anzac – lest we forget

Today, 25 April 2013 is the ninety-eighth anniversary of the landing of the allied forces at Gallipoli on the Turkish peninsula in WWI. It is a time for us to reflect on the sacrifice of the men and women who have served in our armed forces and who have fought on foreign soil to ensure our safety and protect our shores.

Private Ernest Clive Buck (AIF Service No. 571).

My granddad, Ernest Clive BUCK enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) when he was 19 years and 5 months old, on 22 August 1914  – less than three weeks after the British Commonwealth of nations entered the war. Ernest was posted to the 1st Battalion, 1st Infantry Brigade.

Ern Buck took part in the Allies landing at Gallipoli, coming ashore with the second and third waves on 25 April 1915 and was wounded in the head by a bullet receiving a slight scalp wound in 21 May 1915. Ern was shot in the abdomen and bayoneted in the chest by the enemy and left for dead during trench fighting about 5 June 1915. Thankfully he was found and evacuated from ANZAC Cove to the military hospital on the island of Malta, then by ship to the base hospital in Manchester UK.

After the withdrawal from Gallipoli in December 1915, the 1st Battalion returned to Egypt. Ern was admitted to hospital in Tel el Kebir at the end of February 1916 when his chest wound became badly infected and he was evacuated by train to Cairo and later to hospital in Mudros. Private E C BUCK returned to Australia on the hospital ship HMAS Kanowna which left Suez 11 May 1916, he suffered from an irritable heart due to wounds received.

You can read more about his service in my post private ernest buck – anzac.

Thomas Basil ‘Gunner’ GASCOIGNE, AB, of the Royal Australian Navy on HMAS Sydney.

Ern’s future brother-in-law Thomas Basil GASCOIGNE joined the Australian Navy in 1912 at the age of 21. Tom was a gunner on HMAS Sydney and was wounded, losing an eye, in the Sydney’s celebrated victory over the German light cruiser Emden in the Indian Ocean in November 1914, soon after the beginning of WWI.

Tom also claimed to be the first, or among the first, Australian servicemen to set foot on enemy territory. This was immediately after the outbreak of war when a party from HMAS Sydney landed near Rabaul, the capital of the German colony of New Guinea, in order to destroy the radio station there.

When he returned home wounded in March 1915 he was given a hero’s welcome and presented with an illuminated address and a purse of sovereigns by the Wyong town leaders.

Private Roy Everett GASCOIGNE (AIF Service No. 7731A)

Tom’s younger brother Roy Everett GASCOIGNE joined the army on 13 December 1917, near the end of WWI. He sailed for England in February 1918 and spent several months training there before transferring to the 34th Battalion reinforcements. When the German Army launched its last great offensive in the spring of 1918, the 34th Battalion was part of the force deployed to defend the approach to the city of Amiens around Villers-Bretonneux.

Roy arrived in France in mid-August with the 34th reinforcements to aid in the Allies’ rapid advance, and he fought in the battle of St Quentin Canal – the operation that breached the Hindenburg Line at the end of September, and sealing Germany’s defeat. Roy remained with 34th Battalion until the Armistice on 11 November 1918 and disembarked in Sydney on 19 August 1919.

Roy GASCOIGNE joined the Royal Australian Navy in 1920 and served through the inter-war years at naval base HMAS Cerberas, as well as on board HMAS Marguerite. At the outbreak of WWII Roy served on HMAS Perth – thankfully he was transferred to another post before the ship was torpedoed and sunk at the Battle of Sunda Strait. You can read more about the Gascoigne family in my post the gascoignes of wyong shire.

RSM Harold Charles VENESS (AIF Service No. 3286)

Tom and Roy’s sister Muriel GASCOIGNE married Harold Charles VENESS. Harold was a 2nd Boer War veteran and served as Staff Sergeant Major for nine years training the 5th Australian Light Horse before he enlisted in the AIF on 16 February 1917.

Harold was appointed a Sergeant of the 1st Light Horse Brigade which was raised in response to a promise from the Australian Government to supply a division of 20,000 Australians comprising infantry, artillery and cavalry to be used at the discretion of Britain. The Brigade was recruited exclusively from the various New South Wales militia regiments including the 5th Australian Light Horse.

The 1st Light Horse Brigade reinforcements sailed on HMAT Port Sydney on 9 May 1917 for Suez and the troop bases in Egypt. Harold was promoted to Regimental Sergeant Major and trained and led mounted troops in fighting to advance on Turkish outposts on the Palastine frontier. With the fall of Gaza on 7 November 1917 the regiments participated in the advance to Jaffa that followed and the operations to clear and occupy the west bank of the Jordan River. Harold was involved in the battle for Amman in late February 1918, and the raids on Es Salt from 30 April to 4 May, as well as the repulse of a major German and Turkish attack on 14 July 1918.

Harold contracted Malaria while in Africa during the Boer War. He suffered another severe case in mid-September 1918 and spent a month recuperating at the base hospital at Port Said, Egypt before returning to the field in Jordon just after the Turkish surrendered on 30 October 1918. The 1st Light Horse Regiment sailed for Australia in March 1919 without their horses, which were either transferred to Indian cavalry units or shot. Harold was discharged on 24 May 1919.

Halifax harbour on 6 December 1917 shortly after the massive explosion leveled much of the city. [Photo: Canadian Press]

Richard Lionel PICKERING was a cousin of my grandad Ernest BUCK. Richard was the 2nd Officer on the British merchant SS Curaca. Richard died tragically from shock due to massive injuries sustained in an explosion of ships in Halifax harbour.

The cataclysmic explosion occurred on 6 December, 1917, when the city of Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada was devastated by the detonation of the SS Mont-Blanc, a french cargo ship that was fully loaded with wartime munitions. The Mont-Blanc caught fire and exploded after colliding with the Norwegian SS Imo in a part of Halifax harbour called The Narrows. About 2,000 people were killed by the force of the blast and flying debris, or in fires and collapsing buildings. It is estimated that around 9,000 others were injured.

SS Curaca was docked at Pier 8 loading horses bound for the war in Europe. The force of the blast was so great the ship was blown across the harbour by the tidal wave and sank with the loss of forty-five of its crew. Until the test explosions of the atomic bombs, this was the largest man-made explosion in recorded history.

Pilot Officer Donald BUCK (CFA Service No. 79168)

Donald BUCK was born in Catford, Lewisham, England and emigrated to Canada as a young man. Donald joined the cavalry in Edmonton on 16 November, 1914 as a dragoon in the Alberta 19th Horse. He then went to Calgary to join and train with the 31st Battalion.

Donald saw action with the 31st in many battles including St Eloi, Ypres, 1st battle of the Somme, Neuville St Vaast, Passchendaele as well as the battle of Vimy Ridge. The brutal nature of the fighting is shown by the statistics – 941 fatal casualties in the 31st Battalion over the duration of the war (including death of replacements).

A friend in the British Flying Corps told Donald that they would be recruiting for a new air force. Donald joined the Flying Corps as a student pilot late in 1917 and trained in Sopwith Pup, Dolphin and Avro fighter biplanes. On 2 May, 1918 he resigned as a Sergeant of the 31st to join the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a Pilot Officer where he took further training in an SE5a, a single-seater fighter aircraft. He saw action in France and at the end of the war was flying close air support out of a field in Belgium.

After the war Donald stayed on as part of the Ruhr occupation force and flew out of a field near Cologne. He was very lucky to survive so much action with only relatively minor wounds to his neck and back. He was exposed to gas whilst in the cavalry, but was not hospitalised for it. Donald was demobbed on 4 December 1920.

Sergeant Harold Lambert BUCK, MM & Bar (CFA Service No. 86016)

Donald’s younger brother Harold Lambert BUCK was a Canadian National who enlisted on 8 December 1914 in Winnepeg. He was 21 years old and was assigned the rank of Corporal with the 2nd Divisional Signal Company, Canadian Engineers.

Harold quickly proved himself to be a brave and trusted soldier in battle and was promoted to the rank of Sergeant of the Signal Section of 5th Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery (CFA).

The Canadian Corps participated in many battles and engagements against German forces throughout France and Flanders between 1915–1918. The 5th Brigade made a name for itself in the battle of Vimy Ridge which began at dawn on 9 April 1917. All four divisions of the Canadian Corps were ordered to seize the heavily-fortified seven kilometre ridge above the Douai Plain in France. The ridge was held by the German 6th Army and had a commanding view over the Allied lines.

To capture this difficult position, the Canadians carefully planned and rehearsed their attack. To provide greater flexibility and firepower in battle, the infantry were given specialist roles as machine-gunners, rifle-men and grenade-throwers. Soldiers underwent weeks of training behind the lines using models to represent the battlefield, and new maps crafted from aerial photographs to guide their way. Engineers dug deep tunnels from the rear to the front, in order to bring the men forward in safety for the assault.

Historians attribute the success of the Canadian victory in capturing the ridge to a mixture of technical and tactical innovation, meticulous planning, powerful artillery support and extensive training. The Canadians earned a reputation as formidable, effective troops because of this victory. Harold won the first of his two Military Medals (MM) for acts of gallantry and devotion to duty under fire during the four days it took to capture Vimy Ridge.

Harold died in Arras, France on 21 September 1918 during military operations near Marquion, when he was hit in the chest by a fragment of bursting shell and seriously wounded. He was attended by a medic in the field and evacuated to a casualty clearing station where he died. Harold was buried at Duisans Military Cemetery, Etrun, France, he was 24 years old.

The following is an extract from a letter to Harold’s mother from his commanding officer, dated 5 October, 1918:

Your son was a very fine chap and was one of my most valuable and trusted men. He was an exceptionally brave man and one whom no danger stopped him from doing his duty. I had recommended him for a commission and he was about to receive it. His loss is indeed a grief to me for many reasons, being one of my original men, I had got to know him personally and truly loved him for his own sake.

Sergeant Harold BUCK was the recipient of the Military Medal as well as a silver, laurelled Bar for subsequent acts of bravery and devotion under fire.

Private Harry Maxwell Clark’s casualty record. (AIF Service No. 1002)

Donald and Harold’s cousin Harry Maxwell CLARK was born in London, England but enlisted on 26 August 1914 in Sydney, Australia – just three weeks after Britain declared war on Germany. Harry was 38 years old when he landed at Gallipoli with the 2nd Battalion AIF as part of the second and third waves between 25 April and 2 May in what is known as the Battle of the Landing. Harry was reported wounded and missing in action on 2 May 1915 during heavy fighting to gain Quinn’s Post. His body was never found and he was finally pronounced killed in action by a Court of Inquiry ten months later. Harry is remembered with honour on the Lone Pine Memorial at Anzac Cove at Gallipoli.

The traditional recitation of the Ode on Anzac Day is taken from the fourth stanza of the poem For the fallen by Laurence Binyon (1869–1943).

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

In Flanders fields, by the Canadian officer Lieutenant Colonel J.M. McCrae (1872–1918), is another popular recitation. McCrae was a professor of medicine at McGill University before the war. He served as medical officer with the first Canadian contingent in WWI and wrote this poem at the second battle of Ypres in 1915. It was published anonymously in Punch. McCrae was wounded in May 1918 and died three days later.

Lest we forget.

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Sources: Australian War Memorial; Commonwealth War Graves Commission; National Archives of Australia; Nova Scotia Archives – Halifax Remembrance Book; The Regimental Rogue – Canadian battle honours; and thank you Geoffrey BUCK for providing his research on his father Donald and his uncle Harold.

susanah’s journal – letter to miss lyndall

An extract from the journal of Susanah Wellington (1819-1838) of Yeovil, Somerset.

The copy of a letter which I wrote to congratulate Miss Lyndall on her marriage, she married Mr E Whitby, she was married of a Shrove Tuesday the 19th of February 1833, she went to Bath for the wedding excursion.

Yeovil Feby 23rd 1833

My dear Friend I received the news of your marriage with great delight, and I hope that the sincerity with which I wish your happiness may excuse the liberty I take in writing to congratulate you on your altered situation. Mrs Eason very kindly gave us a half holiday on Tuesday and we went for a walk with the boarders to the grotto at Barwick and also about the grounds. Miss Waugh and Miss Fryer were very much pleased as they had never seen it before. Please to present my kind respects to Mr Whitby and accepting yourself the sincere love of Your affectionate friend S Wellington

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In my last post from susanah’s journal – token of affection, I wrote about Susanah’s interest in the sentiments expressed in the note her sister Jane received from an ‘affectionate friend’. The very next entry in the notebook is a letter Susanah had occasion to send to one of her own friends, and it appears she may have drawn on Jane’s correspondance for some writing tips.

Yeovil parish records show Miss Hannah LYNDALL married Mr Elias WHITBY Jr on 19 February 1833. Hannah was twenty-five years old and Elias was married on his twenty-third birthday.

The Whitby family worshipped in the newly built Baptist Church in South Street, and Elias WHITBY the elder was a Deacon of the church for sixty-four years. He and his son were successful glove manufacturers and wool dealers in Yeovil.

The WELLINGTONs and the WHITBYs most likely had a similar social standing. Susanah’s father George WELLINGTON was the portreeve and then a burgess of the Yeovil Union, from 1813 until his death in 1847. The Union was the “old corporation” that governed the market town and Elias WHITBY Jr was the clerk of the Union during the 1840s and early 1850s.

Yeovil was made a municipal borough in 1853 by Act of Parliament and Royal Assent, and Elias WHITBY was elected Mayor of Yeovil between 1862-1864 and again for 1872-1873. Hannah and Elias’ son Elias Lyndall WHITBY was also Mayor of Yeovil 1878-1879.

The latest fashion evening and day wear for 1833 [Wikimedia Commons: University of Washington fashion plate collection]

Hannah LYNDALL was eleven years older than Susanah WELLINGTON who was only thirteen and a half when she wrote to congratulate her friend on her marriage. I have found that Hannah was born in London and her family came from Yorkshire. It appears she had no family in Yeovil until her marriage. Maybe Hannah had been a teacher at Mrs Eason’s School which Susanah and Jane attended.

After Susanah congratulates Hannah on her ‘altered situation’ she goes on to tell her that Mrs Eason allowed the students a half-holiday on Shrove Tuesday (also known as Pancake Tuesday), the day preceding Ash Wednesday the first day of Lent. The students and boarders spent the afternoon on a long walk to see the local curiosities at Barwick, a village lying about 3 kms (1.8 miles) to the south of Yeovil.

Barwick House is famous for the four follies and the grotto within its parkland. It’s thought the odd garden features were built between 1770–1790, possibly by unemployed farm labourers on the estate.

Barwick follies – Jack The Treacle Eater, Messiter’s Cone and the Fish Tower near Yeovil, Somerset [photos by Rupert Fleetingly, Jeff Tomlinson and Andy Jenkins – Wikimedia Commons]

Of the four follies, none is more odd than the tiny tower on top of a jagged rocky arch which is called Jack The Treacle Eater. It is named after a famous local runner who trained on a diet of treacle. Jack needed the glucose rush to keep up his stamina on his 110-mile sprint to London to deliver mail for the Messiter family, who owned Barwick House. The figure on top of the tower is supposedly the running figure of Jack The Treacle Eater. It looks to me like a classical statue of the Greek messenger god Hermes or his Roman counterpart Mercury.

Jack the Treacle Eater, one of the odd follies at Barwick [photo by David Ward – Wikimedia Commons]

A grotto at the western end of the lake contains three subterranean chambers. The circular domed chamber contains a pool with a path around it, there are niches which hold Greek statues and at the top of the dome is an oculus which radiates beams of light. The follies and grotto are now owned by South Somerset District Council, who snapped them all up for just £5 when the estate was sold in the early 1990s. After major restoration work, Barwick and its follies are again a popular attraction with ramblers and tourists.

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Sources: Susanah Wellington’s Journal, BUCK family collection. You can read more about it here: susanah’s journal – somerset to sydney. Journal transcription by Terry HASTINGS; From Portreeve to Mayor: the growth of Yeovil 1750-1854 by L C Hayward; www.yeoviltown.com; www.oldukphotos.com; Britain’s Top 10 Follies.

susanah’s journal – token of affection

An extract from the journal of Miss Susanah Wellington (1819-1838) of Yeovil, Somersetshire. Her sister Jane kept the journal after Susanah died and brought it with her when she emigrated to Australia.

Copy of a note addressed to my sister Jane, by a friend
with a token of affection.

Accept my very dear friend this small token of affection from one who sincerely loves and esteems you.

Would it were more worthy of your acceptance but it may sometimes remind you of  your sincerely attached and affectionate friend.

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Before there were Hallmark cards, Interflora and store-bought boxes of chocolate, people put a lot more time and effort into their letters and tokens of affection.

Susanah took the time to transcribe this note (hopefully with Jane’s permission), but frustratingly for us she does not mention the name of Jane’s friend, or what the token of affection was. Susanah appears to be more interested in the wording in the note and the sentiments expressed. She wanted to remember them for a time to come when she had occasion to sent a token of affection to someone she “sincerely loved and esteemed”.

Jane and Susanah were very close, only a year separated them in age. Jane was born on 6 July 1818, Susanah on 20 August 1819.

We can assume by it’s page position within the journal this note was transcribed late in 1832. Jane would have been fourteen years old, so the token of affection and note were most likely from a female friend and not from a young man.

Still, I wonder who was Jane’s “sincerely attached and affectionate friend”, and what was the token of affection Jane received.

Was it a small book of poetry – possibly by Byron, Keats, Shelley or Wordsworth who were all popular romantic poets of the time?

Could it have been a piece of jewellery – maybe a small brooch, or a hair comb?

It may have been embroidery or hand sewing like a pin cushion, a bookmark, a handkerchief or a small drawstring purse.

Embroidered silk satin purse appliquéd with silk muslin, made in Britain 1830-1840. V&A Museum collection.

Or, it may have been a small water-colour drawing or a cut-out silhouette portrait which were popular pastimes amongst young ladies at the time. The silhouette portraits below are of Jane and Susanah’s younger sisters, Lucy and Rebecca WELLINGTON.

Silhouette portraits of Lucy and Rebecca Wellington. The likenesses are hand cut from black paper with small scissors, then highlighted with grey or white paint and framed.

Alas, we will never know the identity of Jane’s friend or her gift; as Susanah clearly wrote her journal for herself and never imagined someone would be interested in her notes 180 years later.

Susanah WELLINGTON died of consumption (tuberculosis) on 6 June 1838 at the age of eighteen years and 10 months.

Jane Penelope WELLINGTON married William Henry SUTTON on 23 December 1842 in Glastonbury when she was twenty-four years old. I hope William Henry sent Jane love letters and heart-felt tokens of his affection while he was courting her.

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Sources: Susanah Wellington’s Journal, BUCK family collection. You can read more about it here: susanah’s journal – somerset to sydney. Journal transcription by Terry HASTINGS.  V&A Museum collection. History of Silhouettes PaperPortraits.com.

billy was a boxer

As a true-blue Aussie kid I grew up listening to stories of family overseas told by my mum and grandma, both born and bred Yorkshire lasses.

One particular great uncle was larger than life and his story always fascinated me. The narration always began with . . . {in your best Yorkshire accent}

“Our Billy was a boxer.”

My mum’s uncle and grandma’s eldest brother, Billy MATTICK was born in Featherstone, West Yorkshire in 1903. His father Robert was a deputy at Featherstone Colliery. You can read more about the MATTICK family in my post the four yorkshiremen.

As a child Billy liked to ‘scrap’ with other boys, and as he grew up he became a confident and charismatic young man. He began working in the coal mines with his father in Pontefract but it was a hard life for little reward. Billy decided to put his pugilist’s prowess to good use in order to pull in some serious money.

Billy Mattick (Castleford), Welterweight 1921-1929.

Billy MATTICK of Castleford started his professional boxing career in 1921 when he was 18 years and 11 months old. He had 96 recorded contests and quite a successful and lucrative career. He won 56 of his fights, lost 30, and drew 10.

Billy was crowned the North’s professional welterweight champion at the peak of his career and he became a top-of-the-bill draw for fight fans, who flocked to see his silky-smooth skills and gutsy performances.

More than once Billy had three fights within a fortnight and he got paid the same – win, lose or draw. In one notable week he KO’d a Scottish champion in the eleventh round, put away a fairground champion in the sixth and travelled to Lincoln to knock out a Midlands bill-topper.

Billy fought many notable opponents over eight years, taking on boxers from the UK, Belguim, France, Holland and USA.

The Scottish champion he knocked out in the eleventh round was Tommy MILLIGAN in a bout on 29 October 1923 at St James Hall in Newcastle. Milligan went on to become the British and British Empire Welterweight Champion 1924-25; European Middleweight Champion 1925; and British and British Empire Middleweight Champion 1926-28.

Billy continued to have success in the ring and in the first half of 1924 he won six and drew one in a total of nine fights at Pudley Street Stadium, Liverpool; St James Hall, Newcastle; and The Ring, Blackfriers. Some of the notable fighters he beat were: Frances DESPREY (France); Sonny BIRD (Chelsea); Gaston PAUMELLE (France); Joe ROLFE (Bermondsey); Pat McALLISTER (Belfast); and George CARNEY (Bermondsey).

Billy MATTICK and Tommy MILLIGAN had a second fight on 12 July 1924 in Celtic Park, Belfast, Ireland. In this return bout Billy was KO’d by Tommy in the fifth round.

Tommy Milligan (Hamilton) and Billy Mattick (Castleford) square up for a media photo at the weigh-in before their 12 July 1924 fight in Celtic Park, Belfast.

On 19 March 1925, Tommy MILLIGAN and Ted ‘Kid’ LEWIS were the top-of-the-bill fight at Royal Albert Hall, Kensington, London. Castleford’s Billy MATTICK and Simon ROSMAN of Holland were also on the bill that night.

The fighters were fairly evenly matched with MATTICK weighing in at 10st 8lbs and ROSMAN at 10st 7lbs. The ten round match was a draw and appears to have overshadowed the main event of the night, as you can see in this cartoon by Tom WEBSTER published in The Daily Mail two days later.

I found this well-worn newspaper clipping in my grandma’s keepsakes. It is Billy’s account of his bouts with Tommy MILLIGAN. I have included a transcript below.

Billy gives his account of his fights with Tommy MILLIGAN in an unknown British newspaper article, circa June 1927.

BILLY MATTICK

__ . __

Popular Boxer in His Fight With Tommy Milligan.

In dealing with the chances of Tommy Milligan against Mickey Walker our boxing writer “Sirius” mentioned that Tommy had only once suffered a technical knock-out and that was against Billy Mattick, although he was not “out” and could have continued.

Billy, who is a constant reader of “Reynolds’s,” writing from Tredegar House, Glasshoughton, Castleford, says:–

Since I have been boxing five and a half years, I have always been told that if a boxer is knocked down and fails to rise to continue to box at the end of ten seconds, he is out.

I don’t doubt Tommy Milligan could have continued after he had risen to his feet, but he had been counted out, and when he did arise after “out” had been called, he fell down again.

A GREAT FIGHTER

Tommy Milligan is a great fighter and I have nothing to say about him, apart from him being a great fighter. He is a clean fighter, too, one of the cleanest I ever had the good fortune to meet.

Had I had the luck to beat him the second time I fought him, things would have been totally different. I had him down in the second round, and I fell for the crowd, and didn’t keep my head long enough to hit hard again. Anyhow, he won in the seventh round I think, a punch to the mark.

Some boxers are lucky and some are unlucky. I think I am one of the latter. It is no use taking it to heart, or I would have given it up long ago.

NOT TOO OLD

Some people say I am an old hand, and think I should give it up. But I was eighteen years and eleven months old when I had my first fight, and that was in York, November 17, 1921 and the following April I fought and knocked out Frank Fowler at York.

You will see that I am not so old as some people imagine, and I think I have still a few more years of boxing to do, if I am lucky to get contracts, which I sincerely hope I may, if not in England, in the States.

At the age of 25 Billy was definitely not old, but he had sustained a few serious injuries including damage to his left eye from a left hook by Dixie BROWN of Bristol in their fight at The Ring, Blackfriers on 21 January 1926. This match was an example of Billy’s never-say-die spirit when he was tested to his limit.

In their fifteen round match Billy was knocked down four times but refused to give in. It was a hard-fought battle by both fighters, and at the final bell Billy was awarded the decision by the narrowest of margins due to his good work early in the bout.

Billy was not a slugger, he was a very skilful and classy boxer and a favourite with fight fans and boxers alike. I met him once, in the late 1970s when my mum took my sister and I on a trip to visit our grandma in England. By that time great uncle Billy was an old man in his 70s, but he still looked after himself and walked tall as those who are disciplined athletes often do.

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Sources: Photos are from the BUCK and MATTICK family collection. Copies of newspaper clippings are from Billy MATTICK’s personal collection and were kindly shared with me by his children Pat and Terry and his grandson Jon HARRIS. Thank you to Chris Walsh for sending me newspaper clippings of fights relating to his grandfather Gentleman Joe ROLFE. Alex DALEY and Miles TEMPLETON at boxinghistory.org.uk have been very helpful in providing a comprehensive record of Billy MATTICK’s fighting career. You can find more on the fight records of the boxers mentioned in this article at the BoxRec website.

liebster blog award

A while ago I received a Liebster Blog Award nomination from one of my fellow family history bloggers. Liebster is a German word meaning beloved, and the award is used to highlight smaller, lesser known blogs with less than 200 followers.

The Liebster is an award you accept with the intention of paying it forward. When accepting, you choose 5 to 10 other blogs you like and you feel are deserving of more subscribers and pass the award on to them. It’s sort of like a tech-savvy chain letter but without the annoying threat of horrible consequences and bad karma if you don’t pass it on. You are not obliged to accept the award or to even pay it forward. It’s just a way to get the word out about new blogs your followers may enjoy.

In order to accept my Liebster Award I must do the following:

1. Thank and link the presenter of my award in my post.
2. Post 11 random facts about myself
3. Answer the 11 questions created for me by the award giver, and create questions to be answered by the bloggers which I nominate.
4.  Link the blogs I enjoy and choose to nominate to this post and tell the nominees that I’ve nominated them for a Liebster Blog Award.

Thanks Kassie aka ‘Mom’ for nominating me, I will wear my badge with pride. Kassie’s blog Maybe someone should write that down is full of great advice for the family history blogger.

11 random facts about me:

• I love being overseas on holiday on my birthday, and traveling alone is perfectly fine with me. Some of my best travel memories are of trips I have taken by myself.
• I like swimming in the ocean and snorkelling, but scuba diving scares me.
• I hate exercise for the sake of it. I don’t understand people who like to jog or run.
• I want to be able to speak Spanish. I have tried for many years to learn the language, I’m still working on it.
• My favourite colour is that in-between colour which some people see as green and others see as blue.
• I can change a flat tyre on my car.
• I’m overly judgemental of people who don’t use apostrophes correctly.
• I like urban street art.
• My new addiction is Vietnamese rice paper rolls.
• I don’t like loose paper clips and rubber bands. They give me the heebie-jeebies.
• I’m not comfortable with lists that have eleven points. Ten seems to me to be a  sensible number for a list, but I’m going to soldier on and follow the rules.

My answers to the questions put to me:

1.  If I weren’t blogging about this stuff I would be: wasting my time on other things.

2.  Who are you named after? I’m not named after anyone in my family. My mum wanted to call me Sally and my dad didn’t, so they agreed on Susan.

3. I would like my epitaph to read as follows: Time passes, memories stay, loved and remembered.

4.  Favorite quote:  You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr Seuss).

5.  Something I will never understand is: how the quest for money rules the world.

6.  If I could run around all day, dressed any way that I pleased I would wear: A saucy pirate wench outfit and hide a pistol in my garter. Aaarrgh.

7.  What class do you wish you had paid more attention to in school? I guess maths and commerce – then I might understand how money makes the world go round.

8.  Do you write full time? No, writing is a challenge for me, I have a full-time job as a graphic designer. I usually think in images not words.

9.  What’s your dream job? I would love to be a curator in an art gallery or museum.

10. Where is your dream Writer’s Corner? I have always dreamed of spending a year with other artists and writers in an old villa in Cascais, Portugal.

11.  What’s the craziest thing you have ever learned about your family? My grandfather Ernest was born in the same year his father Robert died (at the age of 74).

Sometimes it’s not apparent if a blog has a subscriber count under 200. Give or take a follower or two, these are some of the blogs I think are worthy of a Liebster Blog Award:

The Resident Judge of Port Phillip. This is the research blog of Janine Rizzetti, who is writing her thesis on Justice John Walpole Willis, the first Resident Judge of Port Phillip between 1841 and 1843. Janine is a thorough researcher and posts interesting stories of the colony of Melbourne. She also reviews history books.

Locksands Life. Roger is the self proclaimed “happy nerd”. He blogs on his life going up in England in the late 1940s, 50s and 60s. Roger weaves stories around his interests in mechanical-all-sorts: automobiles, bicycles, clocks, gramophones, even pre-industrial water mills. Oh, and trains, lots of trains.

Fit, Feminist, And (almost) Fifty. Two feminists in our late 40s who lead active lifestyles and have set themselves a goal: to be the fittest they’ve ever been in their lives by the time they’re 50. I’m in the same boat but often too lazy to paddle. I’m trying to follow their fun posts on how to live a fit and happy life.

Tree Rings. Dave Weller writes about the various branches of his family. Very thoughtful posts and he includes some wonderful old photos in his Wordless Wednesday posts that always put a smile on my face. I love the cheeky boy sitting in a wagon.

Apples and Anarchy. I love this blog! Natalia lives in New Zealand and is into natural foods and health psychology. Her posts are a mix of nature, gardening, healthy living and tasty recipes. Try her gluten-free Spiced Carob and Date Cake.

This Handcrafted Life. Monica is a decorative painter based in New York City. She blogs about some of her paint projects, her lovely illustrated travel journals and pinhole camera photography.

What Do Ya’ Reckon?   Mrs Bushranger shares her poetry, photography, humor, and her wonderful artwork.

Tracking Down the Family. Jennifer is an Australian family history writer who I have just started following. Her Family History Though the Alphabet posts are just lovely to read.

Bhutan Chronicles. The stories and experiences of a couple living in the land of the thunder dragon. Glorious images and stories that leave me wanting to pack my bags and hop the next flight to the top of the world.

Among My Branches. William Kernan puts a lot of thought into his family history stories. I am not sure I would have the patience to hold off publishing a story until it coincided with the same day in history e.g. 340 years ago today.

The Other Half of My Tree. Dianne Hewson is an Aussie who writes about the fearless pioneer women on her family tree.

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Now while we are talking about blogs worth reading, I’m going to sneak in two blogs I know have more than 200 subscribers but, you’re going to love them. I promise.

A Hundred Years Ago. Sheryl’s daily comments and observations on her grandmother’s diary entries are always entertaining.

Streets of Salem. Beautiful . . . just beautiful.

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Here are my 11 questions for my nominees:

1. What inspires you to blog?
2. How long does it take you to write an average post?
3. What is your favourite line from a movie?
4. Is there anything you can’t do anymore but you wish you could?
5. What is your favourite quote?
6. What would you like to achieve this year?
7. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
8. Do you have any guilty pleasures?
9. If you could live in any period of history which would you choose?
10. What book reminds you of your childhood?
11. Recommend something everyone should try once in their lives?

susanah’s journal – resolutions of bishop beveridge

An extract from the journal of Susanah Wellington (1819-1838) of Yeovil, Somersetshire. Her diary includes school and scripture lessons, copies of letters and a record of the last few years of her life.

Resolutions of Bishop Beveridge.

1.  I am resolved by the grace of God never to speak much lest I often speak too much, and not to speak at all, rather than to no purpose.

2.  Always to make my tongue and heart go together so as never to speak with the one what I do not think in the other.

3.  To speak of other men’s sins only before their faces, and of their virtues only behind their backs.

4.  To do everything in obedience to the will of God.

5.  To do everything with prudence & discretion as well as with zeal and affection.

6.  Never to set my hand, my head or my heart about anything but what I verily believe is good in itself and must be esteemed so by God.

7.  To do all things for the glory of God.

8.  To mingle such recreation with my business, as to further my business by my recreation.

9.  I am resolved if possible to redeem my time past by using a double diligence for the future, & to employ and improve all the gifts and endowments both body and mind to the glory and service of my great Creator.

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William BEVERIDGE (1637-1708), of St John’s College, Cambridge, was Archdeacon of Colchester for twenty years before being consecrated as Bishop of St Asaph in 1704. The diocese of St Asaph covers the counties of Conwy, Flintshire, Wexham as well as parts of Gwynedd and Powys in northern Wales.

The chronology and the history of the early Church were two of Bishop Beveridge’s  pursuits. His theology work found favour with the Church of England and many non-conformist Protestant denominations, most especially the Wesleyans. In his day he was styled ‘the great reviver and restorer of primitive piety’, as many of his sermons and writings dealt with the ‘back-to-basics’ teachings of the early Church.

The nine resolutions quoted in Susanah’s journal are the opening statements of some of his resolutions that are expanded in more detail in the original text. Significantly, they are extracted from Resolutions on WORD and ACTION.

Even if you are not religious these are credible words to live by. Replace the word ‘God’ with ‘Good’ in the above resolutions and they still hold true.

A more detailed account of Bishop Beveridge’s Thoughts of Religion and Resolutions can be seen at Wesley Center Online.

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Sources: Susanah Wellington’s Journal, Buck family collection. You can read more about it here: susanah’s journal – somerset to sydney. Journal transcription by Terry HASTINGS.

susanah’s journal – messages from mercury

An extract from the journal of Susanah WELLINGTON (1819-1838) of Yeovil, Somerset. Susanah attended Mrs Eason’s School and she was 13 years old when she copied the following lesson into her notebook.

Lesson Notes

The invention of Oratory was by the Egyptians and the fables of the Poets ascribed it to Mercury. The tongue was consecrated to him. The gods assigned him the office of interpreter of the Gods.

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The first handbook detailing the how-to’s of public speaking was written in Egypt more than 4500 years ago. The Egyptians held eloquent speaking in high esteem, and the skilled orator was of great value to their society.

The Egyptian god Thoth is known as, among other things, the inventor of writing, who announced and wrote down the judgments about the dead. Thoth was worshiped throughout Egypt, but particularly at Hermopolis Magna (near modern El‐Ashmunein). The Egyptians credited him as the author of all works of science, religion, philosophy, civilised government, the alphabet, reading and oratory.

Many of the rules and techniques of public speaking today, particularly the art of persuasion, come from guidelines written by the Greek philosopher Aristotle in the 3rd century BC. Hellenistic Greeks associated the great god Thoth with Hermes, especially as Hermes Trismegistus (meaning 3-times great Hermes).

Hermes was the Greek god of transitions and boundaries, and moved freely between the worlds of the mortal and divine, as emissary and messenger of the gods. He was protector and patron of travellers, orators and wit, literature and poets, athletics and sports, invention and trade.

Mercury was the Roman god of messages and communication, eloquence in speech and poetry, as well as the patron god of commerce and trade. Mercury was also considered a god of abundance and commercial success, and like both Thoth and Hermes he was also the guide of souls to the afterlife.

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Sources: Susanah Wellington’s Journal, Buck family collection. You can read more about it here: susanah’s journal – somerset to sydney. Journal transcription by Terry HASTINGS. http://www.alchemylab.com/AJ3-4.htm; David Hutto‌ (Summer 2002), Ancient Egyptian Rhetoric in the Old and Middle Kingdoms, Rhetorica (University of California Press); http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes

susanah’s journal – manners and morals

An extract from the journal of Susanah WELLINGTON (1819-1838) of Yeovil, Somerset. Susanah was 12 years old when she transcribed the following letter into her notebook.

Letter to Miss Lintern, from a teacher, dated Yeovil 1st March 1832.

The copy of the letter to Miss Lintern which is incomplete and unsigned.

Yeovil March 1st 1832

My dear Miss Lintern

Very gladly do I improve the opportunity you afford me of assuring you that I am pleased with your efforts and that I applaud your diligence. It is true that your advancement on the whole is not so rapid as I could wish and I hope you will understand that I allude to the goodness of your designs and not to the completeness of their execution.

You express your thanks for the pleasure you derive from your Scripture Lessons and while my heart is affected by your gratitude, I entreat you to cherish the emotion for it is an expression of that love which ought to burn mutually in our bosoms, even though we do no more than our duty to do. Never will the Teacher and the Pupil succeed in their respective offices while the one is unkind and the other disrespectful.

You will not, I apprehend, convict me of the first and of the last I have but little accusation to bring against some of your schoolfellows and none against you. And do be assured my dear for your Comfort, that while intellectual eminence is in some respects highly desirable, yet moral attainments are far more so. By these I mean the improvement of the heart, by those the expansion of the understanding.

I do not suggest these observations in order to lessen your ardour for learning; on the contrary, I would have you strive to the utmost of your capacity. But I wish to hold before you in a prominent manner the following important maxim: Acquire that you may communicate; or in plainer language, you should get good in order . . .  [incomplete and unsigned]

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You should get good in order . . . to what? Does anyone have the answer to this important lesson?

I wonder why Susanah did not complete her transcript of this letter? I think we can safely say it was written by her scripture teacher, Charlotte Bowles, as she provides a lesson on morals and manners to Miss Lintern and her fellow students at Mrs Eason’s School in Yeovil.

An English School Reader printed in Grantham in 1827 – Reading Made Easy; being a collection of lessons out of the Psalms, New Testament, &c. &c. [click on image to enlarge]

The above school text book, printed in Grantham Lincolnshire in 1827, is more than likely the sort of reading material available to the students in Mrs Eason’s School. Useful moral lessons on manners in words of one, two and three syllables.

You can read more of the moral character of Charlotte Bowles in her previous two letters – light of the lord and dictionaries and dominoes.

Sources: Susanah Wellington’s Journal, Buck family collection. You can read more about it here: susanah’s journal – somerset to sydney. Journal transcription by Terry HASTINGS. Reading Made Easy copied with permission from Grantham Library.

the chemist shop that time forgot

There has been a chemist shop at South Petherton, Somerset since the early 1800s. It belonged to an apothecary and grocer named John Wellington (1774-1845), son of John WELLINGTON (1747-1827), chemist of Chard, and a brother of my great-great-great-grandfather George WELLINGTON (1781-1847), chemist of Yeovil.

John WELLINGTON Jnr married Ann MARTIN in 1807 and had four children. Their three daughters Mary, Sarah Jane and Ann; and a son George William who also became a chemist in Taunton. John was a member of the South Petherton town council and ran a successful business until his death in 1845 at the age of 71.

The business in St. James Street, South Petherton passed to John’s brother George’s son William Edwards WELLINGTON (1813-1850) and then to another son Frederick George Noble WELLINGTON (1824-1887). They were qualified druggists and apothecaries and also sold groceries, tea, wine and spirits in their shop. They had a second business in the nearby town of Martock.

Frederick George Noble WELLINGTON (1824-1887). Chemist of South Petherton, Somerset, England

When Frederick retired he sold the shop and all its stock to William Charles WHITE in 1881. W. C. WHITE practiced as a chemist until 1909 and when he died the business passed to his son Charles Edger who was a grocer but not qualified to dispense medicines. The chemist department was abandoned and boarded up behind a locked door, complete with the dispensary and its contents.

Charles WHITE continued as a grocer for several decades, the business then passed to his unmarried daughters Margaret and Eveline who, with the change to decimal currency in 1971, gave up the struggle and upon the death of the surviving sister in 1987 the whole shop came up for sale.

When the door was unlocked an amazing time capsule was discovered. The dispensary, complete with its old balances and scales, medicine jars, bottles and ancient cures, gave a unique glimpse into the life of a Victorian pharmacy.

White’s chemist shop in South Petherton, as it was found when the door was unlocked in 1987.

The complete contents and fittings of the apothecaries shop was purchased at auction by Flambards Amusement Park in Cornwall and re-assembled in their Victorian Village as close as possible to how it appeared 70 years earlier – with the dust and cobwebs, but without the poisons and more dangerous compounds which were confiscated by the British Home Office.

W. C. White’s chemist shop recreated in the Victorian Village at Flambards Amusement Park in Helston, Cornwall. [Photo by John King on http://www.flickr.com

The South Petherton Local History Group owns the archive of accounts and records of White’s pharmacy and general store. I have written to the group asking if they have any documents dating back to when the WELLINGTON family owned the business.

Notes: William Edwards WELLINGTON and Frederick George Noble WELLINGTON were the sons of George WELLINGTON, chemist of Yeovil; and brothers to Jane and Susanah WELLINGTON.

Sources: http://www.southpethertoninformation.org.uk, South Petherton Local History Group, Wellingtonia, The History of the Wellington Family, by John Evelyn; GRO Indexes and documents, Pigot’s Directories of Somerset and Dorset 1830 to 1885. Flambards Amusement Park. You can see and listen to the story of apothecary William White’s lost time capsule at Flambards at this Youtube link.

susanah’s journal – dictionaries and dominoes

An extract from the journal of Miss Susanah WELLINGTON (1819-1838) of Yeovil, Somerset. Susanah attended Mrs Eason’s School in Yeovil, she was 12 years old when she transcribed this letter into her notebook.

Letter from Charlotte Bowles to Miss Allen, dated 14 February 1832.

The transcript of a letter from Charlotte Bowles (possibly a head teacher) in reply to a letter from one of her pupils, Miss Allen.

Yeovil Feby 14 1832

My dear Miss Allen

You have pleased me highly in the attention you have bestowed on my little note and in the endeavour you have made to comply with my requests.

It is true that I invited you to this recent effort merely with a view to your own improvement and it may therefore seem natural in you to have obeyed my injunction.

But how often are children unwilling to advance their own welfare! When study gives them trouble they grow impatient and seem to be regardless of the curse of ignorance while they are deceived by the pleasure of sloth.

If you want an illustration, I will give you a case in point. When you meet with a sentence or even a word that you cannot understand you immediately apply to your teacher for an explanation. You hear, and for a moment remember but in a day or two afterward the word and its meaning are both forgotten.

Now I would advise you never to enquire of anyone the explanation of a single term that is not clear to your apprehension, but refer at once to the dictionary and possess yourself fully of what you wish to comprehend, then look again to the volume or the page in which your difficulty began and you will generally find that the sentence which seemed cloudy and obscure is now as clear as noonday.

For this reason I must beg you to read my communications attentively nor would I have you shrink from examining Johnson, though it may impede your perusal and lessen your pleasure. To guess at the meaning as you hear or perceive it to be used by another is to forfeit your own command of that word when it might be of use to you if it lay within your reach.

You may receive it as a truth, my dear that what money is to the affluent, that language is to society. It will take you where you please and purchase for you whatever you want. How necessary then is it for a Christian to enjoy this intellectual wealth that he may dispense it for the benefit of his fellow man!

You will observe the truth of these remarks when you are placed by friends in a delicate situation as for instance when you are invited to join in a game at cards and yet you feel reluctant on account of your principles. And since you ask my counsel in this affair, I will give it you freely. Games of chance, as they are called, ought to be prohibited by every cultivated mind apart from the requisition of piety for in such recreation there is no exercise for the intellect any more than for the heart.

Now in the game of dominoes there is a little arithmetic needed, but this is all. And in the game of Whist a great deal of skill is required in order to play with success. But viewed in a more extensive latitude, cards and dominoes are games of chance. I should therefore abstain from them on the grounds of my rationality no less than my religion. But even if I could prove them to be innocent, when looked upon merely as pastimes yet I should account them criminal if they were regarded as a sign of conformity to the world.

If by my playing at cards with the irreligious they will reckon me one of their number, I will not touch a card while the world stands. Then again it should be asked Who are they that invite you to play at cards?

If they be ungodly, I have told you why I would not join them and if they be professors of religion, I am afraid they do not live beneath its power or else they would learn to deny themselves and abstain from the very appearance of evil. If you [find] these reasons satisfactory, you can offer them the next time you are solicited to play at cards.

I have suffered this subject to engross my time till the last moment of it is nearly expended, else I would notice your request concerning the tuition of Sabbath Scholars, but I shall find an opportunity for this another day. You will be so good as to let the other young ladies read my observations on language and assure them as well as yourself that I am their sincere friend and yours

Charlotte Bowles

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A week earlier Charlotte BOWLES wrote her first letter to her students. She encouraged them to enlighten themselves by asking questions and invited them to write to her. It appears she may have been inundated by correspondence from the girls looking to her to provide the answers to all their questions.

She thanks Miss ALLEN for confiding in her, and is very encouraging. But, I get the feeling Charlotte BOWLES is mildly disappointed that the girls are asking her for explanations on subjects they could find the answers to themselves, if they only read their textbooks.

She strongly suggests Miss ALLEN should consult Dr Johnson’s Dictionary in order to seek clarification on unknown words, so that, “the sentence which seemed cloudy and obscure is now as clear as noonday”.

Dr Samuel JOHNSON (1709-84) was an English poet, essayist, editor and lexicographer. Dissatisfied with works of the period, a group of London booksellers contracted Samuel Johnson to compile a dictionary. Johnson spent nine years working on it, virtually single-handed, and his Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1755. It had a far-reaching effect on Modern English and has been described as “one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship.” Johnson’s was viewed as the pre-eminent dictionary for libraries, schools and colleges throughout Britain and the Empire, until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary 170 years later.

Title page of Dr Samuel Johnson’s dictionary beside an image of the man himself pulling a book’s cover back and concentrating intently on its words – from a 1775 portrait by Joshua Reynolds.

Charlotte BOWLES shares wise words with her student when she says, “what money is to the affluent, language is to society”. It will take you where you please and purchase for you whatever you want.

The teacher then continues her letter with a moral lesson on the subject of games of chance. She definitely frowns upon card games. Even the popular parlour game of Whist is too much of a corruption and she will never play it. She does concede that the game of Dominoes has a small educational value as “there is a little arithmetic needed”.

Various games of chance not deemed suitable for pious young ladies in the 1830s.

But that seems to be her only concession, as she advises Miss ALLEN to stick to her principles and abstain from this kind of recreation on the grounds of rationality and religion. Who, in this day and age, imagines a game of Dominoes could be responsible for the corruption of respectable young ladies? Could it really be the “slippery slope” that sends them into a life of vice and gambling?

I can’t imagine it would, in fact I’m of the belief that card games and board games can aid in the education of children. Life isn’t always fair, and games of chance help teach an important lesson. In an age of instant gratification, with parents that over-indulge their children and prize ribbons for all, it can be a real shock to the emotional state of a young adult when they find things do not go their way. They just don’t know how to cope.

Is there a reason a young woman in a short skirt, high heels and with a fascinator stuck on her head spends a boozy day at the Spring Racing Carnival? Maybe it’s because she loved to play the board game ‘Steeplechase’ as a child.

Playing a game of Monopoly or Risk can be very frustrating. When you have been leading all the way, and you have victory snatched away at the very end because of an unlucky roll of the dice, you feel like tipping the board on the floor and stamping your feet. Life is like that, and kids need to learn to lose graciously, and then develop strategies so they are better prepared the next time they play.

I am sure that Miss ALLEN, Susanah WELLINGTON and the other young ladies growing up in the 1830s did not need games of chance to teach them that life was not all springtime and country dances. They would have seen the reality of life and death on a daily basis. Holding on to their belief in God, following a pious life and educating themselves would have given them comfort and enjoyment. But surely a game of Dominoes every once in a while would not harm the soul.

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Sources: Susanah Wellington’s Journal, Hastings family collection. You can read more about it here: susanah’s journal – somerset to sydney. Journal transcription by Terry HASTINGS.