A birth registration was found for Maurice G Ansell: Mother's Maiden Surname: Chilton; Date of Registration: Oct Nov Dec 1926; Registration district: Banbury; Registration county: Northamptonshire; Volume Number: 3a; Page Number: 1691. Parents: William C. Ansell and Ellen (or Elsie) E. R. Chilton, married 1915, Banbury, Warwickshire, England.

At 12 years of age in 1938, 6 years after the death of his mother, Maurice Ansell was on a ship with his 10-year-old brother Peter, heading for the opposite side of the world to Fremantle, Australia, in a group of 26 Fairbridge children as a part of the promise of a better land to disadvantaged British youngsters.

The journey was arranged by his father who felt life was more promising for his two young sons away from the demands of his big family.

His brother, Peter, tried to find their family in 1950, but came up against a dead end.

There were snippets of information over the years but nothing which could lead them to their family.

Their sister in Britain had heard that Peter had been living in Margaret River so she got the international operator to check the Ansell name in the phone book for the southwest of the state. At 4 a.m., the first number she rang was Peters.

Peter and his brother, Maurice, suddenly found that they had a greatly expanded family. Two sisters living in the English countryside of Dorset, two brothers in Banbury and another brother in Cheshire.