‘Masters in Their Own House’: Britain, the Dominions and the 1946 Ex-Service Free Passage Scheme

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe dominant narrative of post-1945 British migration is that of the ‘ten pound poms’: British civilians who availed themselves of the system of subsidised migration and emigrated to Australia for the bargain price of £10, with the rest of the cost of passage being split between the British and Australian governments. It is little wonder that historians have tended to focus on this scheme, as between 1947 and 1972 around one million Britons used it to resettle in Australia.1 However, concealed within huge movement of people is a much smaller, but nonetheless important, migrant stream: the free passage scheme, a program which was open to veterans of the British forces and the Merchant Navy, under which almost 50,000 people settled in Australia. It operated only between 1946 and 1955 and was designed as a part of the package of benefits offered to all British veterans of the Second World War. The research on which this article is based, which was funded by the Scottish Centre for Diaspora Studies at the University of Edinburgh and headed up by Professor Sir Tom Devine, aimed to investigate the background and implementation of the 1946 free passage agreement. The project revealed significant differences between the 1946 scheme and its post-First World War equivalent. The British government's attitude towards the concept of empire migration had shifted from support to reluctance, as post-1945 planners worried about a shrinking British population and potential economic competition from the dominions. At the same time, the dominions were determined to prioritise their own reconstruction programmes, rather than assist Britain in resettling its veterans. Only Australia agreed to take British ex-service personnel, but as part of a much wider immigration plan designed to boost the Australia population and economy.