Draft:Geoffrey Bruce Blyth

Geoffrey Bruce Blyth Geoffrey Bruce Blyth, (1926 - 2006) was an Australian educator, author, publisher, and activist, known in his latter years for his determined and spirited research into, and exposure of, abuse of children in the care of the Christian Brothers. His activism, which included establishment of VOICES in 1992, as well as authorship of several books on the issue, aimed to achieve a level of justice for the children involved, albeit often decades after their experiences, and to hold those responsible accountable for their actions.

Bruce Blyth’s dedication was motivated in part by the recognition that, but for the kindness and generosity of relatives, he too might well have been placed in care. Born in Western Australia, he was left fatherless when still an infant. Relatives in England then stepped in, helping the family to resettle in England, and ensuring that Bruce received a classical education in a private boarding school.

Returning to Australia in 1946, Bruce worked as a union representative for a local union before entering the teaching profession, specialising in primary school education, and spending many years as Headmaster of State schools in Western Australia. He was also a representative for the State School Teachers Union and the leader of the Primary Principal’s Association of Western Australia for many years.

Early Life Born in Western Australia in 1926 to John Geoffrey Blyth, a former soldier in the British Army, and Ruby Ailsa Davies, Bruce Blyth was less than two years old when his father died in November 1927, at the age of twenty-six, from tuberculosis. Coming from Suffolk, in England, John’s forebears were a well-known and important family from Boxted, in Essex.

Knowing of John’s illness, his mother, Winifred Blyth, was en route to Australia at the time of his death. Arriving in Fremantle, and finding John’s wife in straitened circumstances, Winifred was able to take Bruce and his mother to England. This then became their home for the following two decades. The family paid for Ruby to enter nursing school and she was found employment with the “Stamp King” of Colchester, Charles Whitfield-King, while Bruce later attended private school at Newburgh Priory. In 2015, as part of the Time Witnesses Archive, Roger Miles, another former student at Newburgh Priory School wrote his memories of school life, in his case, during the years of World War Two, outlining an austere way of life. [8] Bruce’s own memories of the school were positive and, in 1969, now a Headmaster himself, in Australia, he was able to revisit it during a year’s sabbatical from his post. Thanks to his upbringing, Bruce found that he was able to make friendships across all social classes. One of Bruce’s fellow students was John Armstrong, the son of the author, Richard Armstrong, whose work included many books for children. A long friendship with the Armstrong family continued for many years.

People were people, in his view, and all were entitled to the best life open to them. As a teacher, and as an educationalist in general, Bruce was deeply concerned to ensure that all children had access to a positive education, in order to set them up for success in adult life. Even after retirement, Bruce maintained his deep interest in the wellbeing of children, writing and publishing books, and engaging in long-term activism over children’s safety and health, including investigation of institutional abuse of those in care. His involvement in the creation of the organisation VOICES was one outcome of his deep concern.

Career After successfully undertaking his teacher training, Bruce commenced as a probationary Master in 1954 in Attadale in the Western Australian State School system. [11] Three years later, he transferred to being Headmaster, in the small country town of Salt River. Bruce then spent the next quarter of a century in a succession of city and country schools, before retiring at the top of his profession. During 1981 and 1982, Bruce was President of the Western Australian Primary Principals’ Association, and maintained an active involvement in the organisation, becoming a Life Member in 1984. [12] In 1969, Bruce went on the unattached list for a year [11], and travelled with his family to Britain. While there, he visited schools, including his former school, and attended several conferences on education, including one on the Isle of Man, where he was able to interact with educationalists from around the world. Visits were also made to friends from his past, including the Richard Armstrong family.

Throughout his career, Bruce’s focus was on the children for whom he was responsible, and on the need for both teachers and parents to work towards providing an atmosphere of trust, support, and encouragement, and the creation of an environment in which a child’s learning could thrive. To this end, in both 1976 and 1983, Bruce received grants “to study and report on parent/community involvement in Australian schools”. [3]

1976 also saw Bruce writing and publishing “Coming Ready or Not”, a short book outlining factors involved in a child’s early years of schooling. [1] Described by Bruce as being written for parents, “Coming Ready or Not” aimed to help parents understand that they, not the school, played the most important part in their child’s learning. The role of school was to support and complement the home, and to formalise the learning which the home provided. Bruce emphasised the value in the home of discussion and reading, and that children’s enthusiasm and self-confidence came principally from the support and encouragement received in the home. He stressed that parents should accept their children for who they were, with their varying talents and interests, rather than placing expectations on them, or trying to relive their own lives through them. [1]

“Coming Ready or Not” was extremely well received throughout Australia, by Education Departments, school Principals, and by media reviewers, and was reprinted multiple times. A new edition was published in 1991 [3]. Following the success of this book, in 1978 Bruce wrote and published a short novella, entitled “There Was This Boy”, which was presented as “a story for parents”. [2] Designed to outline the potential effects on children throughout their lives of a lack of understanding and support when young, this story tracked the life of a just such a boy. As described by Bruce, the hope was that the story could provide “a little light” to those who applied pressure to children – pressure to achieve particular goals or to follow particular norms or to have particular interests - or who branded them as failures for not meeting those hopes and expectations. The hope was that parents could be encouraged to develop an understanding of their children’s needs, and of their potential, and to then facilitate their growth and development. [2]

Retirement and Advocacy Publishing A lifelong lover of reading, Bruce developed a large personal library. In the early 1970s, Bruce established his own publishing company, P and B Press, which he used as the vehicle for publishing a range of his own and others’ works. One of Bruce’s pleasures was the research involved. Writers began to bring him manuscripts, and he would edit them and make them saleable, including writing the afterword for a number of them.

Later, during the late 1970s, anticipating retirement from teaching, Bruce decided on this publishing as his full-time occupation. Some of the books published were his own works, but the theme throughout all books was the welfare of children. In this regard, Richard Armstrong proved to be an important influence on Bruce. Below are some of the titles published.

Blyth, G.B. (1976), Coming Ready or Not, P and B Press, Como, Western Australia. Blyth, G.B. (1978), There Was This Boy, P and B Press, Como, Western Australia. Blyth, G.B. (1991), Coming Ready or Not, Revised Edition, P and B Press, Como, Western Australia. Blyth, G.B. (1997), In the Shadow of the Cross: The Story of VOICES, P and B Press, Como, Western Australia. Blyth, G.B. (1999), Counting the Cost, P and B Press, Como, Western Australia. Jordan, Rev. H.S, (1984), The Vicar Of Finchingfield Wedgwood, I. (1991), Knockabout Welsh, L.P., (1990), The Bindoon File Welsh, L.P., (1990), Geordie – Orphan of the Empire

VOICES The golden thread running through Bruce Blyth’s life was concern for the interests of children. Initially, this revolved around his desire to ensure that children were able to receive the best start possible in their education. In 1990, however, Bruce’s life changed, when he published “The Bindoon File” [10], a book about the Boys Town boarding school in Bindoon, a town 84 kilometres, or 58 miles, north-east of Perth, in Western Australia.

Founded in 1938 by Paul Francis Keaney, a Christian Brother, the Boys Town was depicted as being for the care of children, both orphans and child migrants. After his death, Paul Keaney was dubbed “the orphan’s friend”, until the publication of “The Bindoon File” gave the lie to this in no uncertain terms. The book exposed years of institutionalised cruelty and abuse, sexual, physical, and emotional [10][13], both at Bindoon and at other centres run by the Christian Brothers.

At an age in life when he might have been able to anticipate a relatively quiet retirement, Bruce Blyth instead found himself embarking on a quest to obtain justice and redress for the boys who had been in the charge of the Christian Brothers. In 1990, he became a foundation member, and Director, of Victims of Institutionalised Cruelty, Exploitation and Supporters, known as VOICES [4][13].

At its outset, VOICES was formed by over 200 former residents of Christian Brothers institutions, in order “to fight a battle for Truth and Justice” [4], and eventually gaining national and international recognition for its work. With interest from the media, and the participation of a large law firm, VOICES was able to overcome opposition from vested interests, and to play an important role in bringing the issue of the treatment of vulnerable children to the attention of the public.

The work of Bruce Blyth and VOICES included appearing on 60 Minutes in 1993, writing to the Catholic Archbishop of Perth and to the Pope [6], undertaking a successful campaign to have Paul Keaney’s statue removed in 1994 from its place of prominence at Bindoon [5], cooperating with a class action on behalf of survivors [4] [9], and writing a history of VOICES in 1997 [4].

VOICES also made a lengthy and very detailed submission in 1997 to the House of Commons Health Committee [13], which looked into the issue of former British child migrants [5].As outlined in an introduction to the submission by Bruce Blyth, as a Director of VOICES, "Those who joined VOICES were motivated by a desire to see the truth revealed and those who had abused them brought to justice. (...) They hope that this Select Committee of Parliament will expose the truth of their collective, life-long ordeal. If that is achieved, then they will feel that their fight for justice has been validated." [13] In 2000, Bruce, representing VOICES, was a member of the group developing the terms of reference for an inquiry into child migration by the Senate Community Affairs References Committee. [6] [9] As Bruce explained, “Every effort must be made to protect children, {…} and VOICES has played a major role in alerting the public to the need to protect vulnerable children.” [4] For his work Bruce was nominated by Senator Andrew Murray in 2004 for an Order of Australia award. [9] More than a decade later, in 2017, Western Australia joined other Australian jurisdictions in introducing legislation regarding child sexual abuse. [14]

Personal Life Bruce married university student Patricia Crole in the early 1950s, after they met at teacher’s college, and together they had two children: Geoffrey, who entered the teaching profession, working in England, Australia and Hong Kong, as well as becoming an extreme long-distance runner (and the first Australian to take part in the Sahara Desert Marathon); and Natalia, an award winning model, musician and, later, a writer and educator.

Bruce died in 2006, after a brief battle with cancer, and was laid to rest in Fremantle Cemetery.

References 1.	Blyth, G.B. (1976), Coming Ready or Not, P and B Press, Como, Western Australia. 2.	Blyth, G.B. (1978), There Was This Boy, P and B Press, Como, Western Australia. 3.	Blyth, G.B. (1991), Coming Ready or Not, Revised Edition, P and B Press, Como, Western Australia. 4.	Blyth, G.B. (1997), In the Shadow of the Cross: The Story of VOICES, P and B Press, Como, Western Australia. 5.	Blyth, G.B. (1999), Counting the Cost, P and B Press, Como, Western Australia. 6.	Choo, C. (January 2008), Earthen Vessels: History of the response of the Christian Brothers (Holy Spirit Province) to allegations of sexual abuse in its institutions, 1987 – 2007, Prepared for Christian Brothers Holy Spirit Province. 7.	Member, T. (2006), Campaigner Gave Voice to Victims of Abuse, Obituary, The West Australian. 8.	Miles, R. (2015), A worm’s eye view of boarding school, 9.	Murray, Senator A. (2006), Senate Hansard, p.89, 10.	Welsh, L. P. (1990), The Bindoon File: Boys Town Bindoon, 1947-1954, P and B Press, Como, Western Australia. 11.	Western Australian State School Teachers 1900 – 1980, 12.	Western Australian Primary Principals Association, 13. Memorandum on Child Migrants by VOICES, Appendix 7 to the Select Committee on Health, First Report. 14. Civil Liability Legislation Amendment (Child Sexual Abuse Actions) Bill 2017. hansard>hansard.nst See pages 6160b - 6179a