Category Archives: A to Z 2014

A to Z wrap up

09 Friday May 2014

Posted by in A to Z 2014

≈ 1 Comment

CONGRATULATIONS! 

I found the A to Z challenge busy – it consumed much of my time through April even though I had planned out what I would write about beforehand and drafted some posts.  I found during the month I changed my mind on some topics and, despite preparation, was writing each day.

My 26 posts:

According to the statistics on blogger.com, the most read post during the month was the post on Cremation, followed by the post on Fromelles.  The Cremation post and the post on the Zulu War shared equally in having the most plus ones on Google+. The Cremation post received the most comments.

I gained some new readers, including a cousin :).

My family enjoyed the posts, and that was really important to me.

During the challenge I read some interesting blogs, not all on family history,  and learned many new things.

Z is for Zulu War

29 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by in A to Z 2014, Africa, Mainwaring, military

≈ 4 Comments

When my son asked me to write about the Zulu wars for the letter Z of this blogging challenge, I found a second cousin four times removed, Henry Germain Mainwaring (1853-1922), who served in the Zulu war of 1879.

Henry Germain Mainwaring was a Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion 24th (2nd Warwickshire) Regiment of Foot. He sailed for South Africa on 2 February 1878 and was there until 20 December 1879.

H. G. Mainwaring of the 2/24 Regiment. Photograph from the “Ron Sheeley Collection”

From 20 January 1879 the 24th Regiment was camped at Isandhlwana, an isolated hill in the Zulu kingdom in the east of Southern Africa. B Company of the Second Battalion had been left to guard the stores and hospital at Rorke’s Drift ten miles away. Rorke’s Drift was a mission station and the former trading post of James Rorke, an Irish merchant. It was near a ford, known as a drift, across the Buffalo River which formed the border between the British colony of Natal and the Zulu kingdom.

On 22 January, Lord Chelmsford, British Commander-in-Chief,  took the second battalion of the 24th, with the artillery and some of the Natal Native Contingent away from the camp to seek battle with the Zulus, who had been reported to be south-east of the camp. 1,800 British and Colonial troops were left in the camp including 585 men of the 24th Regiment, the only British regular infantry regiment among them. While Chelmsford was absent, the camp was attacked from the north-east by a force of Zulu warriors, said to number 20,000. Of the 1,800 British forces, about 300 survived. These had fled south-west across the Buffalo River; of the 585 men of the 24th only ten survived.

The Battle of Isandlwana, 22 January 1879.  Charles Edwin Fripp (1854-1906), 1885 (c). A small band of the 24th gathered in a square around their Regimental Colour. In the aftermath of the battle there were several groups of bodies found which indicated that men had gathered themselves together to fight to the last. In the background rises Isandhlwana Kop which, significantly, is shaped like a Sphinx, the badge of the 24th.

Chelmsford and his troops arrived back at camp that night. John Price, of the 2nd Battalion, 24th Regiment, wrote to his parents:

We arrived in camp about nine o’clock at night, and all the tents were burned to the ground, and where we had to sleep was a very uncomfortable place among the dead bodies all night…  from http://www.1879zuluwar.com/t2449-various-eye-witness-accounts

Henry Germain Mainwaring was among those with Chelmsford. He was a Lieutenant in F company of the 2nd Battalion of the 24th Regiment.

The mission station at Rorke’s Drift was attacked by several thousand Zulu warriors on the afternoon of 22 January and the battle continued overnight. 140 British and colonial troops, including 36 men in the hospital, defended the garrison. Chelmsford’s troops arrived at 8am on the morning of the 23rd. Seventeen British soldiers had been killed, ten wounded, and 450 Zulus had been killed.

 

Alphonse de Neuville - The defence of Rorke's Drift 1879 - Google Art Project
The defence of Rorke’s Drift 1879 Alphonse-Marie-Adolphe de Neuville  via Wikimedia Commons

The battle was reported around the world. For example it was reported in New Zealand in the Otago Witness of 22 February 1879 where Mainwaring’s name was listed as one of the officers of the 24th Regiment which had been in the battle and “almost completely annihilated” in the “massacre”.

The remainder of the 24th cleaned up after the battle and buried the dead. Mainwaring made a map of the battlefield showing the graves of those who were killed and were buried.

Mainwaring received a medal and clasp for the South African Campaign of 1877, 1878, and 1879. He was promoted to Captain in 1880. In the First World War he served as a Brigadier General.

LocationZululandca1890
Location of the Zulu Kingdom, Southern Africa, ca. 1890 by Seb az86556 [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
1879 map of Zululand with Rorke’s Drift and Isandhlwana highlighted by red arrows

References:

Y is for Yangon Sailing Club

28 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by in A to Z 2014, Symes, World War 2

≈ 2 Comments

I am researching the life of my step grandfather, George William Symes (1896-1980)  to contribute to the Imperial War Museum’s new website Lives of the First World War http://www.livesofthefirstworldwar.org/ . My step grandfather fought in both the 1st and 2nd World Wars.

When George Symes died in 1980, his obituary in the Times was followed a few days later by a letter from two men who had served with him in Rangoon, now known as Yangon and had been committee members of the Sailing Club. According to the letter, after Rangoon was re-taken in May 1945, General Symes held a meeting beside the burnt out remains of the old club house about re-forming the club. Under his leadership a boat was designed and various army units started building the hulls, making fittings and building a new club house. The letter goes on that one skill that was not available from any army unit was sailmaking. General Symes turned his verandah into a sail loft and “got down on his hands and knees to help in cutting out the sails himself”. In a short time the club had a fleet of eighteen sailing boats. (C.C.M, and W.G.S.P. “Major-General G. W. Symes.” Times [London, England] 13 Sept. 1980: 14. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 25 Apr. 2014.)

George Symes in 1941

1947 Yacht Club building – image retrieved from http://www.yangonsailing.com/

Major General Symes is listed as the second commodore of the Yangon Sailing Club from 1945-1946. The first commodore from when the club was established in 1924 was the Governor of Burma. (“List of Commodores.” About Us. Yangon Sailing Club, n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2014. <http://www.yangonsailing.com/?page_id=83>.)

In his diary for 1945 George wrote several times about the sailing club

12 June [arrived Rangoon]

24 June
Meeting at 4.30 re formation of the Sailing Club. All went very well.

1 September
Rangoon United Services Officers Sailing Club Meeting at 5. Very successful. Forty-seven people present. Rules approved, Committee elected and I was made Commodore (Always wanted to be the Commodore of a Yacht Club!)

29 November
Worked on putting back Albatross’ mast a foot as she is carrying lee helm. Hardman to tea and we tried her out. still less helm and now think the rudder is the trouble. Tested Hardman in a sharpie and classified him B.

1 December
Up 6.15 and sailed Albatross for 1/2 hour. New rudder and weather helm at last ••••••• Sailed Albatross, with Dawson as crew, after lunch and ran aground when leading, and so lost the race.

16 December
Up 7.15. Went to Yacht Club and did officer of the day for the morning races.
Then to Scots Kirk for opening service at 10.30, suddenly confronted with reading the lesson (and read the wrong chapter! Had no chance of reading it beforehand and the book was open at the wrong place.) I don’t think anybody noticed it. Stayed to communion service after. My first in a Scots Kirk. In afternoon crewed in Albatross for Dawson and raced against Hill, Mallard and oriole. A most exciting race which we lost by 20 seconds. (Symes, G. W. (George William) & De Crespigny, Rafe, 1936- & Symes, K. C (1981). Collected papers of George W. Symes 1896-1980. [s.n.], Adelaide ; Canberra)

A description of George Symes  of his time in Rangoon:

Driberg, Tom. “The Forgotten Army.” Reynold’s News and Sunday Citizen(n.d.): n. pag. A Parish at War – Personal Stories. Deddington.org.uk. Web. 1 May 2014. <http://www.deddington.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/10397/8.9.TheForgottenArmy.pdf>.

My father recalls George saying of the stork insignia on the shoulder flash that  – unlike the article – it was not the babies they carried, but the messes they had to clear up!

I haven’t got any pictures of George from his time in Rangoon. Below are several pictures a period when he was stationed in Bombay, where he greatly enjoyed sailing.

X, her mark

27 Sunday Apr 2014

Posted by in A to Z 2014, ahnentafel, demography, genealogical records, statistics

≈ 2 Comments

In 2012 at http://www.lonetester.com/2012/10/family-history-through-the-alphabet-challenge-x-is-for-signatures/ Alona Tester blogged about ‘X is for signatures’. She included examples of certificates where ‘X his mark’ showed that someone could not sign his name.

I looked though my collection of birth, death and marriage certificates for examples of people who could not sign their name.
On the birth certificate of Alice Young, born in 1859, the informant, her mother Caroline née Clark, could not sign her name and made an X. On the birth certificate of Caroline Young in 1867, the informant was her father George Young. He signed his name. In 1878 the birth of James Ernest Young was registered and the informant was Caroline. This time she appears to have signed her name. The informant’s name is in a different handwriting to the details on the rest of the certificate. Perhaps Caroline had learned how to sign her name in the twenty years between the births of Alice and James.

Informant’s details from the birth certificate of Alice Young. Birth registered in Victoria number 4807 of 1859. Caroline was also the informant on John Young’s birth in 1856. She signed with her mark on that certificate too.

 

Informant’s details from the birth certificate of James Ernest Young. Birth registered in Victoria number 20382 of 1878. Other details from the certificate and from the preceding certificate have been left to show the difference in handwriting, which suggests that this might be the signature of Caroline.
Sarah Way née Daw was the informant on the 1868 birth certificate of her daughter Emily Way. She could not sign her name and made a mark. However, in 1896 Sarah’s husband John Way signed his name as the informant for the registration of the death of his son John.

When she registered the birth in 1864 of Henry Dawson at Corby, Lincolnshire, Eliza Dawson née Skerritt, his mother, could not sign her name. Her husband Isaac was able to sign his name when they married in 1855. She signed the marriage register with her mark.

These are the only examples I could find in my family documents of people who could not write their own name. All three women were great great great grandmothers of my husband. Eleven of his other great great great grandparents could sign their name.

These women were all born in the first half of the nineteenth century. All their husbands could sign their own names. In the next generation, their children, both girls and boys, could write their own name.

Some demographers have argued that illiteracy is linked to the size of families, in particular that education diminishes fertility. For example, a study of demographic changes in Britain from the 1850s to the early twentieth century found that “the extension of basic literacy is related to increases in female labour market participation, which is in turn related to fertility reduction”. (Newell and Gazeley) The data from my family does not support this hypothesis. None of the women in the table below were ever in paid employment. I cannot see any link between the literacy of my own and my husband’s great great great grandparents and the size of their families.

 

Age at marriage, children and dates of birth for our great great great grandmothers

 

Name Ahnentafel number literacy number of children age at marriage age when first child born age when last child born age at death lived Notes
Caroline Clarke 33 no 13 18 18 43 44 1835-1879 Includes one set of twins.
Sarah Daw 35 no 10 17 18 37 58 1837-1895  
Ellen Murray 37 passenger list stated she could read and write 11 19 20 41 64 1837-1901  
Margaret Smyth 39 passenger list stated she could read and write 7 21 19 38 63 1834-1897 had a child before she married
Eliza Sinden 43 signature appears on birth and death certificates 8 25 26 41 85 1823-1908  
Eliza Skerrit 45 no 10 21 24 38 65 1834-1899 Includes one set of triplets. This is the only English family. The last child was born at the time Eliza’s husband, Isaac Dawson, died.
Caroline Ralph 47 signature appears on marriage certificate 10 20 21 43 46 1850-1896  
Annie Frances Chauncy 49 yes 2 20 21 24 25 1857-1883 died young
Jeanie Hawkins 51 yes 4 21 22 31 79 1862-1941  
Margaret Budge 53 yes 13 21 22 44 67 1845-1912  
Ellen Jane Mainwaring 55 yes 10 20 20 37 75 1845-1920  

The women in this table were Australian, with the exception of that of Eliza Skerrit, wife of Isaac Dawson, who was from Lincolnshire, England. I have not included my German great great great grandparents as I do not have the relevant data.

A graphical representation of the above data for our great great great grandmothers

click to enlarge

Reference:

  • Newell, A. and Gazeley, I. (2012) The declines in infant mortality and fertility: Evidence from British cities in demographic transition, Economics Department Working Paper Series, University of Sussex, No. 48-2012 retrieved from http://ftp.iza.org/dp6855.pdf 27 April 2014

W is for Wick, Caithness

25 Friday Apr 2014

Posted by in A to Z 2014, genealogical records, Gunn, Scotland

≈ 3 Comments

My great great grandmother Margaret Cudmore née  Budge (1845-1912) came from Wick, Caithness. Her father, Kenneth Budge (1813-1852), was a seaman. After his death, her mother Margaret Gunn (1819-1863) remarried and emigrated to Australia with her children and second husband.

Wick was an important herring port. My great great great grandfather shipped herring from Wick to ports on the Baltic sea.

Wick harbour 1867 retrieved from http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usebooks/naylor-johnogroats/04.html
Herring gutters Wick 1913 Retrieved from Dornoch History Links image library http://www.historylinksarchive.org.uk/picture/number11780.asp
From a collection of 44 monochrome postcards showing fishing scenes around Scotland in the early 20th century. Monchrome photograph with the title ‘Herring Gutters at work, Wick’ showing three large trench style benchs full of herring with men and women on each side gutting herring. There are stacked fish barrels behind them with the masts of fishing vessels in the harbour in the background. Retrieved from Dornoch History Links image library http://www.historylinksarchive.org.uk/picture/number11794.asp

Last month Sue Adams wrote about Soundtoll Registers on the Worldwide Genealogy Blog. Soundtolls were taxes imposed by the king of Denmark on ships passing through the narrow strait, the Sound, between Sweden and Denmark,. The records run from 1497 to 1857. The toll house was at Elsinore.

I searched the database of the Soundtoll Registers for Kenneth Budge and found five entries, three from Wick and two from Inverkeithing. The two Inverkeithing records are for the same voyage on the same day.

Date 16 September 1850, master K. Budge from Wick. The voyage was between Wick and Stettin. Sondtoll register film 363 image 147 from http://dietrich.soundtoll.nl/public/toon.php?fnr=363&sid=147

On 16 September 1850 K. Budge from Wick was sailing from Wick to Stettin with a cargo of sild [herring]. Stettin is present day Szczecin in Poland on the Baltic sea. In the nineteenth century it was a major Prussian port connected with Prussian and Pomeranian cities by rail from 1843.

On 9 October 1850 K. Budge from Wick was sailing from Stettin to London with a cargo of zink [zinc] and staver [translates as spells but this does not make sense, perhaps staves of wood].

On 2 July 1851 K. Budge of Wick was sailing from Kønigsberg to Liverpool with a cargo of 3460 Scheffel Ærter [3460 bushels of peas]. Kønigsberg is today known as Kaliningrad. It is on the Baltic and was the capital of East Prussia.

On 10 August 1852 K. Budge of Inverkeithing, was sailing from Wick to the Baltic sea with a cargo of sild [herring] and 2 heste [horses]. Inverkeithing is near Edinburgh, 240 miles south of Wick. I am not certain why there are two separate records apparently two pages apart for the voyage other than that two different sorts of cargo  are involved.

On this last voyage Kenneth Budge died of cholera. From the John O’Groat Journal Friday 10 September 1852

THE MARY RODGERS. –  This vessel which belongs to Bo’ness, is reported in the Shipping Gazette of the 4th instant as having left Elsinore on the 30th ult.; and in the same paper she is again reported as having put into the same port, with master and one man dead of cholera. This vessel left Wick on the 30th July, herring laden, for Dantzic, and was commanded by Mr Kenneth Budge, of this place, son of the late Mr Donald Budge, shipmaster, Wick. The owner of the Mary Rodgers was on board when the vessel left Wick.

Related posts:

V is for Villers-Bretonneux

24 Thursday Apr 2014

Posted by in A to Z 2014, ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day, Plowright, World War 1

≈ 2 Comments

25 April is ANZAC day, a day to remember the Australians and New Zealanders who served their country in the armed forces.

William Stanley Plowright (1893-1917) was my husband’s first cousin twice removed. He was killed in action at Lagnicourt on 27 March 1917 and is listed on the memorial at Villers-Bretonneux. He has no known grave.

Villers-Bretonneux, is a village in the Somme département of France, 16 kilometres east of Amiens on the straight main road to St Quentin. Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery is about 2 kilometres north of the village. Villers–Bretonneux Australian National Memorial lists the names of 10,762 soldiers of the Australian Imperial Force with no known grave who were killed between 1916, when Australian forces arrived in France and Belgium, and the end of fighting in 1918.

Lagnicourt is south of Arras and north-east of Amiens and Villers-Bretonneux. The Battle of Lagnicourt was fought on 26 and 27 March 1917 as the Germans withdrew to the Hindenburg Line.

Australian War memorial photograph image id C00470. Photographer Ernest Charles Barnes, April 1917. Description: Two unidentified soldiers stand amid the shattered buildings in the French village of Lagnicourt, which was captured by the Australians in late March 1917 as the Germans withdrew towards the Hindenburg Line. The Germans heavily shelled the village as they retreated. (From the collection of 704 Driver Ernest Charles Barnes who served with the 1st Field Artillery Brigade, 21st Howitzer Brigade and 2nd Field Artillery Brigade.)

William was the seventh of eleven children of William John Plowright (1859-1914) and Harriet Jane née Hosking (1861-1946). William’s brothers appear not to have enlisted.

William enlisted on 5 April 1915. He was 21 years, nine months old and worked in Melbourne as a driver and a printer. On 25 June 1915 William embarked with the 24th battalion, 1st reinforcements on HMAT Ceramic A40 from Melbourne. He served at Gallipoli from 30 August 1915 and was wounded by shrapnel in action there on 29 November 1915.

In April 1916 he was discharged from hospital on Malta and joined the 58th battalion.

William was promoted to corporal on 12 November 1916 and appointed Lance Sergeant, acting sergeant, on 4 March 1917.

The 58th Battalion participated in the Battle of Lagnicourt on 26 and 27 March.  William Plowright was killed in action.

War diary of the 58th Battalion for 25 and 26 March 1917 retrieved from the Australian War Memorial (click to enlarge)
War diary of the 58th Battalion for 26 and 26 March 1917 retrieved from the Australian War Memorial

I have not found any details of William Plowright’s death.

Family Notices. (1917, April 23). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 1. Retrieved April 24, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1612537

His body was never found; quite possibly there was nothing left to find. He is one of the 10,762 soldiers who are listed with no known grave on the Villers-Bretonneux memorial.

Roll of honour circular completed by the mother of William Stanley Plowright from the Australian War Memorial

 

Folio 23 of World War 1 dossier concerning William Stanley Plowright (NAA:B2455, Plowright William Stanley)

 

Folio 25 of World War 1 dossier concerning William Stanley Plowright (NAA:B2455, Plowright William Stanley)
Family Notices. (1919, March 26). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 1. Retrieved April 24, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1450271

 

Family Notices. (1922, March 25). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 11. Retrieved April 24, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4678805

 


References:

Related post:

U is for Union Mine disaster

23 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by in A to Z 2014, genealogical records, Reher, Talbot, Young

≈ 3 Comments

On 2 January 1884, there was an accident at the Union Gold Mining Company’s mine at Mount Greenock, 5km south of Talbot, in central Victoria.

Mount Greenock and the site of the Union Mine

The accident happened when four men were being lowered to the working level of the mine at the beginning of their shift.

The cage carrying miners to the working level was lifted and lowered by a steam engine which turned a horizontal shaft called a ‘pinion-shaft’.

Attached to the pinion-shaft was a large spool of wire rope (this reel was called the ‘spider’) which, winding and unwinding, raised and lowered the cage.

The accident was caused by poorly-designed and insufficiently strong keying (joins) between the spider and the pinion-shaft. The keys gave way and the spider spun out of control on the shaft.

The spool of wire rope supporting the cage ran out of control, and the cage fell the last eighty feet of a 230 foot shaft. The cage was not a safety cage, although safety cages had been the subject of a Parliamentary Report five years earlier.

One of the injured men was John Reher (1837-1891), the husband of Alice Young (1859-1935), my husband’s great grand aunt.

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. (1884, January 4). The North Eastern Ensign (Benalla, Vic. : 1872 – 1938), p. 2. Retrieved April 22, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70745282

Syndicated newspaper reports, such as the one that appeared in the Australian Town and Country Journal of 5 January 1884, reported that Reher was “the most severely hurt. His internal injuries are considered certain to prove fatal”. It went on to say, incorrectly, that Reher, “who was too badly hurt to be moved, is a single man”.

Alice Young and John Reher had married in 1880. They had two children, Gertrude Alice Carol Reher born 1881 and Percy Powell Albury Reher born 1882. A third child, Elfleda Cecilia Anna Reher, was born in 1884, the year of the accident.

Reher broke his right leg, dislocated his right elbow joint and had severe internal injuries. (Report in the Talbot Leader of 4 January 1884)

John Reher, and the three other injured men, survived. Morris Whelan was also married and had eight children, John Beckman was married with one child and John Sellborn was single. All four men were compensated with part wages paid for three months.

The newspaper reports were not completely accurate about the names of the men and other details. For example, John Selborn’s name was reported as Selthorne.

The names of the four men are recorded in the Victorian Mining Accident Index compiled by Dave Evans at http://www.ballaratgenealogy.org.au/resources/victorian-mining-accident-index . The on-line index has information of about 5,600 miners killed or injured from the early 1850s to the 1940s. There is also a more comprehensive index available on CD-ROM with about 9,100 names and more details.

Nearly sixty years later the accident was remembered by a letter writer to the Age who recalled that Reher had to spend the greater part of his days sitting in a chair.

The Age 26 August 1939 page 9 retrieved from Google News

John and Alice had a fourth child, Mary Maude Mabel Reher, born in 1886.

John Reher died in 1891, seven years after the accident.

 

Transcription of article in the Talbot Leader of 4 January 1884

T is for teachers’ records

22 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by in A to Z 2014, Champion de Crespigny, genealogical records, Wilkins

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Victorian Teacher Record Books from 1863-1959 have been microfilmed and are available at the Public Record Office (VPRS 13718). An index to these record books is online at http://prov.vic.gov.au/index_search?searchid=38 .

I find such online indexes worth checking for surnames I am researching and I found a record for Constantine Trent Champion Crespigny, the name of my great grandfather. I was unaware that he had spent any time working as a teacher, so I retrieved the record from the microfilm. It was in fact his uncle, after whom he was named. I have previously written about Constantine Trent Pulteney Champion de Crespigny (1851-1883).

In June 1877 Constantine was appointed Truant Officer for the Education Department: From The Argus of Friday 15 June 1877 page 4:
Mr. T. C. Crespigny has been appointed Truant Officer for the St. Kilda district.
 From The Argus of Saturday 16 June 1877 page 7:  
Mr. Crespigny’s appointment as Truant Officer, announced in Friday’s Argus, includes the district of Prahran as well as St Kilda.

It seems that the Teacher Record Books include records of Truant Officers.

Teacher Record Books VPRS 13718 – teacher record number 8983

Records of teachers include the schools where they taught.  

George Ernest Wilkins (1884-1909). George, my husband’s first cousin twice removed, was the son of George Edward Wilkins (1857-1944), also a teacher, and his wife Charlotte née Young (1861-1925). George Wilkins senior’s record is quite long. However, until looking in the index to Teacher Record Books, I did not know that George Wilkins junior had spent any time teaching

Teacher Record Books VPRS 13718 – teacher record number 14167

From the first column of the record George taught in school numbers 959 and 404. There is an online list of Victorian state schools, which can be searched by number or name, at http://prov.vic.gov.au/index_search?searchid=80 .  School 909 was at Elmhurst, 28 km west from Avoca in central Victoria. School 404 was at Maryborough, a small city in central Victoria

George Wilkins junior’s record gives his birth date, appointments, comments about his teaching performance and also his exam results. George appeared to have failed some of his exams. He resigned in October 1904. He died in 1909 in Western Australia.

George’s sister Ethel Caroline Wilkins (1883-1955) also served as a teacher, from 1902 to 31 May 1904. She resigned the week before her marriage on 6 June 1904  to Charles Grose.

Teacher Record Books VPRS 13718 – teacher record number 5116

Ethel was appointed Sewing Mistress (S.M.) at school 3022, at Warrenmang.  Warrenmang, near Moonambel, is 23km north-west of Avoca in Central Victoria.

School 3022 does not appear on the PROV searchable index. This is probably because records of the school, other than the building file, have not survived. Searching the National Library’s Trove newspaper site, I found a public tender notice in The Argus of 5 August 1904 concerning a tender for repairs to the residence and a brick chimney and learned that school 3022 was at Warrenmang. The school number is confirmed at http://victorianschoolhistories.weebly.com/schools-v-w-and-y.html. This website has indexed the entries from Vision and Realisation, A Centenary History of State Education in Victoria, a 3 Volume work published in 1973 by the Education Department of Victoria, which has a short history of each State School in Victoria.

S is for seventy-eight

21 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by in A to Z 2014, baronet, Champion de Crespigny, sport, Trove

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In 1926, at the age of seventy-eight, Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny (1847-1935) executed a “double dive” with Otto Hagborg, who was seventy-one, at Highgate Pond, London.

Sir Claude participated in many different kinds of sports, especially steeple-chasing and ballooning.  I have written about his ballooning exploits.

Otto Hagborg (1854-1927) born in Sweden was an artist. He moved to London in the 1890s and helped introduce the sport of artistic diving to London. He represented Sweden in the 1906 Olympic Games in Athens  and came 12th out of 24 competitors in the conbined platform diving event. He was fifty-one years old and is the oldest person to have competed in either swimming or diving at any Olympic Games.

The Highgate Ponds, also known as the Hampstead Ponds, are three large fresh water swimming ponds on Hampstead Heath. The ponds were allocated for men’s, women’s and mixed bathing.  The men’s pond had a ten-metre diving tower, erected in 1893, the first diving stage in England. The first National Graceful Diving Competition was held at Highgate Ponds in 1895. The tower was dismantled in 1982.

A REMARKABLE FEAT. (1926, January 2). Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 – 1954), p. 38. Retrieved April 16, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article89642131

HIGH DIVING AT 78. (1925, October 13). Northern Star (Lismore, NSW : 1876 – 1954), p. 6. Retrieved April 16, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article93609566

——-
References:

R is for Railways – triennial listing of railways employees in Victoria

20 Sunday Apr 2014

Posted by in A to Z 2014, Dawson, genealogical records, railways

≈ 1 Comment

I wrote earlier this month about the Victorian Government Gazettes. The Gazette published a list of railway employees every three years between 1884 and 1929.

I have been able to follow the career of my husband’s great grandfather, Henry Dawson (1864 – 1929).

On 7 June 1889 commenced employment as a railway employee.

On 30 January 1893 he was with the traffic branch as a lampman.

On 4 February 1896 he was with the traffic branch as a carriage cleaner.

On 2 February 1899 he was with the traffic branch as a porter.

On 1 January  1902 again employed as a carriage cleaner. His  pay was 7 shillings weekly.

As he was not mentioned in the gazette listing of 1905 it appears that Henry had left the railways before January 1905  (1905 Gazette 141 Page 4744  http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/view.cgi?year=1905&class=general&page_num=4719&state=V&classNum=G142)

The Commonwealth of Australia Electoral Roll of 1909 has him still employed as a railway employee. He probably hadn’t updated his voting registration. (1909 Australian Electoral Roll, Bentleigh polling place, Division of Balaclava, State of Victoria)

On 1 January 1912 Henry Dawson recommenced work with the railways

On 4 August 1914, 27 February 1918 and 7 April 1921 he was with the transportation branch as a lampman. He was still in that job on 24 November 1925; his weekly pay was 14 shillings 8 pence.

…

retrieved from http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/view.cgi?year=1926&class=general&page_num=1233&state=V&classNum=G54

There is more information about railway employment  at http://prov.vic.gov.au/provguide-40

Where to find the Triennial List of Railway Employees in the Government Gazette

(1884 – 1929)

 Year Vol Page Year Vol Page
1884 1 1459 1908 2 2333
1887 2 2055 1911 2 4457
1890 1 1237 1914 2 3267
1893 1   387 1918 1   887
1896 1   621 1921 1 1189
1899 1   433 1924 1 1167
1902 3 4099 1926 1 1233
1905 3 4719 1929 2 1931

The list was discontinued after 1929.