Colin Hunter

Story

Our father, James Hunter, was a constable in the Dundee police. He decided that we would emigrate to Australia when he retired to make a better life for his family. In late 1951 he came home, announced that he had put in his retirement papers, booked our passage and we were to leave in six weeks. Our mother, Jessie Hunter (nee Campbell), was horrified but did not protest. We left Tilbury Dock on February 6 1952, the day King George VI died. We were a family of five, Jim, Jessie, my sister Peggy, brother Bill, and me (Colin).

We travelled in the SS Ranchi, built in 1925, and by 1952 destined for the scrapheap (she made one more voyage after ours). What should have taken 4 weeks took six, and the ship broke down several times, including a fire in the engine room whilst in the middle of the Indian Ocean. There were a number of soldiers on board, recruited in Britain for the Australian Army, which made the trip a lot of fun (my sister Peggy married one of them).

My photograph in kilt and carrying my cello appeared in the Sun with the caption ‘Wot, no bagpipes’. We lived with friends from Dundee for a few months – a difficult time for my parents – but soon came to love our adopted country. Our father never returned to Scotland and found a freedom here that was what he was searching for. Our mother grieved for home and family but courageously built a good life for herself and us over time.

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