MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH THE QUEEN MOTHER
President:
HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCESS MARGARET COUNTESS OF SNOWDON
Chairman of Council:
SIR ALFRED OWEN G.B.E.
General Superintendent
V. L. CORNISH M.A.
DR. BARNARDO’S
Head Office: STEPNEY CAUSEWAY LONDON E.1.
AREA OFFICE: 248 UPPER PARLIAMENT STREET, LIVERPOOL 8
TELEPHONE: 051/709/6291
13th November, 1967.
Dear Mr. Goldthorpe,
Further to your Department’s enquiry regarding the possibility of our Adoption Department being able to place a part Ethiopian, part Greek baby boy for adoption. Our Senior Adoption Officer has written to us asking that she be supplied with full information about this baby; in particular, details of his background and whether Ethiopian means that he is negroid or not.
Yours sincerely,
N. Goldthorpe Esq.,
Children’s Officer,
County Borough of Wigan,
Children’s Department,
Civic Buildings,
Parson’s Walk,
Wigan, Lancs.
O.W. Woods,
Assistant Executive Officer (Dictated by Mr. Woods and signed in his absence)
And then there was this:
On the back of the photo it says:
So my name has changed to Norman Sissay; I am supposed to be part Greek. An adoption agency asks whether ‘Ethiopian means he is negroid or not’. This is the first time I have seen myself referred to as ‘Norman Sissay’.
Foster Child: Lemn Sissay 21.5.67. Mother Ethiopian; putative father possibly Greek. Protestant.
It is anticipated that this will be a permanent foster home for Norman, and responsibility for payment of boarding out allowances and supervision will be retained by this Authority.
Yours sincerely,
Children’s Officer
When the letter from which this extract is taken was written, I was almost eight months old. In England unmarried pregnant women or girls were placed in Mother and Baby homes like St Margaret’s with the sole aim of harvesting their children, then the women were shipped back home to say they had been away on a little break. A little break. They were barely adults themselves. Many of them didn’t understand the full implication of the word ‘adoption’. They were sent home without their newborns after signing the adoption papers. They must have been bewildered and in shock at the loss of their first child. I found testaments online from people who lived near to St Margaret’s.
It was very eerie in certain parts it really felt haunted.
I can remember being in the Billinge Maternity unit when one of the young girls from St Margaret’s had her baby. The only visitor was a lady social worker and on the day mum and baby were due to leave, mum was taken away in one car (crying) and baby hurried away in another!
My mother would not sign the adoption papers for Norman Goldthorpe. So Norman Goldthorpe defied her and assigned me to ‘long-term foster parents’ Catherine and David Greenwood.
COUNTY BOROUGH OF WIGAN – CHILDREN’S DEPARTMENT
AGREEMENT OF FOSTER PARENTS
We MR AND MRS GREENWOOD of 68 SWINTON CRESCENT, UNSWORTH, BURY having on the 3rd day of January 1968, received from the Wigan County Borough Council (hereinafter called “the council”), (NORMAN) LEMN SISSAY who was born on the 21st day of MAY 1967, and whose religious persuasion is PROTESTANT into our home as a member of our family, undertake that:-
1. We will care for NORMAN and bring him up as we would a child of our own.
2. He will be brought up in, and will be encouraged to practise his religion.
3. We will look after his health and consult a doctor whenever he is ill and allow him to be medically examined at such times and places as the council may require.
4. We will inform the council immediately of any serious occurrence affecting the child.
5. We will at all times permit any person so authorised by the Secretary of State or by the council to see him and visit our home.
6. We will allow him to be removed from our home when so requested by a person authorised by the council of the county borough where we live.
7. If we decide to move, we will notify the new address to the council before we go.
Signed D Greenwood
Signed C Greenwood
Date 3rd January 1968
I was 228 days old at the time. I must have been with them from at least 150 days old. My foster parents told me some years later that I was alone in the hospital because no one would adopt a ‘coloured’ baby. They said they chose me after praying to God and that my mother didn’t want me.
Mr Goldthorpe was adamant that my name would be Norman. Norman means ‘Man of the North’. The foster parents wanted to call me Mark from The Gospel of Mark, and their last name was Greenwood. My name was Norman Mark Greenwood. The Authority wouldn’t officially acknowledge the name my foster parents called me. I am Norman Sissay in the files. The foster parents wouldn’t acknowledge the name The Authority gave me. I was Norman Mark Greenwood and I knew no different. It was a land grab. But without my mother’s signature on the adoption papers The Authority could not adopt me.
My mother must have been at her most vulnerable. She was pregnant and alone in a foreign country where she had come to study for a short period of time. Her college in the South of England sent her to the North of England to St Margaret’s to deal with her pregnancy.
These places were baby farms. The mothers were the earth and the children were the crops. The church and state were the farmers and the adopting parents were the consumers. My mother was supposed to give birth and sign the adoption papers. She didn’t.
