Sir, – By sheer chance, I decided to Google my father’s name, John Longmore, as I am tracing my family tree. To my surprise after years of no success your story came up (“Names of boys burned out of care home released”, Home News, February 20th) and my father’s name was there.
We know 11 of the boys’ names listed and your story confirms for the first time from an Irish source what happened to these young boys. I can inform you that the benefactor’s name was Andrew Reid who arranged for these boys to go to Burnside Homes at Parramatta, NSW, Australia. Mr Reid sponsored these boys throughout their life at Burnside, with my father telling me that they often stayed on Mr Reid’s property at Yass, NSW, Australia. The boys said they had a happy life at Burnside. Miss White (a matron who you reported had accompanied the boys from England) was with them at Burnside also. I remember meeting Miss White when I was a young child. When she left Burnside she resided in Toongabbie (not far from Parramatta) and the boys as they grew older used to visit her. She was like a mother to them.
Our family attended the Burnside Reunion on October 15th, 2011 where they had the homes open for inspection and they have been kept in excellent order. The home Mr Reid had built for these boys was of a very high standard.
As the men married and had families they tried to trace their own parents – some were successful, some were not. My father was one of the unsuccessful ones – there was always this brick wall we would come up against. My sister even tried when she was in Ireland in 1990.
My father told us he remembered the boat being fired at as they sailed out of the harbour and he always said his religion was the Church of Ireland before he came to Australia. He was employed over the years as a gardener, waterside worker and transport driver. He enlisted in the Australian army during the second World War with Thomas Metcalf. John Longmore died on June 6th, 1987 and is survived by his wife, Doreen, daughters Maureen and Kathleen, two grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
These men were like brothers to each other, always looking out for each other and they kept in contact with each other until they died. Our families still keep in contact with most of them nowadays.
We will be sending copies of your article to their families: Metcalf, Farrell and Shaw.
My family are very grateful for your article today and thank God for guiding my fingers to Google today. – Yours, etc,