Orphan Flo Shaw is staying with Tansy Morris, whose parents own the Stage Coach Inn. Flo seems a sweet girl, but sometimes behaves rather oddly. A guest at the inn, Lord Heade, believes that a Mr and Mrs Smith, who own a fair-ground and are in hospital after a car crash, may be related to Flo.
Plot:
The Drummonds, Scottish immigrants living in Canada towards the end of the 19th century, are hit by tragedy when both their parents die within a week of one another. Arrangements are made for the children- Jeannie, Robbie, Jenny and baby Ian to be looked after by neighbours, which means the family being split up. Jeannie, the eldest, makes up her mind to try to take the others to uncle Jack, their only relative. The last they heard from their uncle he was working at a lumber camp some hundred miles away. There is not enough money to pay their fares there by railroad, so they set off in a blizzard, through the forest.
The Defiant Drummonds – Judy: #294 (28 August 1965) – (?)
When Susan, John and Valerie Queen were orphaned, it seemed as though their castle home would have to be sold, as their father had left no money for its upkeep. However, there had been Queen living at The Castle for hundreds of years and Susan was determined that she and her younger brother and sister would go on living there. She hit on the idea of making money by providing a holiday home for children who were unable to spend their holidays with their parents. Miss Lane, the housekeeper, known to them as ” Comfy “, backed up the idea.
Mr and Mrs Malden, an elderly couple who have no children of their own, have taken ten orphans into their home, Malden House. The eldest of these is 13-year-old Betty Baker, a talented violinist. On the day that Betty learns she has won a scholarship to the Academy of Music, the Maidens are seriously injured in a road accident. The Welfare authorities want to separate the children, sending them to different Homes but, led by Betty, the children fight the idea. Betty has promised the Maidens that she will keep the children together and is willing to sacrifice her scholarship so that she can fulfil this promise. She manages to persuade the authorities to allow her to try to run Malden House, and bravely sets about her task.
Helen Hill, the senior orphan at Maltbay Manor, learns that young Connie Page a new arrival at the orphanage, will go blind soon unless Sir Edwin Savern, a famous surgeon, can be found. He is the only person that can perform the surgery but he has recently disappeared. Helen and Connie set out to try and find him.
Julie Walker’s dream was that her divorced parents would get together again. But her dad became engaged to Grace Harvey whose daughter Karen was at school with Julie. The two girls couldn’t stand each other, which made Julie determined to break up the engagement.
Joyce Jones’ Dad, Granddad and Uncle Fred formed themselves into a pop group. Unknown to Joyce’s mother Pop’s Group had been given a recording contract.
Ellen Perkins’ sister, Violet, was fat, lazy and unpopular, until an athletes coach spotted her, and wanted to train her for throwing events in future Olympics. Ellen hoped to help turn her sister into an athlete.
Stella Jones was manager to her young brother, Sonny, a pop star. Sonny’s American tour was turning out a huge success but proved to be more than Stella could handle alone, and reluctantly she had allowed Humphry Smother’s to become Sonny’s publicity Manager.
In Britain in 1931, life was very grim – no welfare state, no National Health and very little employment. For Charity eldest daughter of the Brown family, times were extremely hard. Her mother had died and her father had gambled away the family fortune. Later he married again, but this was another disaster. One day, Charity discovered her father and his new wife had stolen money from a famous violinist.
Other Appearances: