A guest blog

This week's blog has been compiled by Robert Atherton, a student at Poynton 6th form, who has been on a week's long placement as an archive student at the Together Trust. Alongside various other duties, Robert has been cataloguing some of our case files from the 1930s and has picked out one file to research and compile a blog on.

The ‘Big Brother Movement’ was the inspiration of an Australian – Richard Linton now known as Sir Richard Linton. Linton was amazed at the sheer volume of British boys keen to go into agricultural work, but despite this were not being able to fulfil their ambitions. The name ‘Big Brother’, is rather self-explanatory – each of the men involved in the organisation, would have been viewed as a metaphorical big brother to the boys. There were both disadvantages and advantages to the organisation. For example, the work was hard and laborious, lasting a minimum of 72 hours per week! The average wage for this arduous labour was little more than £3 per week… Moreover, the boys are many thousands of miles away from their families and visits occasional due to the cost and vast geographical distance. Despite all of the difficulties, though there were numerous advantages. These included the “brain tonic” that work itself provided and of course the opportunity to save the wages. Many people involved in the movement, had afterwards said that they could not imagine going back to a desk job.

An application to Australia

However, the Big Brother Movement was not to be for Robert. It is most likely that the beginning of WW2, which coincided with the time of his application, meant that his trip was unsafe and therefore no longer a possibility. In Robert’s case file there was an application clearly showing his intent, providing us with an insight into the differing paths young people took when they left Belmont.