1911: Off to Australia, but not together. . .

Tom Tunaley emigrated to Australia in 1911, three months before his wife Margaret (hereafter called "Maggie" - I explain why in the "From Yorkshire" post) .

On 6th July 1911, Tom boarded the "SS Themistocles" bound for Australia. His cousin William (Bill) John Smith also emigrated to Melbourne at around the same time with his wife Harriet (the two families were to become lifelong friends, for details read "The Smiths" post).

On the passenger list for the "SS Themistocles" in 1911 (see below), Tom Tunaley was recorded as a Scotsman (mistakenly, one assumes, by a clerk who couldn't tell the difference between a Lancashire and a Scots accent). His first name was also wrongly written down as "Thomas" ... probably not the first time that happened, either.

Three months after Tom Tunaley had set off for Australia, his wife Maggie followed him. On 21 October 1911, Maggie Tunaley sailed out on the "SS Gothic"with her second son, William (Billie) who was nine months old.

Unexpectedly, Maggie travelled to Australia without their eldest child, John Charles Tunaley. Two year-old John was left behind in England in the care of his maternal grandparents, Sarah and William Simpson. On the day she was due to depart, Maggie's parents accompanied her and the two children to the ship. When they reached the dock, Sarah Simpson took John out of Maggie's arms and Maggie boarded the ship with baby William Billie.

Maggie and Billie's names are entered correctly in the passenger list for the SS Gothic (below) as "Mrs M. Tunaley" and "Master W". There is no "Master J." on the list, because John had not come on board with them.

Maggie and Tom Tunaley had intended that both boys would be brought to Australia by Maggie on the "Gothic". Tom Tunaley didn't know that John would be left behind. When he met them off the ship in Port Melbourne, Tom's first words to Maggie on Australian soil were, "Where's John?"

John Charles Tunaley (b.1909) was raised by his grandparents in England. He never saw his mother or father again.

• I'm indebted to Phil Tunaley's amazing website for many of these details as well as Shirley Tunaley in Melbourne and Dr Jane Holmes in New Zealand.