The South Yorkshire (England) Branch

Hinchliffe is a typical Yorkshire surname and great granddad Hubert was born into a coal mining background. He had an extremely stern, dogmatic father and then he himself displayed similar characteristics as an adult.

Hubert did not wish to work in the mines and at the time of his marriage to Eileen Hanson, in 1946, he was a rag sorter – sorting materials for re-cycling.  Eventually he developed his own business collecting and selling waste products and then he and his wife bought a milk delivery business.

Hubert and Eileen with their first child

Life was not easy and the family (children included) were required to work long hours to secure a reasonable living.

Alan was born in 1949 and when he was eleven years old he won a place at an esteemed grammar school.  Previously none of his relatives had had this opportunity and it was rare within his community. Wearing a grammar school uniform and travelling on two buses to the other side of town each day did single him out amongst his peers at home; also he was subjected to a majority of children from a middle class culture, at school - as well as having red hair! However he had strength of character! 

He was thriving at school learning subjects which otherwise would not have been within his experience – Latin, literature, higher maths etc., when his parents decided to emigrate to Australia as ‘ten pound Poms’ – the Australian government were encouraging families to migrate and settle there for the sum of 10 pounds! ‘Poms’ was, and still is, a nickname for the English.

                                                     Great Granddad Hubert and Granddad Alan

This was an exciting prospect for the family, however not for Alan who simply could not fit into or equate with the secondary education. He left school at the earliest opportunity and eventually joined the Australian Army.

                                                                          Soldier Alan 

Hubert developed type 1 diabetes and became unable to work, which was devastating to a man who never stopped being involved in one project or another; also the climate was becoming unbearable to him. The family returned to England whilst Alan was in the army and actually served in Vietnam.

                                                                          Alan 1970

Alan left the army and returned to Sydney doing menial work. He could not settle so returned to England where he found he was just as unsettled so he returned to Sydney and became a taxi driver.

The influence of his school never really left him so he came to the conclusion that he must continue what he left – education. He returned to England and decided to train as a teacher.

At college he met and went on to marry Pauline.

Their son Alexander, father to Ama-leigh, studied Biochemistry and then Ecology. He trained and practised jungle leadership and mountain leadership and after working in Borneo he finally settled with Charity in Australia. He is currently teaching indigenous children, from an outdoor perspective.