER, John	1916	ENG, YKS, York	Sep 1930 : Duchess of Bedford	CAN	Barnardos
4733	BARRACLOUGH, Dorothy D.	1918	ENG, YKS, Leeds	1932 : - Unknown -	AUS	Barnardos
4732	BARRACLOUGH, George Edward	1920	ENG, YKS, Scarborough	Jul 1930 : Balranald	AUS	Barnardos
4103	BARRETT, Maud	1888	ENG, YKS, Skipton	Aug 1901 : Parisian	CAN	Barnardos
12080	BATTERS, Thomas Edward	1917	ENG, YKS, Halifax	May 1928 : Ballarat	AUS	Fairbridge Homes
ID	Name	DOB	Place of birth	Arrivals & Ships	Dest.	Agency	Family links

Page: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 349 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

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