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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 :

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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 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 1291 Entries        
IDNameDOBPlace of birthArrivals & ShipsDest.AgencyFamily links
27034 ABBOTT, Franz Arnold1918ENG, DEV Oct 1928 : Beltana AUS Fairbridge Homes  
27033 ABBOTT, Harry Franz1917ENG, MDX, Hendon Oct 1928 : Beltana AUS Fairbridge Homes  
5493 ACOL, John1920ENG, LND, Hampstead Nov 1932 : Balranald AUS Fairbridge Homes  
21189 ADAMS, William1916ENG, WAR, Aston Jan 1927 : Ballarat AUS Fairbridge Homes  
27035 ALDER, John Harkis1914ENG, OXF Oct 1928 : Beltana AUS Fairbridge Homes  
20888 ALDERSON, Arthur1912ENG, DUR Jan 1924 : Baradine AUS Fairbridge Homes  
26974 ALEXANDER, Reginald Gordon1917ENG, LAN, West Derby Jan 1928 : Barrabool AUS Fairbridge Homes  
12114 ALLEN, Clifford John1914GBG,     Dec 1928 : Bendigo AUS Fairbridge Homes  
26426 ALLEN, Walter Bevis1901ENG, SRY, Kingston Jul 1913 : Belgic AUS Fairbridge Homes  
5210 ALSOP, Benjamin H.1929ENG, DUR, Darlington Sep 1935 : Duchess of Atholl CAN Fairbridge Homes  
5212 ALSOP, James 1927ENG, DUR, Darlington Sep 1935 : Duchess of Atholl CAN Fairbridge Homes  
5211 ALSOP, Norman Frederick1923ENG, DUR, Dunsdale Sep 1935 : Duchess of Atholl CAN Fairbridge Homes  
25270 AMOTT, James1913ENG, LND, Lambeth Feb 1924 : Euripides AUS Fairbridge Homes  
25136 ANDERSON, Muriel Helen1921ENG, ESS, West Ham Oct 1930 : Barrabool AUS Fairbridge Homes  
5494 ANDERSON, Robert1918ENG, LND, Lambeth Oct 1930 : Barrabool AUS Fairbridge Homes  
25616 ANDREWS, Gwendoline1914 Feb 1924 : Euripides AUS Fairbridge Homes  
25137 ANDREWS, Herbert George1912ENG, SSX Feb 1924 : Euripides AUS Fairbridge Homes  
25138 ANKCORN, Dennis George1925ENG, WAR, Birmingham Jan 1937 : Oronsay AUS Fairbridge Homes  
25139 ANKCORN, Emma Dorothy1922ENG, WAR, Birmingham Feb 1934 : Jervis Bay AUS Fairbridge Homes  
8780 ANNETTS, Raymond Douglas1917ENG, LND, Lambeth Mar 1928 : Benalla AUS Fairbridge Homes  
5413 ANSELL, Maurice George1926ENG, OXF, Banbury Nov 1938 : Themistocles AUS Fairbridge Homes  
5404 ANSELL, Peter Albert John1928ENG, OXF, Banbury Nov 1938 : Themistocles AUS Fairbridge Homes  
23615 APPLEFORD, Harry 1921ENG, BRK, Reading May 1933 : Otranto AUS Fairbridge Homes  
27036 APPLEGATE, Sidney Thomas1916ENG, LND, Hackney Oct 1928 : Beltana AUS Fairbridge Homes  
25954 ARMSTRONG, Benjamin John Emmerson1918ENG, HAM, Hartley Wintney Nov 1929 : Ballarat AUS Fairbridge Homes splmum , Pinjarra1929  
21149 ARMSTRONG, John Kenneth1915ENG,     Aug 1921 : Themistocles AUS Fairbridge Homes  
5496 ARNOTT, Anthony Robert1923ENG, DUR, Darlington May 1934 : Ballarat AUS Fairbridge Homes  
5497 ARNOTT, Michael1925ENG, DUR, Darlington May 1934 : Ballarat AUS Fairbridge Homes  
25271 ARTHUR, Frederick1913ENG, SRY, Kingston Feb 1924 : Euripides AUS Fairbridge Homes  
27391 ARTHUR, James Lafferty1940ENG,     Jan 1949 : Ormonde AUS Fairbridge Homes  
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 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 1291 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