大象传媒

Frank spent his early childhood in Leeds. The early death of his mother led to him becoming one of tens of thousands of British children who were shipped abroad as young immigrants. But the experience has left deep emotional scars...

Frank Reddington had a happy childhood in Leeds, but he also remembers that his family was poor. His mother died when he was 3 and his father was left with three sons and a daughter to bring up alone.

So at the age of 9 Frank was taken into care and it was decided that Frank and his brother would be sent to Australia to start a new life. Frank remembers arriving at Tilbury docks in Essex and his father telling him to be a good boy. He says, "When I turned around to see where he was, he was gone".

On arrival in Australia, Frank was taken to what looked like a big castle, but was in fact a former POW camp for German soldiers. Frank describes it as "the scariest place you could ever image living in". It was in fact a boys' home run by Presbyterians.

But worst was to come for Frank. From the age of 9 to 14, he was subject to both physical and sexual abuse which has left deep emotional scars. At the age of 14, Frank was sent to work, in what he calls "a slave labour job". He lived in a tin shed on a farm and was required to work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. In the end, at the age of 16, Frank ran away to find the brother who had been sent to Australia with him.

Frank doesn't blame his father for what happened to him. He'd like to find his personal file from the Department of Social Services so that he could find out who was ultimately responsible for sending him to Australia.

Frank is 59 now and has been happily married to Diane for 40 years. They have 3 sons and 7 grandchildren. But in 1996, he felt an overwhelming need to find the family he'd been forced to leave behind in the UK. He sold his house and car to finance his search for his Yorkshire family. He has so far found his half-brother Stephen who still lives in Leeds, but unfortunately, Frank's father died in 1993.