Sir, – I have been doing research on my father, Walter Horace Millar who was one of the Clifden orphans who were sent to Australia after the burning down of their orphanage, and I came across your article (Michael Parsons, An Irishman’s Diary, January 9th). On the question of “What kind of lives did they lead and did they find happiness – let alone make any fortunes”, I thought maybe you would be interested in the life of at least one of these children.
Walter was sent to “Cramby”, a Sheep Station at Mungindi, Queensland, Australia, to live with a family called Murphy. He may have been about 13 years at the time. They were very kind and treated him as one of the family, and one of the sons became his best friend. He learnt how to shear sheep. When the war began, he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. He spent some years in the air force, and I was told that, while being on guard duty during all weathers, he contracted tuberculosis, so would have been discharged.
He was given hope of a cure as there was a new treatment being used at that time, and as he had met my mother, Olive May Dillon (a nurse), who was visiting a friend in hospital, felt that they both had a future if they got married. I, (Elaine Patricia Millar) was born on September 22nd, 1947 and unfortunately, by this time, my father’s tuberculosis had worsened and he was spending much time in and out of the Greenslopes Repatriation Hospital, Brisbane. He passed away in 1952 when I was five years of age.
Up till then, he had a happy life. At 19 years, I married Robert Frank White in 1967 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. We have had six children and in the 1980s, went gold prospecting in Victoria, and Western Australia. (We had three children at the time). My husband found a 62oz gold nugget plus many others and we had many enjoyable years travelling around Australia. Even though we did not find a “fortune” as such, I thought it was interesting enough to mention it as part of my father’s ancestry.
I am still looking for more information about my father, and your article was helpful because I learnt the ship’s name that he travelled to Australia on, and also the name of the orphanage (Burnside) that he would have been sent to. – Yours, etc,