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1940-Current
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Various
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Travel
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Travel-Family
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This is an attempt to collate our Travel - mainly OS.
12 Dec 1963 to 13 Jan 1964 – Ellie and Geordie migrate from Bonny
bridge via Falkirk railway to London, Danny and ?? Healey; Southampton, by
Fairsky, via port Said, Suez, Aden, Freemantle, Port Adelaide, Port Melbourne
and Sydney
Dec 1974-Jan 1975 – GFE flew back to Scotland via South Africa,
visiting Ellie’s sister, Dana, her husband Bert and their 3 girls Vivian, Jan
and Jillian. Spent about 10 days at their Vanderbiljpark home near Vereeniging, about 45 minutes from Johannesburg airport. Flew to London staying with Mary and
John Tracey and ?? for a few days then
up to Scotland staying with brother, John, wife Anne and sons, John and
William. Flew back to stay with John and Mary then back to Sydney in time for
start of the teaching year at end of Jan 1975.
July 1998 – ECE and GFE fly
to UK and USA
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1940-Current
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Various
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Various
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Accommodation
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---1943 to ca 1948 GE- High St Bonny bridge
---1940 ECP- 162?? Mayfield Dr. At age 14 when thrown out by her
dad she stayed with her Craig Grandparents for about a year, until her uncle
Archie came back from Australia/NZ.
Ca 1948 to 16-08-196315 Gateside
Ave Bonny bridge until Ellie and I married
16-08-1963 to ca Sept 1963 Fleming Gardens Camelon with Maw’s
sister Marion, husband, Tom and their 3-4 kids
ca Sept 1963-ca 8 Dec 1963.
Tenement at ???? Falkirk. Stayed with Gordon and Bette Beattie, our best man
and Bridesmaid at their Falkirk Rd, Bonny bridge tenement one night and trained
from Falkirk to London and stayed 1-32 nights with Danny and ??? Healey before
training to Southampton to board the Fairsky on 12 Dec 1963, arriving in Sydney
on 13 Jan 1964.
Ca July 1986 to March 1992 I started as Principal at Tenterfield
College of TAFE, and later in ca July 1989 at Moree/Bogabilla. I had various
accommodation in both towns. At the same time Ellie, who became a North West
Regional Consultant for the Department of School Education, centred in
Tamworth, and I had two addresses there. First from approximately Feb 1987 to
about 1989 at ??? St, which we rented and then at 8a Blythe St, which we owned.
Our PO box was 1472 Tamworth NSW 2340.
Tenterfield Ca July to Oct 1986 I stayed at The Henry Parkes Motor
Inn, shifting across to The Telegraph Hotel/Motel until they needed the room
for a billiards room, sometime around 1987? then up from the Henry Parkes one
of the lower flats in the two storey block until I shifted across to Moree. At
Moree I stayed in the Spa Motel, then had a teacher’s housing flat at Dobie St.
Ellie got a national Curriculum
position with School Education and came back to Sydney sometime in 1991. I
followed in March 1992 on secondment as the Manager of the Director’s unit at
the new Southern Sydney Institute in Bankstown, until my 50th
birthday when I was appointed Head Of Studies at Bankstown 19-04-1993.
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1941
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7 Feb
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William Ellis
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Birth
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Brother Billy born at Rose
Cottage, Bonnyside Rd Bonnybridge, where Maw and Dad were renting a room from
spinster, Miss Mitchell and her bachelor brother, who between them owned the
Foundry just below the lower railway bridge in High Bonny bridge and close to
the Peeweep Pub, a favorite watering hole for the foundry workers around about.
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1943
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-----
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George Forrest Ellis
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Birth
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1943
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-------
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George Forrest Ellis
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Birth
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Born at 52 High St Bonnybridge at
home, at the back of Wull Smith’s butcher shop, during the final years of World
War Two.
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1946-7
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-------
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George Forrest Ellis
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Birthday present
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The first birthday present I
remember was the stamp and stamp pad that Wull smith gave to me on my birthday.
I had coveted this magical Metho smelling instrument of mystical qualities the
first time I had set eyes on Wull stamping receipts. It was my dream to get
one. The simple pleasures of life!
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1946
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24 Jan
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Wm Bastable
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Death
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Info on GGrandad’s headstone at
Logie cemetery, on my 2005 visit, where he’s buried along with all of the
Forrests and Bastables. Age 81. NB After his first wife, Ellen Reader died ca
1916; Granddad married a Mrs [Mary Ellen??] Coates. When he died he was buried
over the top of her in Edinburgh? Later the Bastable Family got him exhumed and
reburied at Logie
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1943-1947
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April to September??
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Ellis Family
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Home – 52 High St Bonnybridge
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Born in 1943 at 52 High St, as
was our wee brither’ Jock in 1945, along wae Billy, our older brither, born at
Rose Cottage, Bonnyside Rd we were happy in what was best described as a little
one bedroom ground floor flat. It’s front door was on to the High St coming in
next to Wull Smith the butcher’s shop door. His wife was a Templeton, whom I
was to know later on from Maw in Australia, was a relative of the Forrest’s
from Crawfordjohn. The story from Maw was that her Dad, Wull Forrest, sitting
in the bus one day[ca 1940’s], told Maw when Mrs Smith came on the bus, that
they were ‘a bad lot’, seemingly for some indiscretion in the dim past. But we
always patronised Wull’s shop. As my first memory of a birthday present –
probably my 4th birthday – was wanting a stamp and pad like what
Wull had which he used to stamp ‘ Wm Smith Butcher’, on the parcels of meat, I
was always appreciative of Wull giving up his stamp to me. Especially since
this was still rationing after the aftermath of wartime[1939-1945].
Sep. 3 – 1939 England
and France declared war on Germany after Poland invaded. Defeat
of Germany – 1945 May 8 - VE Day
• Victory
in Europe Day was celebrated by crowds in Picadilly Square, London, and Times
Square, New York City. Aug. 15 - Emperor surrender broadcast - VJ Day
The bedroom at the back had a window onto the
common square where Billy McKee’s folks lived through the pend from High St.
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1948?? SEE Valuation Rolls??
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Probably July
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Ellis Family
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Flit
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Flitting from 52 High St
Bonnybridge to 15 Gateside Ave Bonnybridge. I can’t really remember the actual
flit and can only remember growing up at Gateside. It was mainly a happy time
with lots of kids our own ages. Going ‘doon the Bonny’, a river down the back
of the Gateside houses on our side of the street. We were most fortunate in
having this ‘playground’, backed by the Black woods, the Golf Course and farms.
We were forever crossing the sewage pipe further down the river at the back of
the Simpsons place. Taking spuds from Maw’s ‘gairden’ and rhubarb stocks to eat
with the newspaper cone of sugar, that Maw always preached to us about getting
upset stomachs.
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1947-1955
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Probably July 47 to July 55
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George Forrest Ellis
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School
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My first memories of school were
not good. I started school from High St as I remember ‘greetin doon’ the Toll
and I was trying to get back to Maw at High St. it would have been in my first
days at infants, as I had a sticky penny toffee and was told by the teacher to
put it on the shelf and go and wash my hands. I couldn’t find the school
washhouse and decided to go home to wash my hands. Maw wasn’t home and there
was I at the Toll ‘greetin’. Maw seemingly smacked my backside and took me back
to school. That would have been when school started in July. We must have moved
down to the new housing scheme at Gateside that year!
Bonnybridge Infants and Primary
School, main St Bonny bridge, starting at age 4 1/2, til age 11. A wheen of
miserable school years getting belted by sadistic mentally deficient adults.
Bonnybridge
Public School
Bonnybridge Public School, Stirlingshire was established pre-1852. It
later became Bonnybridge Secondary
School, then became Bonnybridge Primary School in 1959. SOURCE: Falkirk
Museums Archives Education Records.
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1951
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First crush
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Mrs ??? a beautiful redhead
teacher, pregnant at the same time maw was having Linda. I burst out in tears
in her class as I thought she was gorgeous. And I think that’s when it dawned
on me that Maw was pregnant with sister Linda
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1951
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11 Dec
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Eliza Linda Forrest Ellis
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Birth
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Sister Linda born at Stirling
Royal infirmary. Linda was what was called, ‘a change of life baby’, Maw being
40 yr old. Linda married 06-06-1969 at Falkirk Registry Office[See Maw’s
photos] to Alec[Alexander Taylor of Limerigg/Slamannan SCT . Alec’s father,
Alexander was an ex-Royal Navy seaman,
married twice. Linda and Alec have two children, Keith, born 1970 and Eve born
23 April 1974 at Royal Infirmary Falkirk at 1355 hrs Registered in Slamannan
District #486 entry # 8 NHS # 48674008. [Info from Eve on her 2006 visit to
Australia] Eveie has a Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing from Glasgow
Caledonian University[GCU] 30 July 03, and a BSc in Multimedia Technology from
GCU and a Higher National Diploma in Multimedia Computing from Scottish
Qualifications Authority 14 June 2001.
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1953 for 1954?
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Possibly Nov 1953
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GFE
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Exams
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The 11 plus exam was the
delineator of separating the sheep from the goats. I went to Denny HS as I had
passed the exam. Brothers Billy and John went to the Technical HS as they
hadn’t passed as did sister Linda. More on this as I think it through, as both
John and Linda went to the new Denny HS which was both technical and academic.
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1954
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June-July 1954
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GFE
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2 weeks? School Camp
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1st girlfriend.
At Aberfoyle school Camp I met a
gorgeous redhead and remember kissing her under the table just before we broke
up to go home, promising to see her when I got to high school at Denny.
Subsequently, a love letter I wrote her and the girl Barron’s across the road
was discovered with this red-hot missive by her parents that she was going to
deliver at school for me. Maw and dad got the news and I got a tannin from dad
and disapproval from Maw that her wee genius would be interested in girls at 11
years of age!
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1955-1958
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July 55 to July 58
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George Forrest Ellis
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Denny High School
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Spent another wheen of miserable
years at educational ‘Borstal’ in Duke St School. We believed that it was named
after Duke St Prison in Glasgow – another tough place.
Denny High
School
Denny Public School, Stirlingshire was established pre-1828. It became
Denny High School c 1952 (but retained a Primary Department), and was re-named
Denny Primary School c 1959.
SOURCE: Falkirk Museums Archives
Education Records
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1953-1961
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GFE
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Work – paid and unpaid
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Paid work was the newspaper
rounds, the split sticks Don Alexander and myself did door to door as well as
the unpaid work for my grandad Forrest and his sons, Maw’s brothers, Wull and
Fred as well as mum’s sister, Mary’s man, Frank Slade, howking and hawking bags
of firewood and coal for sometimes a pittance and sometimes as a return favour
for free firewood or coal. It also supplemented Maw’s meagre income by us boys using
our home made bogies transporting firewood and coal from Grandad’s sawmill, the
¾ mile from Bonnybank to Gateside Avenue. Our bogies would probably have
carried about 3 Hundredweight, which we would do on almost a weekly basis. Plus
we’d go out with the men sawing down trees after the steam engines had pulled
them out by the roots. All hard work, sometimes for a piece. [sandwich]. Billy,
John and I were slave labour to my grandfather’s family. We did however receive
benefits in the firewood we got and did enjoy going away with the men pulling
down trees, old buildings and other things with the steam engines. So I can’t
grumble too much!
Yes, child labour was all the go
in Scotland, especially the Ellis’s.
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1958-1963
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14 July 1958 to 13 July 1963
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George starts work like the ‘devil’
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Apprenticeship
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Apprenticed as a Metal
Fabricator- Welder at Mitchell and Russell’s Iron Foundry up Bonnyside Rd in
Bonnybridge, was 5 years of shear drudgery earning a pittance! Starting wage
was sixpence under one pound per week. My finishing wage in 1963 when Ellie and
I migrated to Australia was 13 pound 19 shillings and threepence gross.
But I loved Tech, first at
Burnbank Foundry Trades Centre, down Bainsford Rd over the Forth and Clyde
canal bridge, turn left and into a dream come true – education by adults for
adults – heaven! Then at the new Falkirk Technical College down the Grangemouth
Rd next to the local Ice-rink where
Ellie used to skate with her pals and I had a go as well. No good!
Falkirk
Technical College
Stirlingshire Education Authority opened Falkirk Technical College in
1963. It was formed from the merger of the County Trades School, Burnbank
Foundry Trades Centre, Blackbraes Further Education Centre and the County
Mining Institute. There was a large-scale expansion in 1973. SOURCE: Falkirk
Museums Archives Education Records.
But it was hard for Maw as Dad
basically was sick all of my days that I could remember, from drinking and
smoking, like most Scotsmen. The women suffered. Maw put all three of us boys
through an apprenticeship, even though we could have got about 10 pounds per
week as 15 year olds as labourers. Our younger sister, Linda, was a little
better off, but still hard times! I augmented my pocket money, as my two
brothers, unlike most Scotsmen, and I gave all of our earnings to ‘Maw’. Most
Scotsmen only gave ‘board’, and the mother usually supplied the fags and drink
money. I did newspaper rounds sometimes mornings and afternoons as well as on
Sundays from about age 10 to 18. I was still doing the Sunday papers and
getting more on one day with tips and the pittance of ‘pay’ from auld ‘Wattie’
Gray, The Toll newsagent in Bonnybridge, than I was getting in a wage at my
apprenticeship. The money allowed me to keep up my ‘racy, pacey’ lifestyle with
Maw always subbing her laddies by buying our clothes and shoes and anything
else she could afford. I didn’t realise the word ‘poverty’, a word to be
ashamed off if you were in that condition, actually described the Ellis family.
It wasn’t til much later as a new migrant in Australia I knew then we had been
poor. A social condition I have fought against, for anyone
I can, including my family and myself. It was the reason for my
migration – little did I know it at the time as a young 11 year old, when I determined
to leave Scotland. My dear auld maw would have been heart-broken if she knew
what I was thinking then. The armed forces seemed like an escape, but migration
was a safer solution. Just painful, that you have to leave the country of your
birth to secure a better future, as we did. Though, Maw was a beneficiary of
Ellie and I migrating when in 1971 Dad died!
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1958-1963
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George Forrest Ellis
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Tech
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The results speak for themselves.
Ist in Sheetmetalwork for 4 years then 2nd in year five. I blame
getting serious about Ellie caused this serious deterioration in my learning
abilities. I loved Tech, At first in 1958; we started at Burnbank Foundry
Trades Centre at Bainsford, just left along the Canal bank over the Bainsford
Bridge down the road from Falkirk. The, I think it was in 1960 or 61 when the
new Falkirk tech was built down the Grangemouth Rd. We had great teachers.
Jonnie McClenahan was a part time teacher of Sheetmetalwork. Later Harry
Perston, a full timer and teacher-trained from Glasgow took over. We had Mr
Smith?? for English and Mr Henderson for Tech Drawing [and fake loch Ness
monster photos he had doctored - very believable]. Wally ?? was our metallurgy teacher who was married
to Chrissie from Mitchell and Russell offices? She was much admired by all and
sundry in the foundry! Wally was a weight lifter, wavy haired and Spanish
moustache. He looked a real Lothario, but was very nice. Big Nick Currie was
our Principal. He was not aware that he was ambidextrous in using both hands to
write on the board, until us lot pointed it out to him. He was strict. But like
all of them very fair. I never knew that education could be like this. I fell
in love with this newfound freedom after years at school where I was a wasted
space, getting belted – like all of us school kids did at the time. Tech was
brilliant, leading eventually to a career in NSW TAFE [Technical and Further
education from age 27 to age 62] but
that’s another story – see later. GEO do a story on your career!
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1958-1963 George meets with the ‘devil’ - Rock and
Roll Dancing
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When I started my apprenticeship,
I had to go to Tech one day per week and also study three nights per week, Then
in my 3rd year on I think I went 4 nights a week along with the one
day per week. At the same time I went dancing 3- 4 nights per week, sometimes
right after Tech. Dad used to bitterly complain about me ‘burning the candle at
both ends’. Just like he did going on with what I knew about him! I actually
thought I was burning the candle in the middle as well. Walking home from the
dancing at Whitburn, Armadale, Bathgate, and West Calder, which were all about
10 miles away from home at 15 Gateside Ave, Bonny bridge. Many’s a time I got
in at 4-5 am, put my boilersuit on and laid down on the carpet in front of the
fire in the lounge and Maw would wake me up, saying, ‘keep quiet George, cause
yir Faithir, didnae hear ye get in last night. That’s because I was that late
in the wee sma' hours of the morning, missing the last bus seeing a girl hame.
Dear auld Maw always looked after us boys and our sister Linda - protecting us
from Dad’s harsh reprimands.
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