Big Red Book

Celebrating television's This Is Your Life

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THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Paul Field, foster parent and founder of the Children's Family Trust, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews - with the help of entrepreneur Billy Butlin - at the BBC Television Theatre, having been led to believe he was there to watch a documentary film about children.

Paul served with the Merchant Navy during the First World War and later became a policeman. Having started to take an interest in the welfare of the youngsters he came across, he left the police and joined the Children's Society charity in 1934.

His concern for what happened to children once they left the care of the Society at the age of fourteen, often unprepared to face the world, led him to establish The Children's Family Trust in 1945 at Lynwode Manor in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire. Paul developed the trust into a series of foster families, who, for the first time, would care for foster children for life – on equal terms with their own children.

programme details...

• Edition No: 58
• Subject No: 58
• Broadcast live: Mon 10 Mar 1958
• Broadcast time: 8.15-8.45pm
• Venue: BBC Television Theatre
• Series: 3
• Edition: 24

on the guest list...

• Brian Field - foster son
• Mary Royds-Jones
• Geoffrey Chamberlin
• Jack Thomas
• Ruby - wife
• Anne Fieldsend - daughter
• John Hetherington-Field - foster son
• Derek Richardson-Field - foster son
• Raymond Dumford-Field - foster son
• Jessie Fryer
• Bill Thompson
• John Dakin-Field - foster son
• Freddy Johnson-Field - foster son
• John Field - foster son
• Gary Field - foster son
• Tom Farrington - foster son

production team...

• Researcher: Michael Williams
• Writer: Ken Smith
• Director: Vere Lorrimer
• Producer: T Leslie Jackson

A Charitable Life

the unsung heroes

Photographs of Paul Field This Is Your Life

George Bruce recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, A Family Called Field...

Foreword

This book is Paul Field's story as he told it to me. It tells of a man who acted upon his profound conviction that parental love and care is as much the birthright of boys and girls deprived of a normal childhood as of the happier majority. It records his struggles and achievements since he took twelve of these little human castaways into his own small family and gave them his name and an assured background for life.

Twelve is, of course, only the tiniest fraction out of so many in the country, but it was enough for Paul Field to start what he believed to be the only just course for dealing with a social problem.

When I first read about the Children's Family Trust in The Times, I was astonished at his combination of audacity and greatheartedness. I went to see him in the belief that there might be more material for the periodicals to which I was then contributing and asked him his secret for making an integrated family out of so many discordant elements of young life.

He shook his head vigorously. "There's nothing remarkable about it" he contended. "We give these children the same love and care that we give to our own children — that's all." I was later to witness the truth of this remark and to comprehend that, to him, there was nothing unique or remarkable in what he was doing. It was to him the most natural thing in the world.

I became convinced that Paul Field's life was of that rare, courageous and intensely human kind which deserves to be more widely known. I was instrumental in arranging for him to be the subject of a programme on This Is Your Life, the BBC Television series, and the impact of this programme proved to be considerable. In agreement with him I was able subsequently to arrange to prepare this book. I stayed some two months in Lincolnshire with Paul Field, listening to his story, and characteristically he approved my right to critical analysis and my own interpretation of his actions.

With so large a canvas it was impossible to tell the story of Paul and his unique family in all its detail, and I have been obliged to select the main developments from those which remained in his memory. This book is not meant to be a sociological study but rather Paul Field's biography woven into the background of the family he created.

Have there been any fundamental changes in Homes run by the State and voluntary societies since the exposures of the Curtis Report of 1946, and the Children's Act of 1948 which followed it? This is a problem - the lives of the country's 90,000 deprived children - which has remained in the shadows for several years. It is Paul Field's conviction that the defects of these Homes are built in and that they are bound to create unhappy and maladjusted children. If I have succeeded, even in a small degree, in presenting his point of view fairly and accurately and have thereby contributed to the wider knowledge of his aims and aspirations, I shall feel content.

All the boys Paul Field first adopted - most of them now young men - gave me their willing and happy cooperation in obtaining information about their early life with the family. I wish to thank them for it. To avoid any possible embarrassment to them or anyone else, I have changed their names and certain minor background details.

I wish to acknowledge the kind cooperation of Mrs. Paul Field, Bishop A. I. Greaves, D.D., Sir Francis Hill, Sir Oliver Welby, the Reverend Sir James Roll, Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Fieldsend, Mrs. Jessie Fryer and my wife, to whom I am much indebted for reading the MS and many invaluable suggestions.

Paul Field has asked me to express his gratitude to the members of the Council of Management and the many other helpful and loyal friends whose prayers and goodwill made his work possible. This I am most happy to do, since this book is the story of a pioneer and of those, many anonymous, who recognised him as such.

Epilogue

Paul Field is now sixty but as fit and lively as he was twenty years ago. How can I possibly grow old, he says, when I'm father to eight young children, and goodness knows how many more to come? Ruby is now thoroughly convinced of the importance of his work. Recently she remarked that while in the early days she had lacked the vision to see what he was trying to do and in any case was too preoccupied with her own children, today she couldn't imagine him doing anything else.

The idea of families under the Trust is still spreading. Recently Mr. Billy Butlin offered £5,000 - an act of customary generosity - and a fixed annual sum out of his own pocket towards yet another family. Paul has found a suitable house and is now seeking the right kind of parents for the new family. The Goodyer family flourishes and it remains Paul's hope that during his lifetime there will be a family established under the Trust in every county.

Though the wheel has turned full circle and Paul Field is bringing up yet another generation, there are three important differences between today and 1945, when he started. Now there is at Lynwode a family of older boys always coming and going who give inspiration, sympathy and love to the younger ones; secondly, Paul himself is richer in experience and understanding of the different types of children who come to him; thirdly, he has no money worries of the kind that he had in 1945, though of course the family still depends upon voluntary help.

The mortgage on Lynwode has been repaid through the kindness of a friend who recently sent a cheque for £2,000, and the house now belongs entirely to the Trust. Articles in newspapers and magazines have reminded sympathisers from time to time that the family depends upon their generosity. The climax of such publicity was reached with the BBC Television programme, This Is Your Life, when Paul, believing that he had journeyed to London to see a documentary film about children, suddenly found himself being introduced to an audience of nine or ten millions by Eamonn Andrews as "a man of foresight and courage, who decided that he would not just sit back and fret about the problem of unwanted children, but would take off his coat, roll up his sleeves and get down to doing something about it."

Members of the family and friends who had assisted Paul then came forward before the cameras and paid their simple tributes. "The thing which impressed me right from the start," said James, "was that he took as much interest in us and gave us as much love and kindness as he did his own three children." And Geoffrey: "I wish to forget about the first few years of my life because I was just another boy in an institution. I wasn't cared for at all... Then one day I found a father and mother and a real home to live in. From then on I believed in miracles."

This programme brought the reality of Paul's achievement into the homes of millions as no other medium had done before. It was among the highest in audience rating and it led to much needed contributions from people in all ranks of society.

Other sources of income now include nearly 200 business firms and private individuals who contribute regularly every year, while local authorities have increased their subsistence payments in proportion to the rise in the cost of living. The present weekly sum is £3 10s. a week for each child - still much less, of course, than what is required to feed, clothe and care for them.

Compare this indeed with the recent decision of the Children's Committee for the County of Devon to offer £14 a week to married couples to look after girls on remand! The County children's officer was reported to have said that this was less than the charge at any Home and "possibly insufficient to compensate for the responsibility, risks and disadvantages of undertaking the care of a girl."

Charity Choice website 27 July 2015

All About... The Children's Family Trust

In 1945 Paul Field decided to leave his work with the Waifs and Strays Society and founded The Children's Family Trust. In forming the Trust he took children he had formerly looked after in his previous role into his own family and promised they would be provided with a 'Family For Life'. Despite the challenges of providing for his newly extended family Paul wanted to take his vision a step further and recreate what he had done with his own family in other families, encouraging them to take on the care of children other than their own, providing them with the opportunity of a real 'Family For Life' too.

Over a period of time Paul was able to find other families that were also willing to take care of several children at any one time. Some of these families cared for and raised 20 children or more alongside their own. Some went on to adopt several of their children. In all several hundred children were cared for by The Children's Family Trust on a 'Family For Life' basis and now many of these 'pioneering' parents have grandchildren and great grandchildren within their family.

Paul Field's work was given national recognition in 1958 through being the subject of a TV programme This Is Your Life. His biography was published in 1960 and a second book published in 1996.

Today we remain a registered charity and continue to provide foster placements for many children on a 'Family For Life' basis. Several of our 'Heritage' parents are still with us and as such we celebrate their amazing achievements each year by bringing them and their families together. Several of the children they originally cared for have gone on to foster for The Trust. And despite living through many, many changes regarding regulatory approaches to childcare the basic principles of The Children's Family Trust remain.

Once a Trust child, always a Trust child. We continue to provide practical, emotional and financial support to many adults who were originally cared for by Trust families.

As a charity we still rely heavily on public support to fund our work. Our values remain unchanged and have never been compromised from Paul Field's view in that a loving natural family is every child's birth right. Our focus is to ensure all of our resources are used to provide high quality services for each of our children. How do we do this... by recruiting exceptional families who in turn provide amazing care, patience, understanding, stability and much needed love to any child on a 'Family For Life' basis, however long this might be for.

At The Children's Family Trust we are well aware of the awesome task that is 'fostering' and as such value and treasure our wonderful Foster Families. Their values remain the same today as Paul Field's original vision in 1945, for our Foster Families fostering is both a way of life and a vocation, giving their most precious commodity to changing children's lives, their time.