Ex-councillor writes his own fortunate life story

A life of adventure and exploration started with postage stamps, Ben Ainsworth explains.

Former Busselton Shire councillor Ainsworth told the Times, growing up in an English orphanage, his stamp collection was his first real possession.

“The stamps gave me a reasonand a purpose in life,” he said.

“As my stamp collection increased so did my fascination with the world and my reverence for life.”

A founding member of the Busselton Soccer Club, Ainsworth has written his first book, an autobiography titled Three and Five Pence Halfpenny.

In this memoir of an extraordinary life, the 78-year-old tells of his experiences growing up in a Waifs and Stray’s school for boys in England in the 1950s, his life in the merchant navy, his worldwide travels and his quest to find his mother.

The title of the book is a tribute to the moment when he decided to take his life into his own hands and leave the merchant navy in New Zealand.

“Walking down the gangplank, I put my hand in my pocket and all I had was three and five pence halfpenny,” he said.

Hitchhiking across Australia in the 1960s, he found work as a house painter in Busselton and has based himself in the town ever since.

Ainsworth’s upbeat attitude to the hardships he has faced in his life has been considered reminiscent of the tones of AB Facey in the Australian classic, A Fortunate Life.

The Busselton-based author describes his life as one of adventure and exploration, and above all “fortunate”.

“Everything always seemed to be on my side,” he said.

Throughout his life, a memory of his mother’s love stayed with him but it was not until Ainsworth was older than 60 he could break through the code of silence about the UK’s so-called orphan children.

Ainsworth tracked his mother to a small town in Missouri after discovering she had married an American GI and moved to the US after World War II.

“My mother had died but I met the other members of the family, a sister and two brothers,” he said.

“They showed me a box they said my mother always kept beside her bed.”

Ainsworth said in the book his mother had never explained to them why she had kept the box which contained old English coins and a photograph.

“I counted the coins,” he said.

“Three and five pence halfpenny – exactly the amount I had in my pocket when I arrived in New Zealand.

“The photograph was of a four-year-old boy – me.”

The book will be available for purchase at the launch on Saturday, April 7, from 11am to 1pm, at the Vasse Hotel.