Month: April 2015

Trans-Tasman Anzac Day Blog Challenge 2015

/ Merron Riddiford / 1 Comment

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The Trans Tasman Anzac Day Blog Challenge is now running for the fifth year. I have participated in the past four challenges and for me each post has been among my favourites to research and write.  Each year, the brief for the post is “write a blog post about a serviceman or woman and/or their family, and the impact war had on their family’s story”.

This year I have decided not to enter a post since I have started the ‘Hamilton’s WW1’ page and now the ‘Grampians Soldiers’ page.  Each of the soldier profiles I have researched and/or written so far falls into the ‘blog challenge’ criteria.  The sorrow of the families pours out of each service record or newspaper article I read. There is the example of Hamilton’s Francis Tredrea’s family.

Francis Stanley TREDREA

Francis Stanley TREDREA. Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial

 

Father Abraham Tredrea and Francis’ wife Ada, with babe in arms, held out hope for twelve months that Francis was a prisoner of war.  Ada even advertised in The Argus, hoping someone may know something of Francis’ whereabouts, after having little success getting information from the defence department.

Then there was Florence Henty, wife of Edward (Ted) Ellis Henty of Hamilton.  Florence was six months pregnant with their first child when she received the news of Ted’s death.  The lists in the Hamilton Spectator, still naming Edward as a casualty a month or so after his death distressed Florence greatly, so much so a relative wrote a “Letter to the Editor” explaining the pain of the constant reminder.  Reading Ted and Florence’s story never fails to tug at my heart-strings.

Poor Charles Lindsay’s mother received a postcard from Charles one day telling her he was fine, only to receive news of his death the next.

Charles Henry LINDSAY. Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial. Image no, H06462 https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/H06462/

Charles Henry LINDSAY. Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial. Image no, H06462 https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/H06462/

There are also the widowed mothers who received letters from the AIF Base Records Office after the deaths of their sons:

“Dear Madam, it is noted you are registered on the records of the late Pt. Smith as next of kin, but in order that our file may be brought up to date, it is desired to learn if the above named soldier had any nearer blood relations than yourself, for instance, if his father is still alive…”.

 Double whammy. No…triple whammy.

I could go on and on.

If you would like more information about the ‘blog challenge’ or to read the many contributions from this year and earlier years, follow this link Trans Tasman Anzac Day Blog Challenge.

Each of my  Anzac Day posts are on the following links:

 

Last Ride – The WW1 story of light horseman Walter Rodney Kinghorn of Byaduk

From Six Bob Tourist to Souvenir – My great-grandfather Les Combridge of Wonthaggi and his service with the 21st Battalion.

The McClintock Brothers – Three brothers from Grassdale went to war.  Only one returned.

Arthur Leonard Holmes – The story of a Casterton cornet player gassed in Belgium, never to see his new bride again.

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4th Blogiversary

/ Merron Riddiford / 3 Comments

Well, that snuck up on me.  It’s Western District Families’ 4th Blogiversary.

Image courtesy of the Argus Newspaper Collection of Photographs, State Library of Victoria. Image No. H98.101/329 http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/202825

Image courtesy of the Argus Newspaper Collection of Photographs, State Library of Victoria. Image No. H98.101/329 http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/202825

Western District Families’ fourth year was the quietest to date and I don’t like to promise much more in the blog’s fifth year, but I’ll try.  I’m off to a good start with a new tab at the top of the page, “Hamilton’s WW1” and two more planned, another WW1 related and an index of the Passing of the Pioneer obituaries.  The monthly Passing of the Pioneer posts are having a short break while I get the two WW1 projects up and running, but the prospect of having the pioneers indexed is exciting.  It will certainly make my research easier and I hope it will help you too when searching for relatives among the obituaries.

There’s not too much to report on the top five posts for the year, something I’ve done in past years, except the Old Portland Cemetery – Part 1, continued to keep up its popularity. It was good to see the July Passing of the Pioneers post making it into the top five for the year and the post on the Western District enlistments of the 8th Light Horse Regiment B Squadron from January.

Almost all of my posts over the past four years would not be possible without the resource we all love, Trove.  Now there is an opportunity to give something back to Trove with the Inside History/NLA  Pozible campaign to raise funds for the digitisation of the Hamilton Spectator (1860-1913).  My pledge was a win-win  Not only will it boost the Spec’s chances of digitisation which, as a Western District researcher, is huge, but I also get to support Trove, a free resource that maybe we sometimes take for granted. For for me, a visit to an overseas newspaper archive site always reminds me how lucky we are to have Trove.  The Pozible campaign runs until 25 April and with pledges only just reaching the halfway mark, now’s a perfect time to give a bit back to Trove.  Plus it would my make my blogiversary month so much better knowing that at least ten years of the Hamilton Spectator at Trove was just around the corner.  This is the link if you would like to pledge – www.pozible.com/project/191002

Launching Hamilton’s WW1

/ Merron Riddiford / 3 Comments

It was time I considered how Western District Families could commemorate the centenary of WW1. A project was selected and work began, however another idea presented itself. A list of names in two editions of the Hamilton Spectator from 1917 and 1918 and some potted histories of Hamilton soldiers I wrote for the I’ve Lived in Hamilton Facebook group saw “Hamilton’s WW1” come to fruition.  The first installment of “Hamilton’s WW1”  is now available, the story of Hamilton’s Anzac Avenue and the men commemorated at a now all but forgotten landmark in Hamilton.

Each of the faces in the photo below have a story to tell. They are some of the early Hamilton enlistments and immediately I recognise twenty-two year-old Hamilton College and Geelong College educated John “Paddy” Fenton (back row, 3rd from right) and George McQueen (centre, 2nd row from front) a thirty-five year-old widower, both killed in France. Others among them were also killed, some wounded and others suffered psychologically but as they gathered at Broadmeadows in 1915, none could imagine the path ahead. What was in store for them or the man beside them. But they were “Hamilton Boys” and they would give it their all and they did.

LEST WE FORGET  

'HAMILTON BOYS' c 30 April 1915. Photo Courtesy of the Australian War Memorial. Image no.DAOD1060 https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/DAOD1060/

‘HAMILTON BOYS’ c 30 April 1915. Photo Courtesy of the Australian War Memorial. Image no. DAOD1060 https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/DAOD1060/

Make a Pledge for the ‘Spec’

/ Merron Riddiford / 2 Comments

You may remember the National Library of Australia and Inside History Magazine running a poll last year to select a newspaper for digitization for the Trove website.  After vigorous voting, thanks greatly to the people of Hamilton past and present, the Hamilton Spectator (1860-1913) came out the winner.  Now it’s fundraising time.

With a target of $10,000, Inside History Magazine are conducting a Pozible campaign to raise funds for the digitisation of the ‘Spec’.  A pledge of just $25 will enable about a week of the ‘Spec’ to be digitised.  One hundred dollars digitises around a month of ‘Specs’.

If you are a self-confessed “Trovite”, this is a great chance to give a bit back to the wonderful free resource that is Trove.  For those of you with an interest in Western District history, the digitisation of the Hamilton Spectator is an important addition to Trove, complimenting the likes of the already digitised Portland Guardian and Horsham Times. The Spectator was (and still is) an important and respected voice of the Western District.

To pledge – Go to  Pozible – Inside History Supports Trove.  There are just twenty-four days left to make your pledge.