Seeking Henry

Young Henry had red hair. He was clever and adventurous. But mystery shrouds his life and so it is a granddaughter’s imagination which gives presence to Henry from his birth in 1865 in Sussex, England.

The 1890s found Henry in ‘marvellous Melbourne’ where notorious American balloonist Leila Adair (in truth Lillian Hawker from Mudgee) claimed they were married and that her children were Henry’s, but was this true? And surely Henry wasn’t also a ventriloquist!

Then to New Zealand where Henry married Isabella and they had four children. His business prospered and reputation grew. Then he met Rose Anne, the daughter of a settler family. ‘I have been waiting for you all of my life’, Henry told her. In 1915 they ran away to Japan where Henry's business flourished and expanded throughout southeast Asia. Finally they settled with their children in 1920s Sydney.

The lives of Henry and his granddaughter touched briefly in 1944 and then he was gone.
Now it is the twenty-first century and the granddaughter is the same age that Henry achieved, so is this the time for reflection? She asks: ‘In search of Henry, will I also see myself?’

The granddaughter’s tale is modern and painfully true. Of sailing across the world, as Henry did. The excitement of sixties London, work at the BBC, later to Baghdad and times in Pakistan, India, Burma and finally, back home.

Three centuries are linked in this story describing an extraordinary world, of turbulent times and of how kindred are one.

As Henry said, there is no me, there is only we – each of us a link in an endless chain.