Category Archives: A to Z 2017

2017 A to Z blogging challenge

06 Saturday May 2017

Posted by in A to Z 2017

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This is my fourth year participating in the A to Z blogging challenge.  This year I wrote mostly about places associated with my family history.

The places were mainly in England and southeastern Australia. Maps compiled using mapalist.com.
  • A is for letter from Anzac : my great grandfather Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny (1882-1952) was a doctor on Lemnos near Gallipoli. He was mentioned in a 1915 letter from the journalist Keith Murdoch to the Australian prime minister  bout conditions at Gallipoli.
  • B is for Borneo : my third cousin four times removed, Claude Augustus Champion de Crespigny (1829-1884), spent much of his life working in Borneo and researching its natural history and geography.
  • C is for caught in Caen during the Reign of Terror : In 1792 my 6th great grandparents Constantine Phipps (1746-1797) and Elizabeth Phipps née Tierney (1749-1832) were living in Caen, France. That year they took a trip to back to England and left six of their children behind. The parents were unable to return to France and the family was separated for more than five years because of hostilities between he two countries.
  • E is for Eden Park, home of Wentworth Cavenagh : ‘Eden Park’ was the Adelaide home from 1867-1892 of my great great grandparents Wentworth Cavenagh (1822-1895) and his wife Ellen Jane Cavenagh née Mainwaring later Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1845-1920).
  • G is for Gretna Green : in 1804 Eliza Champion Crespigny (1784-1831), my 5th great aunt, was married at Gretna Green over the border in Scotlandto Richard Hussey Vivian (1775-1842)
  • J is for jail: Bankruptcy of William Pulteney Dana : William Pulteney Dana (1776-1861), my fourth great grandfather, was jailed for bankruptcy in 1840. The prison was known as the Dana, after his father the Reverend Edmund Dana (1739-1823). It is still called the Dana.
  • O is for Oakleigh, a suburb of Melbourne, where my mother-in-law Marjorie Sullivan was born in 1920.
  • Q is for Queenscliff in 1882 : the birthplace of my great grandfather Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny in 1882. His mother, Annie Frances Champion de Crespigny née Chauncy (1857-1883) died there after his birth.
  • S is for the Snowy : some photos of my husband Greg working on the Snowy Mountains Scheme
  • T is for Talbot in 1869 : my three times great grandfather Philip Champion Crespigny (1817-1889) sold his farm near Talbot, Victoria
  • U is for Unibic biscuit tin : On a biscuit tin commemorating World War I is a 1917 photograph of my great grandfather Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny (1882-1952) escorting Queen Mary  on a visit to the war hospital he commanded.
  • Z is for Zehlendorf the district of Berlin where my grandparents Hans Boltz (1910-1992) and Charlotte Boltz née Manock (1912-1988) first lived when they were married in 1937.
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Z is for Zehlendorf

29 Saturday Apr 2017

Posted by in A to Z 2017, Berlin, Boltz, Manock

≈ 5 Comments

My maternal grandparents, Hans Boltz (1910-1992) and Charlotte  Manock (1912-1988) were married in 1937.

Their first home was in Eschershauser Weg 27, Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Berlin. Zehlendorf is a district in the south-west of Berlin near the Krumme Lanke lake, on the edge of the Grunewald forest.

They lived in a  flat (apartment) in a housing estate known as Onkel Toms Hütte, served by a  U-Bahn station named after the 1852 anti-slavery novel. The estate, designed by several by well-known architects, among them Bruno Taut and Hugo Härings, was built between 1926 and 1932 . The apartment blocks had communal back gardens that led into the forest.

My grandmother, Charlotte Boltz, outside her new home in 1937

 

Eschershauser Weg in 1937

 

Eschershauser Weg in the snow about 1937
from Google maps
A satellite view of Eschershauser Weg showing how it is set in the forest and the communal grounds surrounding the flats from Google maps

According to Google Maps a U-Bahn leaves for Berlin Zoo every ten minutes. The journey takes just over half an hour. Charlotte’s parents lived near Berlin Zoo.

Public transport from Eschershauser Weg to Berlin Zoo from Google maps

Hans’s parents lived at Florastraße 13 in Steglitz. His father, Fritz Boltz (1879-1954) was a live-in janitor at a school there. There is still a school at that address. Florastraße is about six kilometres away from Eschershauser Weg and it takes about half an hour to get there by public transport.

From Eschershauser Weg, Zehlendorf, to Florastraße, Steglitz per Google maps
I visited Eschershauser Weg in 1982
The back of the flats overlook a communal garden with a sand pit and play space. Each flat has a balcony. Photographed 1982.

 

The sandpit at the back of the flats in 1982
My mother playing in the sandpit at Christmas time. She was three years old.
My mother playing in the sandpit aged 4
My mother on her sled at Christmas when she was three years old. The balconies at the back of the flats can be seen.

My mother told me about tobogganing on her sled down a very steep slope with two stones at the bottom of the path that you had to avoid. I found the path and stones in 1982. The slope was not big but it must have seemed so to a small child.

the sloping path with stones at the bottom in 1982

The flat was very close to the forest.

The forest was a very short walk from the flat in 1982

 

 

My grandmother pushing my mother in a pram near the flat with her parents Emil and Helene Manock

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Y is for football at Yarra Park: G. Dana footballer

28 Friday Apr 2017

Posted by in A to Z 2017, Dana, Melbourne, sport

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One of my earliest posts was about my first cousins four times removed George and Augustus Dana, the sons of Henry Dana (1820-1852), commandant of the Native Police in the colony of Victoria.

Reviewing digitised Australian newspapers on Trove recently, I came across several mentions of a G. Dana in the 1860s. I believe that this G. Dana is George Kinnaird Dana (1849-1872), the son of Henry Dana. G. Dana was playing the local football code, now known as Australian Rules Football.

A game at the Richmond Paddock, part of Yarra Park,  in the 1860s. A pavilion at the Melbourne Cricket Ground is on the left in the background. (A wood engraving made by Robert Bruce on July 27, 1866.)

G. Dana played mostly for South Yarra. South Yarra Football club was in existence from at least 1864. In 1873 South Yarra Football Club merged with a Saint Kilda Cricketers Club to form the Saint Kilda Football Club, which still plays football today.

In May 1866 Dana was playing for South Yarra. The rule for the season had been adopted at a meeting of delegates held at the Freemasons’ Hotel.

 

FOOTBALL. (1866, May 12). Bell’s Life in Victoria and Sporting Chronicle (Melbourne, Vic. : 1857 – 1868), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article199059375

Dana chose one of the sides for the South Yarra Club. In the two hour game in May, neither side scored a goal.

 

FOOTBALL. (1866, May 12). Bell’s Life in Victoria and Sporting Chronicle (Melbourne, Vic. : 1857 – 1868), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article199059375

Dana played for South Yarra against Melbourne for the Challenge Cup in June 1866.

FOOTBALL. (1866, June 2). Bell’s Life in Victoria and Sporting Chronicle (Melbourne, Vic. : 1857 – 1868), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article199059376

Dana is also mentioned in September as playing for the Challenge Cup. Dana scored the second and final goal for South Yarra with a good running drop kick. Apparently drop kicks are no longer used in Australian Football League although there is a video of a drop kick being played in 2013.

 

The Challenge Cup. (1866, September 15). Bell’s Life in Victoria and Sporting Chronicle (Melbourne, Vic. : 1857 – 1868), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article199057292

On 14 September 1867 G. Dana was mentioned as being a member of the Melbourne Football Club team which was scheduled to play a team drawn from the 14th Regiment [the 2nd Battalion, Buckinghamshire Regiment of Foot].

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1867. (1867, September 14). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 5. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5777936

George Dana later became a trader in the South Pacific. In 1872, at the age of 23, he accidentally shot himself in the foot and died of tetanus on the island of Tanna, in present-day Vanuatu.

 

Family Notices (1873, April 1). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5851052

Related posts

Further reading

 

X is for destruction of a piratical fleet near Xiānggǎng (Hong Kong)

27 Thursday Apr 2017

Posted by in A to Z 2017, China, Hong Kong, Mainwaring, navy, piracy

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My fourth great uncle Karl Heinrich August Mainwaring  was the tenth of the seventeen children of Rowland Mainwaring (1783-1862), eldest of the eight children of Rowland’s third wife Laura Maria Julia Walburga Chevillard (1811-1891).

Karl Mainwaring was born 4 September 1837 at Mannheim in Germany. He died 21 August 1906 at Saint Helier, Jersey.

On 19 September 1856 Karl Mainwaring appointed as lieutenant in the Royal Navy.  From 1874 to 1893 Karl Mainwaring was harbour master in Kingston, Jamaica. He retired from the navy with the rank of captain.

In 1866 Lieutenant K.H.A Mainwaring was stationed in Hong Kong with the China Squadron on  HMS Princess Charlotte.

Xiānggǎng is the modern transcription of 香港 , Hong Kong, ‘fragrant harbour’.

HMS Princess Charlotte painted 1838 by James Kennett Willson from Wikimedia Commons

HMS Princess Charlotte was a 104-gun first-rate ship launched in 1825. Once the the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet, from 1858 until she was sold in 1875 the Princess Charlotte was used as a receiving ship, a harbour-bound hulk used for stores and accommodation in lieu of a permanent shore base.

Kellett’s Island, looking west across Wanchai towards Central and the Peak, with HMS Princess Charlotte on the right (1869 – 71). Retrieved from Cheung, Tim. “Maritime Museum to Show Historical Pictures of HK.” Artinfo. BlouinArtinfo Corp., 15 Jan. 2014. W <http://hk.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/983316/maritime-museum-to-show-historical-pictures-of-hk>.
Hong Kong Harbour about 1868 from The China Magazine Midsummer Volume 1868, page 88,  digitised by Google books.  The view possibly shows Signal Hill.

In July 1866 Lieutenant Mainwaring was given charge of HMS Opossum.

In 1865 HMS Opossum had been engaged in attacks on Chinese pirates in co-operation with the fleet of the Manchu Qing government. The attacks were reported in The Illustrated London News of 23 October 1865.

‘Expedition against the Chinese Pirates’ from The Illustrated London News of 23 October 1865 page 409 with illustration: Fleet of Chinese junks, with HMS Opossum, preparing to attack pirates at How-Chow. Retrieved from thegenealogist.co.uk

On 18 July 1866 HMS Opossum, commanded by Lieutenant Mainwaring, together with HMS Osprey attacked pirate vessels in Sama Bay, now known as Sanya Bay on Hainan Island, 250 miles south-west of Hong Kong. The British destroyed 22 Junks and 270 cannon and killed about 100 men.

HMS Opossum was a wooden screw gunboat of the Albacore class which carried about 38 crew and four guns. (In the 1866 Navy List, the Opossum is listed as a tender to the Princess Charlotte and Mainwaring is in charge of the Haughty, also an Albacore class wood screw gunboat.) HMS Osprey was a Vigilant class gunboat with about 80 crew and four guns.

H.M.S. Osprey and H.M.S Opossum destroying Chinese pirate junks in Sama Bay from The Illustrated London News of 29 September 1866, page 313, retrieved from the genealogist.co.uk

The attack on the pirates was reported in The Illustrated London News of 22 September 1866 and followed up with an illustration the following week.

 

“Piracy in the Chinese Seas” from The Illustrated London News 22 September 1866 page  291 retrieved from the genealogist.co.uk (click on image to enlarge)

The 1866 engagement with the pirates was widely reported. The following account is from the Melbourne Leader.

 

DESTRUCTION OF A PIRATICAL FLEET BY H. M. SHIPS OPOSSUM AND OSPREY. (1866, September 29). Leader (Melbourne, Vic. : 1862 – 1918), p. 17. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article196560667

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Further reading

W is for Williamstown: funeral of Augustus Dana

26 Wednesday Apr 2017

Posted by in A to Z 2017, cemetery, Dana, ward of the state

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Augustus Pulteney Dana, my first cousin four times removed,  born 1 February 1851 at Dandenong, was the son of of Henry Edward Pulteney Dana (1817-1852),and Sophia Cole Hamilton née Walsh (1827-1860). At the time Henry Dana was commandant of the Victorian Native Police.

Augustus was their youngest child. His brothers and sisters were:

  • Cecile Sophia (1845-1908), who married James Colles in 1866 and had children (with present day descendants)
  • William Henry Pulteney (1845-died before 1852)
  • Harry (1843-1854) 
  • Charlotte Elizabeth Kinnaird (1848-1848)
  • George Kinnaird Dana (1849-1872)

In 1852, when Augustus was only one, his father Henry died. Four years later his mother Sophia married his father’s brother William Dana. They had one child, who died as an infant. Sophia died in 1860 and her second husband, Augustus’s uncle and step-father William Dana, died in 1866.

1851: born
1852: father dies
1854: death of brother William who was aged 11, from scarlet fever in Launceston, Tasmania
1856: mother marries uncle
1860: mother dies
1866: uncle, who is also his step father dies.

In November 1867 Augustus, sixteen years old and said to have been ‘uncontrollable’, became a ‘ward of the state’, the term used to describe a child under the guardianship of a State child welfare authority.*

His legal guardian was a police magistrate, Mr Sturt, a former colleague of his father and uncle. Sturt paid 10 shillings a week towards Augustus’s keep.

In January 1868 Augustus absconded but was brought back a day later. In February he was sent to live on a hulk at Williamstown called the Nelson.** This vessel, described as a ‘training ship’, was in fact a floating reformatory for refractory boys.

HMVS Nelson, Williamstown, Victoria, Apr 1898. Image from Find and Connect, originally from Museum Victoria.

A few months later, on 30 May 1868, Augustus died there of scarletina (scarlet fever) after an illness of 3 days. On his death certificate ‘occupation’ was recorded, stretching the truth a little, as ‘ordinary seaman’. His father was given as George Dana, inspector of police, with mother not known. Clearly the informant knew very little about Augustus’s family.

Augustus was sent off with an impressive funeral in naval style at Williamstown cemetery, probably at least in part intended as a contribution to the moral education of his fellows. His grave is unmarked.

NEWS AND NOTES. (1868, June 3). The Ballarat Star (Vic. : 1865 – 1924), p. 2. Retrieved October 5, 2016, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article113844671

results from deceased search on Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries website http://www.gmct.com.au/deceased-search/
I believe this is the site of the grave of Augustus Dana – photographed October 2016

Notes

* see: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/vic/E000214. ‘Victorian Former Wards of the State are people who were removed from their families and placed in government or church operated orphanages, children’s homes or foster care as children. The Victorian government took legal responsibility for their care.” See: http://www.dhs.vic.gov.au/for-individuals/applying-for-documents-and-records/adoption-ward-and-care-leaver-records/former-victorian-state-wards-and-care-leavers

** “The Nelson was a hulk (ship) anchored off Williamstown, Hobson Bay. From 1868, it housed boys aged ten who had been sentenced under the Neglected and Criminal Children’s Act of 1864. By 1872, the vessel housed 383 boys. It was abandoned in 1876 when the boys were transferred to the Bendigo Benevolent Asylum Industrial School, Sandhurst, and later to Sunbury Industrial School.” See: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/vic/biogs/E000318b.htm

Further reading

V is for Valleyfield in Van Diemen’s Land

25 Tuesday Apr 2017

Posted by in A to Z 2017, Cherry Stones, immigration, Scotland, Tasmania, Taylor

≈ 6 Comments

The first of my forebears to migrate to Australia was my fifth  great grandfather George Taylor (1758 – 1828), who arrived in Tasmania, then known as Van Diemen’s Land, in 1823. With him was his wife Mary née Low (1765 -1850) and some of his family. My fourth great grandmother, his daughter, Isabella Hutcheson née Taylor (1794-1876), followed ten years later, arriving about 1833.

 

“Valleyfield” Epping Tas. The “Taylors” have lived here for over 100 years. , about 1914 – about 1941 Photograph in the collection of the State Library of Victoria. Accession number H22546. A.C. Dreier postcard collection. Retrieved from
https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictoria/gid/slv-pic-aab47005

The Taylor family’s arrival in Hobart on the Princess Charlotte on 10 January 1823 was reported in the Sydney Gazette. George Taylor’s son, Robert, wrote a diary about their four-month voyage, mostly concerned with the weather. (Helen Hudson, a Taylor family descendant, covers the Taylor’s voyage in her family history book Cherry Stones, basing her account on Robert’s diary.)

MAGISTRATE FOR THE WEEK—JOHN PIPER, Esq. (1823, February 13). The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 – 1842), p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2181641

George Taylor received a grant of land about 30 miles south of Launceston on the Macquarie River. He named his property ‘Valley-Field’. Three of his sons, George, David, and Robert, received grants of land nearby.

The land grant to George Taylor senior signed 30 June 1823 by Governor Brisbane. Image retrieved from ancestry.com (Copies of land grants issued 1804-1823. LSD354. Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office, Tasmania, Australia.)

In January 1923 and January 1973 there were large family reunions to celebrate the anniversary of the arrival of the Taylor family in Australia.

After 182 years in the Taylor family the Valleyfield property was sold in 2005.

Further reading

Related posts

U is for Unibic biscuit tin

24 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by in A to Z 2017, ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day, Champion de Crespigny, Royal family, World War 1

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My great grandfather Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny (1882-1952) served as a doctor in World War 1.

In 1917 he was in charge of the 1st Australian General Hospital in Rouen which dealt with general battle casualties. On 9 July 1917 Her Majesty Queen Mary visited the hospital. She was photographed with my great grandfather inspecting an honour guard of nurses.

Rouen, France. 9 July 1917. Her Majesty Queen Mary visiting No. 1 Australian General Hospital (1AGH). HM is accompanied through a guard of honour of nurses of the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) by the hospital’s commanding officer, Colonel Trent Champion de Crespigny DSO. Temporary wards and tents are on both sides of the path and patients in hospital uniform look on. Australian War Memorial photograph id K00019

That photograph has been reproduced on a biscuit tin a hundred years later ‘in honour of ANZAC Day and in remembrance of the nurses who served in the war.’

photograph taken in Woolworths supermarket, Ballarat April 2017

The tins are filled with Anzac biscuits. The biscuit company promises that from the sale of the tins, which ‘celebrate the origin of Anzac biscuits, reminding us of the packages of love and care from home that helped buoy the Anzac Spirit in the trenches of Gallipoli’, will go towards service organisations such as the Returned and Services League (RSL).

Dr de Crespigny on behalf of the hospital at Lemnos dealing with the sick and wounded from Gallipoli, received tins of biscuits from Australia. The biscuits were probably not the Anzac biscuits we know today.

WATTLE DAY LEAGUE WAR EXTENSION WORK. (1915, November 18). The Register (Adelaide, SA : 1901 – 1929), p. 6. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59989826

One of the earliest Anzac biscuit recipes was in a 1916 newspaper, winning 4th prize in a Western Australian recipe contest; 4th prize was an electroplated butter knife with an engraved handle.

Fourth Prize (1916, June 4). Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 – 1954), p. 7 (Second Section). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58013699

This 1920 recipe from the Argus is much closer to the recipe I have made. I don’t know about eating the biscuits with a spoon though.

 

KITCHEN AND PANTRY. (1920, September 15). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 7. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4583769
the bought biscuits, not bad, but I normally associate Anzac biscuits with being home-made

The Unibic factory is in Broadmeadows, a suburb of Melbourne. The biscuit factory is over 60 years old and employs 170 people. In 2012 Unibic got into financial difficulties. The factory was threatened with closure but was rescued by a consortium of investors. The production of Anzac biscuits and the support of the Returned and Services League helped the company survive. (“Anzac Biscuits Factory Looking Forward To A New Future | Australian Food News”. Ausfoodnews.com.au. 2012. )

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T is for Talbot in 1869

23 Sunday Apr 2017

Posted by in A to Z 2017, Ararat, Bright, Champion de Crespigny, public service, Talbot

≈ 5 Comments

In March 1852, my great great great grandfather Philip Champion Crespigny (1817-1889) with his wife Charlotte Frances née Dana and their two children, Ada and Philip, arrived in Port Phillip, Victoria, Australia.

Philip Crespigny, then 34, was moderately well-educated. He had attended Cambridge University, admitted on 7 November 1838 to Downing College as a Fellow-commoner. He had the status of a student who had matriculated, and he was not on a scholarship.

His period at Cambridge did not lead to a career in the Church, and it appears that at the time of his arrival in Victoria he had never previously had paid employment, nor had he been in business or trade.

Philip’s arrival coincided with the great rush for gold in Victoria which followed the announcement of significant discoveries in July 1851. In March of that year, Victoria had a population of about 77,000. By the end of the following year, 1852, this figure had increased by 100,000.

The administration of Victoria’s Lieutenant-governor, Captain Charles La Trobe, under-staffed and under-resourced, was barely able to cope with the huge population increase.

The management of the goldfields was specially difficult. LaTrobe copied the New South Wales system of gold-digging licenses, designed to discourage people from joining the rush to the diggings. It didn’t work. Despite the enormous numbers of immigrants, Melbourne suffered from a serious labour shortage as men deserted their jobs to join the scramble for gold. Agricultural production fell. The harvest of wheat, for example, fell from 733,000 bushels in 1851 to 154,000 bushels in 1853. The area of land under cultivation shrank.

Philip Champion Crespigny (1817-1889)

Philip was appointed an Assistant Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Goldfields on 18 November 1852.

Victoria Government Gazette, Gazette 57, Wednesday, October 5th 1853, page 1459 retrieved from http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/view.cgi?year=1853&class=general&page_num=1459

Philip Crespigny was first appointed as a magistrate in 1853. Victoria Government Gazette, Gazette 58, Wednesday, October 12th 1853, page 1532 retrieved from http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/view.cgi?year=1853&class=general&page_num=1532

In February 1859 Philip was appointed police magistrate at Amherst, near Talbot, central Victoria. In 1861 the population of Amherst and Talbot was about 2,200.

There are many newspaper reports of Philip Crespigny’s police-court cases in the newspapers. (They will be covered in separate blogposts.)
In 1869 Philip left Talbot to become magistrate and coroner at Bairnsdale. A farewell banquet for him was held in the Talbot Borough Hall.

THE NEWS OF THE DAY. (1869, February 4). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 – 1954), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article177005710

In March 1869 Mr Dowling, the magistrate who had replaced Philip, was transferred to Geelong and Philip returned to Talbot from Bairnsdale, with Clunes and Creswick added to the area he administered.

In August 1869, Philip advertised his farm near Talbot for sale. This property, of 83 acres, was on the road between Talbot and Amherst. There was a house, stable, barn, and an orchard and garden.

Advertising (1869, August 5). The Ballarat Star (Vic. : 1865 – 1924), p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112891274

Later in the month Warden Crespigny fell from his horse near Clunes. According to the newspaper report, he was lucky to escape serious injury.

In June 1870 Philip was transferred from Talbot to Bright.  When Philip took up the Bright post in north-east Victoria, the rest of his family moved to Hawthorn, a suburb of Melbourne, 330 kilometres away. Some people felt he had been badly treated. At the time of his transfer Philip Crespigny was 53.

THE NEWS OF THE DAY. (1870, July 28). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 – 1954), p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article189330876

In February 1871 a rumour was reported in the Bright newspaper that the local police magistrate, Mr P. C. Crespigny, was about to be removed. In March 1871 Mr Crespigny took leave and was relieved by Mr Willoughby. In April 1871 Mr Crespigny PM was hearing cases in Eaglehawk, Bendigo. In May it was announced that Mr P. C. Crespigny PM would succeed Mr Daly as police magistrate in the Ararat district. He remained at Ararat until he resigned from government service in 1877.

Map showing Talbot, Bairnsdale, Bright, Hawthorn (a suburb of Melbourne), Eaglehawk (near Bendigo), Clunes and Creswick (south-east of Talbot) and Ararat. (click image to enlarge)

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S is for the Snowy

22 Saturday Apr 2017

Posted by in A to Z 2017, Greg Young, Snowy Mountains

≈ 3 Comments

By guest blogger Greg Young. We found some old negatives and had them developed the other day.

For a few years from 1968, when I finished at Albury High, I worked on and off as a labourer on the Snowy.

‘The Snowy’ was the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme, Australia’s largest civil-engineering project, which dammed and diverted water from streams running directly to the sea, sending it through tunnels to inland rivers for irrigation. The diverted water was also used to turn turbines at electricity generating stations.


I worked a couple of times at Talbingo on T3, the Scheme’s largest power station, where huge pipelines were being built to carry water from Talbingo Dam on the Tumut River down the mountainside to a pondage called Jounama then to Blowering Dam, on the way turning six enormous generators. In bays along the back of the power station were huge primary transformers.

Looking down on T3 from the pipelines
at the back of T3


Here I am, an offsider to a Serb linesman called Rudi Mrvos, swinging around in a cage on the end of a crane. We were meant to be working on the insulators on top of the transformers.

Rudi Mrvos and Greg


The crane-driver, whose name I can’t remember, was a Croat, and on the Snowy there was a bit of strain between Serbians and Croatians. This led to a few jokes about the possibility of being deliberately dropped. He was a good bloke, though, and gave us an easy ride.

Of course nowadays the credit would go to an Ethnic Relations Co-ordinator, tasked with facilitating multi-cultural harmony.

Rudi simply told the crane-driver that he had a revolver, which he’d bought from some criminals in Kings Cross. But this almost certainly had nothing to do with the driver’s concern for our safety.


R is for Rosydyon Tower the seat of Sir W. de Crespigny Bt

20 Thursday Apr 2017

Posted by in A to Z 2017, artist, baronet, Champion de Crespigny, Kelmarsh Hall, Wales

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Among a collection of images relating to the Champion de Crespigny family, I came across an image of a drawing of Rosydyon Tower, the seat of Sir W. de Crespigny Bt. The drawing is said to have been done by Mary Catherine Champion de Crespigny (1810-1858), the youngest of Sir William and Lady Sarah de Crespigny’s ten children. Mary married John Brigstocke (1791-1858).

Sir William de Crespigny (1765-1829) was the second baronet, succeeding in 1818 to the baronetcy on the death of his father Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny (1734-1818).  In 1786 William  married the Right Honourable Lady Sarah Windsor (1763-1825), a daughter of the 4th Earl of Plymouth.

Sir William’s entry in Burke’s Peerage of 1830 mentions Rhosydyon Tower, Carmarthenshire in Wales, as one of Sir William’s three country seats. His town residence was Champion Lodge at Camberwell.

Burke’s Genealogical and Heraldic History of Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, Volume 3, 1830, page 204

Rhosduon Tower is mentioned in Buildings of Wales,  referring to a plaque memorialising Lady Sarah de Crespigny:

Her husband built Rhosduon Tower in the parish c. 1820, a castellated toy fort, long demolished.

Rhosduon Tower was near the village of Pencarrag, in south-west Wales.

In 1825 Lady Sarah de Crespigny died at Rhosdyon Tower.

“FASHIONABLE ARRIVALS.” Morning Post, 27 Sept. 1825. British Library Newspapers, tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/4bRUr9. Accessed 28 Mar. 2017.

Sir William de Crespigny died on 28 December 1829 in London.  The estate was advertised for sale a few months later.

“Multiple Classified ads.” Morning Post, 22 May 1830, p. 4. British Library Newspapers, tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/4bRXy0.

Notes

I have spelt the name of the tower in the various ways it appears in each of the sources.

Kelmarsh Hall is in Northamptonshire. It is presently operated by a trust set up in 1982 by Valencia Lancaster (1898-1996),  Valencia was the grand daughter of the fourth baronet. Many Champion de Crespigny pictures and records are held at Kelmarsh Hall.  Some of the pictures can be viewed at https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/search/collection:kelmarsh-hall-713

Carmarthenshire and CeredigionVolume 6 of Buildings of Wales by Thomas Lloyd, Julian Orbach, Robert Scourfield published by Yale University Press, 2006.  page 363.