Patrick Covell Finds His Brother
Valma Granich, Counsellor at CBERSS talks to Patrick Covell - an ex-resident of Castledare, Clontarf, and Tardun who arrived in Australia as a child migrant aged seven, on 16 August 1938. Patrick recounts his recent reunion with brother Frank (who lives in Leeds, England). The brothers had been separated for 64 years.
It was only when he had been given the all clear by his doctors after major surgery in mid-1997 that Patrick Covell decided to complete the last stage of a quest to reunite with a brother that he had been separated from at the age of three.
The process began at the instigation of Patrick's wife Joyce and only child Taryn, in 1994.
"Whenever Joyce and I talked about relations, I would say "don't dwell on the past, think of the future"."
This philosophy served him very well in both his personal and business life ... but as his daughter Taryn approached marriage and contemplated having a family of her own, Patrick came to understand that she had a right to know her history on the paternal side and gave the go-ahead to make contact with Sister Tania at the Catholic Migration Centre in Perth.
By 1996 Sister Tania (through the agency of Michael Lyons of the Catholic Child Welfare Council in Britain) had found a Frank Beale whom they were pretty certain was Patrick's brother.
What complicated the search was the fact that Patrick's suspected brother Frank (who was adopted at the age of 10 by his father's sister and her husband) had taken the adopting family's surname of Beale.
Tragic Beginnings
The separation of the two brothers came about as a result of a family tragedy. Patrick was only three, his brother Frank ten, when their mother was murdered in July 1934.
Only eighteen months earlier their father died in an accident as he cycled to work. An aunt and uncle who had a son close to the age of older brother Frank agreed to adopt him.
Patrick, on the other hand, was placed in care at Nazareth House, Hammersmith and then moved to Southampton where he lived until he migrated to Australia at the age of seven.
Unlike a number of other child migrants, Patrick was a genuine orphan.
From Southampton to Australia
Patrick recalls the trip from England to Australia as an adventure.
"We had loads of fun. I remember the natives diving for coins when the boat docked at Ceylon, and travelling through the Suez Canal and across the Dead Sea.
We arrived at Fremantle Wharf on the 16th August 1938 and were greeted by the Clontarf Boys' Band. Our first meal in Australia was scrambled eggs served in huge baking trays and cut into big squares."
Changes in a new home
Those early years in Australia were spent in Castledare and Clontarf. In 1942 when Clontarf was taken over by the RAAF as part of the war effort, the boys were evacuated to Tardun which at the time only had 27 residents. Virtually overnight with the addition of 101 boys from Clontarf and others from the Christian Brothers in Geraldton, the numbers swelled to around 200.
It took over a week to unload the train of livestock and other chattels that had been evacuated from Clontarf along with the boys.
Patrick still marvels at how eight brothers and three nuns managed to cope with such an unexpected domestic invasion during the war years when building and other resources were in such short supply.
News from a long-lost brother
In September 1997, Patrick wrote Frank a letter care of Catholic Child Welfare Council in London. He describes this as a rather unnerving time as he had to prepare for the posibility that his brother might not choose to respond.
His misgivings proved unfounded when received a card from Frank just before Christmas last year. This was followed by an hour long telephone conversation on Christmas Day.
Patrick, who describes himself as not usually an emotional person said I broke down, fell to pieces, and went to the bedroom and sobbed my heart out.
The news spreads
As news of Patrick's new-found family connection spread around the Geraldton district where he had lived and worked most of his life, he was, in his words, flooded with phone calls from friends and others throughout WA who didn't even know him, but were touched by his story. A former employee even offered to pay for Patrick's flight across to England or his brother's fare to Australia.
An offer from an unexpected source
Early this year, out of the blue, Patrick received a call from a producer of Channel 9's Sixty Minutes program. In exchange from exclusive rights to the story, 60 Minutes offered him an all-expenses paid return trip to England to meet his brother. Patrick agreed but only on the proviso that his wife and daughter went along with him.
Within a short time the three of them were Britain-bound.
"Each of the 60 Minutes' crew was absolutely fantastic to us. They were attentive in every way, but not at all intrusive."
Both Patrick and his wife Joyce remarked that at the initial meeting with Frank, which was facilitated (and filmed) by 60 Minutes' reporter Jeff McMullen, neither of them were even aware of the presence of the cameras.
"It was all done in such a respectful way." The total focus for each brother was the other.
Patrick, his brother Frank, and their respective families now faced the challenge of compressing a 64 year history into a six-night stay in Leeds, where Frank and wife Susie, live.
Since his return, Patrick has had weekly telephone contact with his brother Frank, and regular contact with his niece Rosemary.
With CBERSS' help he plans to return to England in September to cement the bonds he has established with his new-found family and, hopefully, to also trace relatives from both parents' sidess. Place of significance he plans to visit this time are Watford (where his mother was murdered), Northampton (where his niece Rosemary, her husband and children live), and Nazareth House, Southampton, where he lived from age 3 to 7.
Patrick is an extremely positive and optimistic. When I asked him what difference the reunion with this brother had made to his life, he responded - "I've always been very positive and happy. I guess I'm an even more contented man now. It's like there was an empty cupboard in my life and it's full now. I'm the happiest man in the world."
Postscript: Patrick was delighted to share his story for the CBERSS newsletter in the hope that it may encourage other ex-residents to either begin with, or persist in, the process of tracing their long-lost families with the aim of eventual reunification. Patrick is also very willing to be a listening ear to other ex-residents who have any queries or concerncs regarding reunification or wish to find out more about his experience. He can be contacted via CBERSS.
Vlama Granich
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