There was talk that Cliff was bit of a handful at the age of 5, but with losing one parent and the other having to deal with estate issues and grief it is hard to imagine anyone having much time for a young boy. A local policeman took a shinning to Cliff, we are to believe he spent about 3 months with him and he thought about adoption, this fell through lucky for us. After Maud couldn’t take care of him anymore he was shipped off to the Church of England boy’s home at Carlingford Sydney.
The Church of England Children's Home at Carlingford, which was run under the auspices of the Anglican Church, but was apparently run by a separate body. Boys grew up there, and went to the local school. They weren't segregated from the community they were part of the community. Carlingford was the "Home" area; there was the Church of England Boys' Home, and further down
Pennant Hills Road before you get to Bettington Road there was the Church of England Girls' Home which is now an American International School. Those girls from there used to go to the same school as the boys, which was Carlingford District Rural School (now Carlingford Public School on Marsden Rd The boys and girls were part of the community, they didn't have their own church, and went to the local church, St Paul's Church, Carlingford, on what was then Church Street, but is now Marsden Road.). Buckland was built by Sir Thomas Buckland, A beautiful big old home. It had 40 boys there. Thirty were in one huge dormitory and when you got to be a big boy you moved out onto the balcony where there was only ten. Now the people that ran the organization, the homes, were a Mr. and Mrs. Hill. He took over them, when you got older boys you had Mr. Hill who was in charge. He was in charge of the whole village, but he took personal responsibility for boys as they got older, so they did not have a lady staff looking after them. He was always referred to as "Sir". Mrs. Hill was always referred to as the "Matron". She dressed like a Matron. She had the most beautiful English speaking voice, like Dame Sybil Thorndike. She dressed in a Matron's uniform - veil and white thing, the lot.
Cold showers were part of life at the boy’s home; they had to have a cold shower every morning, winter or summer. There was hot water but they didn't use it. No one seemed to get sick. Mr. Hill would stand of a morning at the entrance to the bathroom, which had about six or so showers and your towels were hanging up on hooks in the bathroom, Dormitory by dormitory.
There were three dormitories, each had ten beds in it and it was Dormitory One first. You all had to hop in and have your shower and just put your towel and pants on and grab your towel. And it might be a bitterly cold morning, so you'd walk past Mr. Hill and he'd say "Good Morning". He'd always call you by name and you'd always call him back by "Sir". And you had your shower. He never faced the showers. He always had his back to the showers. They were side-on, he was back here, and the showers were over there. Bitterly cold morning... oh, boys will be boys. They used to race in and grab their towel, drop their pyjama pants and race over to the shower, put their hand in the shower, wet their head and race out again... it was too cold for the shower. You couldn't fool Mr. Hill. As you walked past him he'd say "Now go back and have a shower". They never worked out how he knew, but he always caught you, so you didn't bother to try in the end.
A lot of the boys left the Homes... one parent, two parents, whatever family were able to take them back home again. A lot of them remained there. The home would help find them jobs.
There were two cottages that the boys lived in there was Noller, which held 30 boys. There was a staff member in charge. Most of them were single, older women. She had her own quarters in that cottage and the boys in dormitories, seven and eight to each dormitory. You stayed in that one until you were probably about eight, and then you moved up to a cottage called Victory. Miss Upton was the staff member in charge of Noller. You went up to Victory where Miss Thornton was the staff member, the House Mother, for want of a better term, although the boys didn’t call her that. You were there until you were about 11 or 12, and then you moved up to Buckland. Both Noller and Buckland are still there to this day.
Christian values were taught, sure but other than that Religion wasn’t pushed down the boys throats at all. They were expected to say their prayers at night time. But on a bitterly cold night you’d often slip into bed quick and shut your eyes, kid you were asleep. They wouldn’t wake you up to say them.
One memory Cliff had of the boys home was the watered down peanut butter which he said resembled muddy water on your bread. You wouldn’t have peanut butter in a boy’s home nowadays!
Spending money would be sent to Cliff while at the home but it was always minus the postage fee.
With help from the boy’s home he obtained his first job at Hardy Brothers Jewelers in
Castlereagh Street Sydney. Cliff soon left the home to live with his half sister in law Eliza who was married to Herbert at Petersham.
“On the eve of Christmas 1922, five influential businessmen decided to pool their resources and become Santa Claus for a large group of orphaned children at the Carlingford Boys Home. The men were so overwhelmed that such a simple gesture could bring such joy they resolved to alleviate the suffering of poverty wherever possible. In those early years the name "Smith" was officially adopted to enable the businessmen to carry out their work anonymously. The Smith Family is a national, independent, social enterprise that helps unlock opportunities for disadvantaged children and their families through education.”
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| last childhood photo of Cliff |
