Frank Golding, himself a former Ballarat orphan now residing in Melbourne, will return to the city next week to share his historical research and speak at the AGM and 150^th anniversary of Child and Family Services Ballarat.

Mr Golding has also been exploring reasons for Ballarat orphans’ outcomes in the First World War.

“Some reasons were the same as other soldiers. It was seen as a great adventure and they were patriotic, but for the orphanage boys there were some added incentives. The culture of the orphanage existence was a very appropriate preparation for military life. It was a very regulated, routinised existence.

”The sense that orphan children had to prove themselves comes up very strongly in material that I looked at, having been in an orphanage where they didn’t have parents to guide them, they felt the need to show they were as good as the next guy.”

Mr Golding said some of the orphans were so keen to enlist that they lied about their age to get in.

Speculating on how times have changed, Mr Golding said things had improved for wards of the state no longer having to live in institutions, but said he still worried greatly about abuse they suffered.

Mr Golding himself said he suffered serious physical and emotional abuse at Ballarat Orphanage and witnessed others being sexually abused during his time there between 1943 and 1953.

“It was very severe punishments for stepping out of line. If you were late for class, it was often the case that the man in charge would stand at the gateway with a broom and you’d cop it as you went through. A box over the years was very common,” he said.

“If you wet the bed your nose was rubbed in it. It was thought that it was willful behaviour and it was a matter of control and we should do better.”

Mr Golding, who said he didn’t hold any grudges about his orphanage days, called on more training, preparation and support for foster families.