The inspiring true story of a boy from the slums
The Long Way Home is the story of Ronnie Sabin (above right, with his brothers, Joey and Eddie) who at the age of 11 was part of a street gang, living in the slums of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the UK. In 1950, Ronnie and his brothers were rounded up by the authorities, made wards of the court, and sent to the Fairbridge Farm School, in NSW Australia, as child migrants. It would be 55 years before Ronnie would finally return to the UK and be reunited with his family. This gut-wrenching, yet often hilarious story given Ronnie’s ‘hard case’ character, tells the positive side of the children migrant story, with Ronnie crediting his upbringing at the farm school in Australia for turning his life around.
The book covers his early childhood in the slums of Newcastle upon Tyne, the six years he spend as a child migrant at Fairbridge Farm School, the years he spent getting in and out of scrapes as a shearer, brickie and labourer in Australia and New Zealand, and the years after he married and settled in Christchurch, New Zealand, where he owned and ran a thriving butchery and meat processing business.
Although Ronnie credits his upbringing at Fairbridge and the discipline instilled by its commanding principal Frederick Woods, for turning his life around and enabling him to make a success of it, Ronnie’s wild spirit and unique character were never fully tamed, as some of the riotous stories in the book attest.
The Long Way Home is available from Amazon in eBook and paperback editions
Extract from The Long Way Home
The new house was certainly an improvement on the dwellings but there was no more money for food or heating. With empty bellies and even less supervision than before, our wild, destructive behaviour continued to spiral out of control. As we grew older, stealing wasn’t enough to keep us amused and we became hell-bent on vandalism as well. The local council tried to build a block of pre-fab houses in our street in which to accommodate the poor and we thought that it was great sport to try and demolish them as quickly as they were being built. We trashed them, breaking all the windows, smashing the toilet pans and ripping off the doors and cupboards.
We simply had no respect for people or their property and were known as the most destructive kids in the district. By this time we had also built quite a reputation with the local police who questioned us regularly about all manner of misdemeanours. Eddie was developing a glib tongue and as the eldest, he had become our spokesman although we were all adept little liars. Eventually, in 1950, the police and local authorities had had enough. The worst children, which included the three of us Sabin boys, were rounded up and declared Wards of the Court.
The details of what happened next are still unclear. It is probable that the powers-that-be decided it would be good for the whole of the country if we were transported to the colonies under the Child Migrant Scheme, and that they discussed the possibility of us being assessed by the Fairbridge Organisation with our mother. It has been difficult to get a clear picture of what happened next as our mother told family members several different versions of events over the years. One story was that our father turned up out of the blue when she was at work and that he convinced our grandmother to sign the papers that would allow us to be sent to Australia. She said:
“I think he brainwashed me mum. He turned up with lots of photographs of Australia and told her he was going to train racehorses and that the boys were going to be with him. He convinced her that they would be better off with him. He was a regimental sergeant major and a good talker. I think he talked her over. Me older sister Betty agreed with me mum as well and thought it would be better for the boys. They didn’t know the life I had before and there was no way I wanted them to have that life again. There was a bit of a dispute between me and me mum. I wasn’t there when she signed the papers in my name because I was at work. I tried to go to court to keep the boys in England but lost the case and the boys were sent anyway. As far as I knew their father had gone to Australia too.”
We have no recollection of our father apart from his visit in 1943 and by this time we had been led to believe that he was dead, so it is an unlikely explanation. Whatever the case, we were duly assessed by the Fairbridge Organisation which consisted of a medical examination and an IQ test. The medical comprised a urine test and we were all asked to pee in a bottle. Eddie and Joey had some difficulty with this, but I had no problem at all, so I poured a bit of mine into each of their bottles and we were all declared healthy. For the IQ test we were shown a picture of a bicycle with the front wheel missing then a separate drawing of a wheel. We had to tell the assessors what was needed to complete the drawing of the bicycle and budding Einsteins that we were, the three of us passed.
With a clean bill of health and being boys of undoubted intelligence, the Fairbridge Organisation was willing to take us on.
View images from the Australian/New Zealand book launches
MEDIA
The Press (Christchurch, New Zealand) feature story READ HERE
Essence magazine (North Canterbury, New Zealand) story READ HERE
Essence magazine social pics from book launch VIEW HERE
Central Western Daily (Orange, NSW Australia) newspaper article READ HERE
Central Western Daily follow up story after Australian launch READ HERE
Ronnie and Jo were interviewed by Angela Owens on ABC Radio Central West (Orange) and by 2bs radio, Bathurst, NSW Australia (audio no longer available).
