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AUSTRALIAN � INDEPENDENT � AWARD-WINNING
g n i t a v o n e R
THE LIFESAVER WHO BECAME A WARTIME STRETCHERBEARER
A HISTORIC HOUSE IN REGIONAL VICTORIA
THE RANSOM CASE THAT GRIPPED THE NATION
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contents
Contents
Issue 32, Jan–Feb 2016 28
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The jigsaw of genealogy Michael Flynn explores the Biographical Database of Australia, and its unique features that can help you weave together your early colonial ancestors
36 A lifesaver at war The story of a surf lifesaver come World War I ambulance stretcher-bearer
43 Kidnapped
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Mark Tedeschi, Senior Crown Prosecutor for New South Wales, examines the case that shocked the nation: the kidnap and ransom of a young boy from a Sydney street
48 Restoring grandeur Meet the couple who renovated one of Australia’s grandest historical estates
62 Win a stash of history books! Win the shortlisted history books from the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards
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your family 24 What’s new online Discover the latest 105+ record sets to hit our screens
regulars 6
Writing the past Meet the creator of a new website that is allowing you to record your ancestry, one story at a time
travel 56 An outback reverie Melissa Rimac finds more than she bargained for on a historical outback adventure in the Northern Territory
Platform
Editor’s letter
The latest news from the history and genealogy world
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20
Postie’s here!
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16
Your thoughts, your say
11 Bob’s your uncle Network with other researchers
Ask our experts Our military history expert looks at how to get more from war records
23 History apps
13 Cup of tea with… Historian Bruce Scates on why World War I repatriation records could be among our most precious datasets
We roadtest the latest apps built for historians
54 What we’re reading The latest history titles that we’re loving right now
66 One picture… 1,000 memories A reader shares a treasured image of her grandmother and great grandmother
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our family
PO Box 406 Erskineville NSW 2043 Australia Editor Cassie Mercer cass@insidehistory.com.au Features writer Sarah Trevor sarah@insidehistory.com.au Design Alison Williams Andrea Swan Advertising & partnership director Krissy Mander krissy@insidehistory.com.au Social media manager Penny Edwell penny@insidehistory.com.au
Our gorgeous cover photograph was found in a secondhand shop a few years ago. Though our cover girl is anonymous – no identifying details were on the back – we think she deserves to be in the spotlight on our first cover for 2016!
Website coordinator Pristine Ong Editorial Contributors Karen Chisholm Peter Croger Jeannette Delamoir Michael Flynn Kathryn Pulman John Ramsland Melissa Rimac Marie and Dominic Romeo Bruce Scates Mark Tedeschi Print subscriptions See page 62, call 02 8227 6486 or subscribe online at insidehistory.com.au
Inside History (ISSN 1838–5044) is published six times a year by Inside History (ABN 13 353 848 961). Views expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of the publisher. Copyright 2016 by Cassie Mercer and Inside History. All rights reserved. Printed by Ligare Pty Ltd 138 Bonds Road Riverwood NSW 2210 Distributed by Gordon and Gotch Australia
Digital subscriptions For iPad, find us on Apple Newsstand For Android and PC, find us at zinio.com
Inside History | Jan-Feb 2016 |
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editor’s letter
Is it a case of new year, new resolutions for you? Are you planning to make 2016 the year you pick up the family history mantle again, or find that wayward branch in your family tree? and ransom in 1960. It’s an extraordinary tale, and one which Mark tells in his usual absorbing style. Read his evaluation of the shocking case from page 43. On a lighter note, we talk to a couple who have made it their passion to restore historic houses in danger of falling down. They’ve worked on many a large-scale project, and on page 48 we spotlight one of these — the seamless restoration of a mansion house on the outskirts of Bendigo in Victoria. All this in addition to our regular sections, including handy tips and tricks from our resident experts, app and book reviews and the latest record sets to help you find your family in 2016. Happy new year, and happy researching,
Congratulations
to our competition winners from issue 30! In issue 30 we were giving away five Findmypast World Subscriptions valued at $299 each. We’ve published the names of the winners on our website. Check insidehistory.com.au/category/special-offers to see if your name is there!
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Image Courtesy State Library of Victoria, ID H92.320/69.
We’re here to help inspire you, whatever your genealogy goals are. And we’re kicking off 2016 with loads of features, ideas and new resources for you to explore. First up we revisit the Biographical Database of Australia, an online portal that we first featured in 2013. If you’re researching early colonial arrivals, this website needs to be on your must-visit list. And there’s been thousands of new records added — read more on page 28. We also hear about a lifesaver who wanted to join the war effort during World War I and decided his lifesaving skills would be best used as a stretcher-bearer on the Western Front. Read his illuminating story on page 36. We’ve also worked with Mark Tedeschi, Senior Crown Prosecutor for New South Wales, who has recently authored a book on an unprecendented case of child kidnapping
Do you want to tell the story of your family?
It’s easy to create your story and share it online with Our Family Past.
Family history is more than people and dates. It’s all about stories… big stories about world-changing events and small stories about people and their lives. Our Family Past is a new online service that allows you to tell the story of your family by creating articles using text, images, sound and video. You can share your stories with family and friends and they will be preserved for future generations. “I research the history of families so I know how easy it is to become overwhelmed with detail. I’ve been looking for a way of organising intergenerational stories for years.” Professor Hamish Maxwell Stewart University of Tasmania
www.ourfamilypast.com
our family
This issue we ask our
CONTRIBUTORS What history book is on your must-read list?
Michael Flynn “The jigsaw of genealogy”, page 28 I’m reading Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Chernow’s biography, Alexander Hamilton, about an aide to George Washington who helped create the United States. His story has been turned into a successful Broadway hip-hop musical created by Puerto Rican American actor and writer Lin-Manuel Miranda, who believes in making colonial history accessible to non-Anglo Americans.
Mark Tedeschi “Kidnapped”, page 43 I am currently reading Fascinating Footnotes from History by Giles Milton, published in 2015. For a history buff like me, it is fascinating to read of relatively unknown historical facts that have played a significant role in the lives of many people. It is quirky, well-written and the short accounts in the book fit well into the 20 minutes that I have twice each day to read on the train.
Melissa Rimac “An outback reverie”, page 56 There are two books that I can’t wait to savour. As a horse lover, Australia on Horseback by Cameron Forbes, which details the ways in which horses have left an indelible impression on Australia’s cultural landscape is high on my list for summer reading, as is Wild Women: History’s Rebels, Radicals and Revolutionaries by Pamela Robson. I know I’ll find lots of inspiration and intrigue in these tales.
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inbox
POSTIE’S HERE! Share your thoughts with the Inside History team.
FIRST FLEETER’S FRACTURED LIFE Your review of Tanya Evans’ book Fractured Families included a name that leapt off the page for me. It was William Hubbard, a First Fleeter ancestor on my mother’s side who had a most unfortunate string of disasters in his life. I ordered a copy of the book immediately and was so excited to read about William’s life. It filled in a lot of blanks in my research. Thank you, Inside History, for bringing this book to my attention. I enjoy the magazine very much and look forward to reading every issue. — Lorice Gill, Hornsby Heights, NSW SWEET HISTORIC TREATS I just received my copy of issue 31 (Nov-Dec 2015) and joyfully noticed a Mrs Beeton’s Christmas pud recipe. As a chef and professional historian I have cooked that pudding before — suet is the way to go. Go to your local butcher and get it from them! I’ve also made up fruit
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mince pies with suet. It’s seriously lush. — Tim Moore, via Facebook FACEBOOK LOVE Your Facebook page is filled with such interesting posts and I always looking forward to the next issue of your magazine in my little country newsagent. — Lee-Ann Hamilton, via Facebook AN AUSSIE TREAT I have to say that since buying the very first issue I have found them all useful — you have so much information and resources that are Australian based. It is a blessing to be able to buy a genealogy magazine that has information and resources relative to us here. — Melissa Hallyburton, via Facebook
BIRTHDAY WISHES Congratulations on five years of a wonderful, quality magazine! — Janelle Collins, via Facebook SHORT BUT SWEET I’m so very impressed with issue 29 (Jul-Aug 2015). So many great articles to read. — Vicki Brace Ryan, via Facebook COLD NIGHT READING It was so cold last night, that I curled up in bed and read issue 29 right through. Another excellent issue! — Lilian Magill, via Facebook A FACEBOOK LIKE Thank you again for your terrific Facebook page and magazine! — Link “Dusty” Miller, Tullamarine, VIC
Each issue the writer of our star letter will receive a recently released history book for writing in. This issue, Lorice Gill will receive a copy of Lost Relations: Fortunes of My Family in Australia’s Golden Age by Graeme Davison (Allen & Unwin, $32.99).
Want to have your say on “Postie’s here”? Write to us at contribute@insidehistory.com.au
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Image Courtesy State Library of Victoria, ID H91.315/34.
LIBRARY TREASURES I have only just found your lovely magazine while at the local library today. Look forward to reading them regularly as they are so informative. — Lynne Hyde, Auckland, New Zealand
BOB’S YOUR
UNCLE
Images Courtesy Douglas Stewart Fine Books, douglasstewart.com.au. State Library of Victoria, ID H12394.
Are you looking to connect with other descendants or historians across Australia and beyond? Each issue we feature who and what people are researching so you can make contact. LOOKING FOR MELBOURNE COUSINS I am looking for any descendants of Norman Green Paulin. He was born in Sandridge in 1880. He married Isabella Southey and they had three children. Norman served in the Boer War and World War I and I am interested in learning more about his life. His daughter, Norma, married in New Zealand. Both her sons never married, but one elderly grandson is still living in Auckland. I would like to give him some more information about his grandfather’s life. I have an old photo of Norman’s son Charles and his wife — who lived in Melbourne — and children taken in the 1940s. I am interested to know if these children would be interested in making contact with New Zealand relatives. I am a descendant of Norman’s eldest sister Marian
who immigrated to New Zealand. Another of his sisters, Grace, married twice to Walter Smith and later to Walter Bennett. I would also like to find information about her family if possible. — Lynne Hyde, kevynne@xtra.co.nz SEEKING JAPANESE HISTORY EXPERTS I’m part of a crew of postgraduate film students from Macquarie University. We’re producing a documentary about technology in both Australia and Japan. We recently returned from a trip to Japan, where we interviewed professors, academics and citizens, and captured footage of places such as Miraikan and JAXA headquarters. We are attempting to analyse when, how and why Japan became such a technologically innovative country. We’d be interested in hearing from anyone who is knowledgeable about Japanese history to talk about the direction Japan took after World War II. For more information, see our Facebook page at facebook.com/ velocitydoco — Chadielle Fayad, chadielle@gmail.com MYSTERY PHOTOGRAPH: HG BOWMAN OF HARBORD I have a framed photo of a distinguished looking gentleman that has hung in my family home at Ashfield, Sydney, all my life. I’m now 80, I don’t know who it is and I’m reluctant to dispose of it. There is a name and address on the back: “HG Bowman, 68 Wyadra Avenue, Harbord”. My family name was Barrow. I am hoping to find him a home. If you have any information, please call 02 9976 2350.
Over the past five years we’ve helped lot of researchers to network and and knock down their research brick walls via “Bob’s your uncle”. Adverts are completely free and will also be published on our website and Facebook page. To place an advertisement, email contribute@insidehistory.com.au
Inside History | Jan-Feb 2016 |
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historically great reasons to go digital with Inside History
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mobile genie
HISTORYapps Though hardly hallowed by the passing of time, these apps harness the latest technology to help you link with the past in informative and interesting ways. Sarah Trevor roadtests four of the latest to see how they fare.
Famicity
The Voyage Game
Free; iOS and Android
Free; optimised for desktop
Famicity is almost like the progeny of a family tree app and an address book. It syncs with the contacts on your device, allowing you to easily invite relatives to join Famicity and access your profile, family tree and any albums you’d like to create (though there are stringent privacy controls). French in origin, Famicity has a clean, straightforward design, and would be perfectly user-friendly if not for the occasional glitches of syntax and untranslated French text. Overall, it’s a simple yet worthwhile app for those who’d like to involve their family members in their family tree.
This is one for kids and the young-at-heart – though that’s not to say grown-up historians should eschew it, either. The Voyage is an innovative game based on the transportation of convicts from Britain to Van Diemen’s Land in the early 1800s. The player takes the role of the convict ship’s surgeon superintendent, charged with selecting the ship, captain and convict overseer, stowing adequate provisions, navigation, rat-catching and more! Drawing upon historical records, the app was developed by the Australian National Maritime Museum. It’s a great way to bring convict voyages to life. Visit anmm.gov.au/ voyagegame
Once Upon a War Time
Soundtrails
Free; iOS and Android
Free; iOS, Android and desktop
Once Upon a Wartime is an interactive storytelling app sharing the World War I history of Queensland’s Moreton Bay region. Narrated with 3D animation, the app features three vivid fictional stories, based on real-life Moreton Bay residents’ World War I experiences. The app also includes a register of nearly 800 service personnel from Moreton Bay, complete with biographical details, photographs, and links to Moreton Bay Region Libraries’ database for further information. There is also a searchable, detailed list of early local memorials. Visit moretonbay. qld.gov.au/apps
Soak up the history of several towns in regional New South Wales with Soundtrails, an app offering immersive audio experiences of local communities. Currently available for Bingara, Warialda, Myall Creek, Tenterfield and Uralla, each individual soundtrail is downloaded separately. Uralla’s soundtrail highlights the heritage of this Northern Tablelands town (and the lingering influence of Captain Thunderbolt). A stylised map of Uralla, marked with points of interest encapsulated through casual conversation, ‘vox pops’, and sound effects – makes for a quirky and immersive journey through this town’s past.
Inside History | Jan-Feb 2016 |
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war
your family
A lifesaver at
John Ramsland, Emeritus Professor at the University of Newcastle, shares the story of a surf lifesaver come World War I ambulance stretcher-bearer.
O
N 22 JULY 1915, at Bar Beach, Newcastle, the Cook’s Hill Life Saving and Surf Concert held a ‘smoke concert’ to farewell three of their members who had volunteered to fight for King and Empire. On this occasion, the three young men being honoured were Lindsay Pike, the club’s vice-captain, Frederick Dodd, a member of the managing committee and Garnet ‘Gunner’ Dart, the Club’s treasurer and assistant instructor. (He’d earned the nickname of ‘Gunner’ for
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his military bearing and, perhaps, his distinctive parade-ground voice.) Each of these departing soldiers was presented with a ‘token of regard and good will’ — a shaving outfit in a smart portable leather case — by the club’s founder, David Thompson. They were, as the minutes noted, ‘much overcome’ by their comrades’ enthusiasm and remarks. A fourth recipient, however, was absent: James ‘Big Jim’ Hartley Antcliff, the Club captain and hero of many surf rescues. He had already left for
Left Exhausted stretcher-bearers of the 9th Field Ambulance, at the Zonnebeke Railway Embankment, 10 October 1917. This is one of the few photographs depicting them at the height of the war in Flanders. Garnet Dart may have been one of these men. Courtesy AWM, ID E00941. Below Newcastle Instructional Team, 1922-23. Garnet is on the left, middle row.
overseas, preventing him from attending the presentation held in his honour with the other three. It is estimated that throughout the war at least 29 members of this relatively small club served on foreign battlefields. One of these men, Garnet or ‘Gunner’, had a unique war experience that drew upon his lifesaving skills. Gunner’s story Garnet Wilton Dart was born on 14 April 1893 in Newcastle, New South Wales, to James Dart, a solicitor, and Sarah (née McLue). James was one of the original patrons of Cooks Hill Life Saving and Surf Club. Garnet followed in his footsteps. Before Garnet left for overseas, his surf club presented him with a small pure gold engraved medal for his tireless services as a coach for three seasons between 1912 and 1915. This medal recognised Garnet as a foundational member of the club. Garnet was employed as a clerk for the New South Wales Railways, stationed
in Newcastle. By the time he signed his attestation papers to enlist for service abroad, he was 22 years old and had already served three years in the local militia training for war. A true believer in the central value of the surf lifesaving movement, Garnet was convinced that he could not kill another human being — even if it was an enemy German soldier. This decision influenced him to join the Australian Imperial Force’s 9th Field Ambulance Company in the hope of making a positive contribution to the war effort. He became the only known Cook’s Hill lifesaver to join the AIF Field Ambulance and follow the lifesaving principles he had learnt, even amid war. Garnet was a fit, muscular man of 5’5” in height. At his medical examination, he weighed 142 pounds. He was described as having a dark or olive complexion, brown eyes and black hair. The medical officer approved of his appointment with the 9th Field Ambulance; Garnet appeared
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Above left Stretcher bearers of the 4th Field Ambulance bring out the wounded on the Somme, ID E00049. Above middle Concrete pillboxes near Zonnebeke, 1917. ID E01069. Above right Stetcher bearers of the 57th battalion passing through a cemetery in Ypres. ID E01912. All courtesy Australian War Memorial.
capable of doing the heavy lifting that would be required. On 2 December 1915 at Casula, New South Wales, he swore that he would ‘well and truly’ serve the ‘sovereign Lord the King’ in the Australian Imperial Force until the end of the war and a further period of four months thereafter, unless lawfully discharged before then. He pledged to resist His Majesty’s enemies. Arriving in Liverpool, Garnet was placed for a couple of days in E Camp Depot at Casula and then spent three months training in the Liverpool field hospital. Tent life with eight or so companions was a new experience. Before long he was ready for overseas duties in the 9th Field Ambulance Unit, which was attached to the 3rd Division AIF. Garnet’s unit was entirely made up of male volunteers from New South Wales. It had been formally raised at Liverpool during March 1916 when news of the disaster of Gallipoli had filtered back to faraway Australia. On 11 May 1916, Garnet Dart embarked from Sydney with the rest of the 9th Field Ambulance on the transport Argyllshire. The 3rd Division were the last major unit to leave Australia. From then on replacements were sent in drafts. When the main contingent on the Argyllshire, including Garnet, reached Southampton, England, they completed further vigorous training on the vast, windy and desolate Salisbury Plain. They were then moved to France and the Western Front on 23 November 1916. On the front line Garnet Dart faced dangerous frontline action on the Western Front. His job was to remove or transport the wounded, the dying and the dead from harm’s way on the battlefields in no man’s land, and get them by any means possible and as quickly as he could to an advanced
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dressing station, still close to the front. This involved applying first aid — field dressings — to many seriously wounded men before transporting them on to a field hospital further back, yet still within earshot of the incessant gunfire. Garnet’s training as an amateur lifesaver in a local surfing club in Australia would have prepared him, to some degree, for the requirements of dangerous ambulance work on the battlefront. Both types of work emphasised the value placed on saving life in the most difficult circumstances requiring swift action and judgement, as well as the importance of physical fitness and courage. Whether on a warm beach or the back of the battle on the front, both duties demanded skills in handling unconscious patients in resuscitation, first aid and swift stretcher-bearing to medical assistance. Garnet would have had training in staunching heavy bleeding — in the case of shark attacks in the surf, or gunshot, bomb or other serious war wounds on the front. His fitness and experience in moving skilfully across the sand on the surfing beach would have helped him to quickly move through the mud and broken ground of the battlefield. The 9th Field Ambulance arrived in Steenwerck, Belgium, on 27 November. Their first task was to establish a tented field hospital to cater for the medical needs of the 3rd Division. They also organised medical units in Pont Nieppe to provide cleansing baths for Australian troops from the trenches in a former jute factory. The baths played a significant part in the rehabilitation and health of the weary Australian troops. The Company soon found themselves on the Ramparts of Ypres. Around them the guns thudded relentlessly. Then they moved down the Zonnebeke Road closer to the action where they were pooled with
other units and equipped with a horse-drawn ambulance. It would be kept extremely busy during the third Battle of Passchendaele. The 9th worked mainly on the Ypres-Zonnebeke Road. They lived precariously under canvas with a constant undercurrent of fear of bombardment. The wounded were brought along the road on stretchers with two ambulance men or four, the handles slung on their shoulders in the all-pervasive mud, slipping and sliding and sometimes wading. When they reached the advanced dressing station, the ambulance men frantically dressed the wounds of the frequently unconscious or delirious so they could be moved on to the field hospital, if they survived long enough. Some of the walking wounded were able to find their own way to an advanced dressing station where they were met by the ambulance men, but those who were blinded or otherwise badly disabled had to be escorted in — sometimes in a small convoy of slow-moving men endangered by machine guns and rifle fire. Amid the waist-deep treacherous mud, it took even more ambulance men to get the wounded on stretchers. At times, those wounded with frostbite or trench foot would be piggybacked into the advanced dressing station. The work was so intense and difficult that some wounded men had to be left outside on the ground on stretchers until they could be attended to. There were often queues along the roadside. Transporting the wounded was also highly dangerous. Occasionally ambulance troops received a bullet with their name on it and became part of the massive numbers of wounded or dead. The well-known symbol for an advanced dressing station where ambulance men worked tirelessly was a white cross on a black background in a circle. A makeshift advanced dressing station, complete with its distinctive sign, was sometimes held in a cellar of a demolished or bombed out building below the ground level, often in a very confined space. Will Dyson, Australia’s finest and most perceptive war artist, was one of the few to depict in graphic terms what it was like to be in an Australian ambulance
unit. The two ambulance infantrymen depicted in ‘Stretcher-Bearers near Martinpuich’ are straining every muscle to carry a heavy wounded man on a stretcher through extremely rugged terrain, surrounded by the smoke of gunfire. Strain and exhaustion are vividly captured on the faces of the two men. The biggest problem that Garnet Dart and members of the 9th Field Ambulance had to face was wound shock and haemorrhage. Yet the tenacity of life inherent in the human body was, as Garnet noticed, a constant source of amazement. A photograph taken on 10 October 1917 was one of the few showing the 9th Ambulance on the front, at the height of the war in Flanders. Its caption poignantly reads ‘Stretcher-bearers of the 9th Field Ambulance worn out on the Zonnebeke Railway Embankment’. In the midst of a wasted land, four ambulance men are stretched out on the earth, asleep in various positions, their faces completely obscured by their protective helmets. It is possible that Garnet Dart could have been one of them. The 9th Field Ambulance set up a large advanced dressing station for the wounded of the 3rd Australian Division at Potijze Chateau, but their headquarters were in the former Ypres criminal prison. Later moving further south into France, they set up advanced dressing stations near the Battle of VillersBretonneux where they tended many badly wounded and
Below Garnet Dart’s medals, commemorating his war service and foundational membership at his local surf club respectively.
Further Reading • Australian Doctors on the Western Front by Colonel Robert Likeman (Rosenberg, 2014) • The Australian Army Medical Services in the War of 1914-18, Vol. II by Colonel AG Butler (AWM, 1940) • The Australian Army, Vol. 1, by Jeffrey Grey (OUP, 2001) • Cook’s Hill Life Saving & Surf Club. The First Hundred Years 1911-2011 by John Ramsland (Brolga, 2011)
Inside History | Jan-Feb 2016 |
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Right ‘StretcherBearers near Martinpuich’ by war artist Will Dyson, depicting two ambulance infantrymen’s strain and exhaustion. Courtesy Australian War Memorial, ID ART02266.
dying soldiers. People like Garnet were able to save many lives by their ready support and yet they received little reward and recognition in the annals of war. They were the forgotten heroes in the chaos of modern industrial warfare. The final action before the war’s end for the 9th Ambulance was on the Hindenburg Line where they were kept particularly busy through the remainder of the war. The unlucky wounded continued to be brought in from the battlefields even on Armistice Day, 1918. Some time later, the men of the 9th Field Ambulance were moved back to England to prepare for eventual repatriation to Australia. Some had a troubled return to civilian life after seeing so much blood and gore, so much suffering in such dangerous situations. When Garnet was demobilised in Sydney on 8 August 1919, his attestation papers show that, unlike many others, he remained fit without injury. At his final medical examination on 8 August 1919 with the AIF, Garnet was required to write: ‘I am not suffering from any disability due to or aggravated by War service. I am feeling fit and well’. Medical officer Captain Roy Tindale countersigned his statement on the same day. Of course, many others weren’t so fortunate. Nine members of the Cook’s
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Hill Life Saving and Surf Club were never to return, having died in action on the northern hemisphere battlefields of the Great War. Private James Antcliff of the 36th Battalion — who had been forced to miss the ‘smoko’ in his (and Garnet’s) honour — was tragically killed in action in the Battle of Messines Ridge in Flanders. He was buried in the Toronto Avenue Cemetery, Belgium. Also killed in action was Frederick Dodd’s brother, Corporal Arthur Dodd, in the Battle of Passchendaele — now commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial. Return to Newcastle When Garnet arrived back home in Newcastle, he was awarded a small Welcome Home medal in recognition for his service during a crowded welcome at Newcastle Railway Station. This joined the 1914 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal he was awarded by the British government. On his return to civilian life, Garnet was to serve out his entire working career as a clerk on the New South Wales Government Railways, later rising to timekeeper and paymaster at Newcastle’s Tyrrell House. He relished being once again heavily involved in the senior management of
the Cook’s Hill Life Saving and Surf Club. The vast majority of its members had also served on foreign battlefields. By the early 1920s, reliant on Garnet’s astute instruction, Cook’s Hill became the most vital and successful surf club outside Sydney and won overall points in many carnivals. Garnet, as instructor, had always worked closely with David Thompson and the Dodd brothers in moral leadership. By 1926, he was the Instructor-inChief — the Club’s supremo — and had become locally famous for his winning Cook’s Hill March Past teams at annual surf carnivals. He continued to take the Club’s motto “Excelsior” seriously. Always a major contributor to the lifesaving community, Garnet was granted many awards by the Royal Life Saving Society. He became one of the most qualified lifesavers in New South Wales. The Cook’s Hill Club recognised his outstanding contribution by awarding him Life Membership. For Garnet Dart, vigorous community life had continued as before the war, but the haunting memories remained for many years. As the war artist Will Dyson described it (quoted in Ross McMullin’s 1984 biography): They move with their stretchers like boats on a slowly tossing sea, rising and falling with the shell riven contours of what was yesterday no man’s land, slipping, sliding, with heels worn raw by the downward suck of the Somme mud… The fountains that sprout roaring at their feet fall back to earth in a lacework of fragments — the smoke clears and they, momentarily obscured, are moving on as they were moving on before: a piece of mechanism guiltless of the weakness of weak flesh, one might say. But to say this is to rob their heroism of its due — of the credit that goes to inclinations conquered and panic subdued down in the privacy of the soul. It is to make their heroism look like a thing they find easy… they are heroes because someone has got to be heroic.
talked about them. When, in July 1962, at the age of 69, Garnet passed away — survived by two sons and a daughter — his ‘welcome home’ medallions were found among his effects. As was a gold engraved medal he was awarded at that 1915 ‘smoko’. He must have treasured these mementoes of important events.
Useful resources: Tracing lifesaving clubs • One of the best sources for researching the lifesaving movement in Australia are local newspapers of the time as they carry sometimes detailed information about weekly competitions, surf carnivals, annual reports of individual clubs and the like. • Cook’s Hill SLS Club maintained their own records: handwritten report books, information on trophy collections and retained (historical) team photographs. Many other groups would have done the same. Some surf clubs also have their own websites. • The State Library of NSW contains Surf Life Saving Australia records, c.1907–2008, of some lifesaving clubs. Visit http://bit.ly/1lKFja8
Right and below Garnet Dart’s Australian Comforts Fund gift diary, 1919. All images of Garnet Dart and his mementoes courtesy John Ramsland.
Like many others, he kept his frontline wartime experiences to himself and rarely
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Each year, the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards celebrate the contribution of Australian literature to the nation’s culture. The Prize for Australian History is5.4. awarded to recognise 3. outstanding non-fiction that 2. 1. contributes to an understanding of Australian history. In 2015, the e is easy family trecandidates five shortlisted were: your Getting started on • Charles Bean by Ross Coulthart (HarperCollins, $45) • Descent into Hell by Peter d on your $35) Getting sta Brune (Allen &erte Unwin, tteG sy ea is tre ily ruoy no detratsrgtnyilimaf fam ee Menzies at War by Anne ysae si• Henderson (New South 1. Publishing, $34.99) .1 2. .2 3. .3 • The .4Europeans in Australia 4. 5. Three: Nation by — Volume .5 Alan Atkinson (New South Publishing, $49.99) • The Spy Catchers—The Official History of ASIO Vol 1 by David Horner (Allen & Unwin, $59.99)
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O n e p ic tu re …
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T
HIS BEAUTIFUL photograph was taken c.1918, and features my grandmother, Hazel Allen, and her mother, Lilian Allen, née Ladbrook. Lilian was born near Invercargill, New Zealand, in 1888. At the age of 20, she married Thomas Bailey Allen, and the following year gave birth to her first child, Winifred. Unfortunately ‘Wee Winnie’ died at the age of six months. My gran, Hazel, was born in 1911. When Hazel was five, Thomas died of cancer, leaving Lilian and Hazel on their own. So at the time this portrait was taken, they were the only living members in their immediate family. In 1920, Lilian married a young Danish engineer called Anton Christensen. By this stage they were living in Hastings. In 1922, Lilian and Anton welcomed their only child, a son, Arnold, and Hazel was delighted to become a big sister at the age of 10 and a half. During World War II, Arnold joined the air force and was posted overseas. While he was in England, he received the sad news that his father, Anton, had died at the age of 50. In 1942, Arnold became a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft III, where, in 1944, he would take part in the famous ‘Great Escape’. He was nearly at the Danish border when he was recaptured and, tragically, was one of the 50 prisoners killed on Hitler’s orders. I find this photo poignant, as once again, the family was reduced to just Lilian and Hazel (and Hazel’s husband and children), and I know that they had a very close relationship until Lilian’s death in 1976, at the age of 88. When I think of all she lost in her lifetime it makes me all the more grateful for my family, and I have great respect for her strength. — Kathryn Pulman Palmerston North, New Zealand
66
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