21 Years at Stanley House caring for Camp children in War and Peace

Penguin News, April 2004

Stanley House, a hostel for children from Camp who attend school in Stanley, has been a surrogate home to hundreds of children since it opened in 1982. Lorraine McGill has spent the past 21 years of her life at the hostel, first as houseparent and later as Head of Hostel. Now, just weeks into her retirement, she looks back on her years of caring for children from Camp.

Lorraine, her son Roy and daughter Jane, moved to Stanley from their home on Carcass Island in February 1982. It was a difficult decision to make but the children needed to attend full-time school. At the time the hostel was full with a long waiting list so the family bought a house in town to provide a base from which the children could attend school. Lorraine's husband Rob remained to operate the business at Carcass but the family spent the school holidays together at home and Rob visited Stanley whenever he could.

Soon after the move, Lorraine was approached by the then Superintendent of Education John Fowler who asked if she would do some voluntary work for the hostel. At that time the boys lived in Stanley House and although the girls had lunch and supper there, they had breakfast and slept in a house on Racecourse Road, looked after by Mrs Mary Faria. Lorraine worked with the girls in the evenings, allowing some free time for Mary and an expectant houseparent.

Lorraine had only been in Stanley for six weeks when the Argentine forces invaded. On the afternoon of the invasion, the Education Department was faced with the task of getting the boarders back to their anxious families in Camp.

Brooke Hardcastle at Darwin had told Lorraine by phone that if the children could be transported to Goose Green, he would arrange for the delivery boat Penelope to move from Speedwell Island to Egg Harbour to transport the West children to Port Howard. John Fowler asked if Lorraine would accompany and help look after the children if he was able to arrange transport out of town.

She takes up the story: "The next morning we scrabbled things together and off we went to Stanley House. We left there in 18 landrovers, nose to tail from the back of the hostel. The Argentinians had offered to transport us but John Fowler wisely said we had enough transport offered by kind volunteer local drivers. 52 people left town together with all the children's belongings.

"We went first to Bluff Cove then on to Fitzroy, where John and Lizzie Lee generously gave the children lunch. Along the way we were met by drivers from the farms and this allowed the town drivers to return. We then travelled on to Goose Green and Darwin where we spent the night. We had an early breakfast then departed for the Penelope trip from Egg Harbour.

"As we left Goose Green the Argentinians were arriving there. About half-way across the Sound we were buzzed by Argentine aircraft. We remembered that any moving local transport had been asked to fly a white flag. Susan Nightingale had packed some of her things in a white pillowcase, so the skipper, Findlay Ferguson, flew that. We got to the West and everyone eventually got home safely."

Lorraine returned to Stanley soon after the surrender, accompanying Kurt Whitney, a young man who had stayed with the McGills on Carcass Island for the duration of the war. She remained in Stanley with her children and became a houseparent at Stanley House in March 1983. She says, "School was about to start and John Fowler again asked if I would come and work - and this time I would be paid!

"The hostel children didn't come back to school until the new year. This was due to the fact that the Argentinians had occupied Stanley House as their command post during the war and after the surrender British Forces used it for a time. On their return, the boys slept in cabins in Stanley House grounds, whilst the girls were crammed into three rooms upstairs in the main house."

Lorraine describes the role of a houseparent: "You're a mum really. It's about just being there for the children and doing everything one can to make sure everyone is in the right place at the right time, with the right equipment for what they are intending to do. It is also about finding interesting things for the children to do and organising their time and outings for them, just as parents do."

She became Deputy Head of Hostel in 1988. At that time David Burgess was the headmaster of the Senior School and he had overall responsibility for the hostel but the day to day management of it was down to Lorraine. After the Community School opened in 1992, she became Head of Hostel.

Lorraine says the role of Head of Hostel differs greatly from that of houseparent. She explains, "You're not as close to the children as a houseparent, because you're not putting them to bed and waking them up. But you are still always there to help them and you're the one everybody looks to for answers. It is like a balancing act with a lot of people to please - the children, the staff, the parents and the administration. But it was terrific, it was challenging and fun, and every day was different."

She said she was grateful to her colleagues and everyone who gave support to her and the hostel over the years, "… including personnel from the Fire, PWD, FIGAS and Power and Electrical Departments, together with so many other kind people in the community."

Lorraine says there are both positive and negative aspects to looking after other people's children, but most valuable was the trust placed in her by parents and children. "They get to know you and how you tick. I feel very privileged to have had that trust and I understand how difficult it is for Camp parents having to send their children away from home for school. When your children leave home at an early age, it leaves a huge gap in the family and adjusting to this can be as difficult for the parents as it is for the children."

One of the difficulties of the job she says is, "… trying to get the balance right. We've got to where we are through trial and error really. Some things work and others don't and have to be rethought. For instance, some parents would like their children to have more free time, whilst others think they have too much, so finding a middle line through these issues, whilst aiming to please everyone, cam be a bit tricky."

Lorraine believes Stanley House is much different to when she joined. "There were 28 children then, but with the addition of new accommodation, we moved up through the 30s and 40s. The most boarders were 53 but that was only for a short time. With the depopulation of Camp, we are currently looking after 29 children but numbers are dropping. Since military families have been stationed at MPA we have looked after their older children as weekly boarders too.

"In my early years at the hostel it was a rather stark place with no real comforts. Everything looked beaten up and dingy. Gradually, over the years as the budget allowed, it changed into a bright, homely, welcoming place. It is well kitted out with computers, TVs, games and a hobbies cabin. The children too have more luxurious possessions. Games consoles, personal televisions, you name it, they've got it. I guess it reflects today's expectations and the wealth we didn't have before.

Lorraine says the children have changed from the early days too. "After the war, quite a few were traumatised. Children from Goose Green had been locked up in the hall and seen their parents taken out at gun point. Others from the San Carlos area had been in Bomb Alley. They had made friends with British servicemen and then seen some of them killed in the bombing. As a result they would become quite aggressive at times and played mostly war games when they came back here.

"It was a difficult time for them, but they gradually began to talk about it and said how frightened they had been. As those children grew up and left, the newcomers were calmer. They did not remember the war, only what they had heard from their parents, so progressively life became normal again."

Two new accommodation blocks were officially opened by HRH Prince Andrew in May 1985. Lorraine said this made a huge difference to life at the hostel, "… although the boys weren't that bothered about their new building because they loved living in the cabins. It was brilliant for the girls, because they had been packed in like sardines and we had a lot of problems due to overcrowding."

Lorraine will clearly miss Stanley House. "It was a lively place to work with lots going on all the time. There is a lot of laughter and fun and a big family atmosphere." She is now looking forward to a more normal lifestyle. For many years she was on call 24 hours a day and calls came at all hours so her life was restricted by her job. Now she says her life in the future will be "very different".

First published in the Penguin News on 23 April 2004 and reproduced with the kind permission of the Editor

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