A birth registration was found for Michael J D Brookman: Mother's Maiden Surname: Brookman; Date of Registration: Oct Nov Dec 1930; Registration district: Brighton; Registration county: Sussex; Volume Number: 2b; Page Number: 342.

In 1939, M. J. D. Brookman, 8, arrived at Melbourne, Australia, in a group of 23 children from Fairbridge Farm School, The Strand, London, England.

David Hill, in an interview with The Times Online, reflected on John Brookman:
r n"...John Brookman arrived at Molong in 1944 [sic] and spent the next 40 years asking about his mum. Fairbridge failed to give any assistance. When he did finally track her down in England, she had died the year before. ... John was like a lot of Fairbridge children who felt incomplete until they reconnected with family. There was nobody for him in England when he went home in 1988 to fit the pieces of his past. John drank heavily and died three years later, just 60."
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