#52Ancestors - Week - Week 23 - Going to the Chapel

St Philip's Church, Sydney - Sydney Architecture

When I saw this prompt in the #52 Ancestors I immediately thought of the church in Sydney where many of my ancestors would have worshiped in the early years of the colony and where some of my family, including my parents, were married.

Amongst the tall buildings of Sydney can be found St Philip's Anglican Church located at 3 York Street.

The first church service in the new colony at Sydney Cove was conducted by the Rev. Richard Johnson on Sunday 3 February 1788. Over the next five years Rev. Johnson held regular services, conducted marriages, baptised children and buried the dead. But he needed a church.

St Philip's, on the corner of Bligh and Hunter streets, was the first church built in Sydney. It was a wattle and daub chapel that existed from 1793 until it was destroyed by fire on 1 October 1798. The T shaped church building had a thatched roof and earthen floor. It could seat 500 people so it was quite large. During the week the building was used as a school run by the Rev. Richard Johnson and his wife Mary. Student attendance varied from 150 to 200 children.

The first service in the church was conducted by Rev. Johnson on 25 August 1793. 

My great x4 grandparents, William Roberts and Kezia Brown were married by Rev Johnson in Sydney on 14 August 1793 so they were probably not married in the new church. Their daughter, Mary (my x3 great grandmother), was also baptised on that day.

A month after the fire destroying the church in 1798, planning commenced  for a new church on land known as Church Hill - now Lang Park. This time a stone church would be constructed and the foundation stone was laid by Governor King on 1 October 1800. The Parish of St Philip's was proclaimed in 1802.

St Philip's Church Sydney 1809 - Dictionary of Sydney

St Philip's Church School opened in 1812.

On 27 October 1814, my great x3 grandparents, Simeon Lord and Mary Hyde married at St Philip's Church.

Not everyone was impressed with the style of the church building so the foundation stone for the third St Philip's Church was laid by Rev. William Cowper on 1 May 1848. 

The third St Philip's church building was designed by Edmund Blacket in the English Gothic Perpendicular Style.The church was constructed in sandstone with a slate roof and cost sixteen thousand pounds to build. The money to build the church was raised by the congregation. The new church was consecrated on 27 March 1856 by Bishop Barker, the Archbishop of Sydney and Archdeacon Cowper. The new church was built across the road from the old church.

Location of present church (left) and old church (right)

St Philip's Church in 1890s or early 1900s - Sydney Architecture

Interior of St Philip's Church - Pocket Oz Sydney

The naming of the church was originally influenced by the name of the first Governor in the colony - Arthur Phillip. Later churches were dedicated to Saint Philip, the Apostle. 

Over the years St Philip's Church has played an important role in Sydney's history.

My family's connection with St Philip's Church continued into the twentieth century when my parents, Ken Moses and Rosemary Lord, were married in the church on 11 February 1946.

References:
New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage - St Philip's Church of England
Sydney Architecture - Parish Church of St Philip
Registers of St. Philip's Church of England, Sydney, NSW, 1787-1937 - microfilm held at NLA (reel 1)
Anglican Church League - Richard Johnson First Chaplain to Australia
Church Hill - Pocket Oz Sydney

#52Ancestors - Week 19 - Mothers Day

Mother's Day - a time to celebrate and reflect on the lives of our mothers. In this post I look at how a girl from Queensland acclimatised to living in Melbourne.

My mother introducing me to an amused horse -1948

My mother, Rosemary Lord, was 19 when she married and moved with my father to Melbourne in 1946. Born in western Queensland, she had moved to Sydney in 1939 to attend secondary school and consequently had lived in Sydney during World War II. Seven years later she was again starting a new life in another strange city.

Notes from an interview with my mother in 1994 reveal some of her experiences at this time.

My father, Ken Moses, was a journalist and had transferred to Melbourne to work on the Sun News Pictorial towards the end of 1945. He had been working in Melbourne for almost six months before returning to Sydney to marry my mother on 11 February 1946. After a honeymoon at Phillip Island Mum started her new life in Melbourne.

Initially my parents stayed at a boarding house, Dever, 444 St Kilda Road, before the building was demolished and absorbed into Repatriation Department (Veterans Affairs) buildings. Mum described her experiences when she first came to Melbourne: Ken worked for the Sun and I didn't have anything to do and didn't know anyone apart from a couple of old aunts.The 'old aunts' were Aunt Meg, the sister of Mum's grandfather, and Aunt Vi, Aunt Meg's sister in law. A great uncle, Maurice Hutton, and his family also lived at Burwood. Mum occasionally visited them but did not know them well.

Mum later observed: When I look back I should have got a job but one didn't think of doing such things in those days once you were married. It was really ridiculous because we really needed the money. In Sydney Mum had worked as a receptionist for a music company.

After six months at the boarding house, my parents moved to Hotham Street, Elsternwick, where they shared a house with Mr Greer. The house, near the Ripponlea shopping centre, provided them with two bedrooms, a lounge room, a small balcony and the use of  the bathroom, kitchen and backyard. This arrangement would have provided Mum with a little more freedom and independence. Mum described Mr Greer as a very nice gentleman, very good to us. Fortunately Mr Greer did not mind young children as I was born at the local hospital during their time in Elsternwick.

When I was ten months old Dad left for England to cover the London Olympic Games for the Sun newspaper so Mum and I spent the next six months at the home of my grandparents in Queensland. Although Dad returned to Australia just before Christmas, Mum and I remained in Queensland until January until my parents found somewhere to live in Melbourne.

The location this time was Fern Tree Gully. My mother did not enjoy her six months living there:

We had a house. It was pretty terrible. In those days (1949) Ferntree Gully really seemed the the end of the world. The only good thing was you could go for long walks around the place. I knew absolutely no-one. Trying to go into town or do anything was quite an event. Ken started work at 2 in the afternoon and if he missed the last train at night he used to come at 4 in the morning on the milk train.

Fortunately accommodation became available again at Mr Greer's home so my parents moved back there until deciding to rent a house in Reservoir. This is where they were living when my sister joined the family in 1951. I remember that my father purchased a car around the same time that my sister arrived.

The next few years were ones of relative stability for my mother. She was now living in her own home and had two children to keep her occupied. I was able to attend kindergarten and dancing class in the hall around the corner from our house. We also attended Sunday School in the hall. The shops were nearby, as was the railway station. In the middle of 1953 I started school. I suspect that Mum's life at Reservoir became more ordered and settled.

Then my parents decided it was time to purchase a home of their own so in May 1955 the four of us moved to East Bentleigh to live in a brand new house. The area had been market garden and our house was the third house to be built in the street. It was not long, however, before other houses were built. There was a shopping strip aound the corner, the school was three streets away and a short distance further on was the church. The Oakleigh - Middle Brighton bus stopped at the top of the street making it relatively easy to get to the main shopping areas at East Bentleigh or Bentleigh, and when I went to secondary school I travelled by bus to Brighton.

Our street soon filled with young families and firm friendships were formed. Mum now had a community in which she could become involved.  She joined the Mothers' Club at school, and as this was a new, initially over crowded school, there were always fund-raising activities including the annual school fete. Mum baked lots of cakes and made sweets such as toffees and coconut ice for fundraising activities for both the school and the church. Dad was also involved in community events when work commitments allowed. It was not long before East Bentleigh became home.

The first nine years living in Melbourne involved many changes in accommodation and were often lonely times for my mother. However my mother has lived in East Bentleigh now for sixty-three years, a place that she now definitely calls home. Although many of her original friends have moved from the area or have died, my mother is still active in support networks including the ladies group at the church and with RSL and Legacy groups which work with war widows. It is easy to joke that an appointment is required to ensure that Mum is at home before we visit. 

#52Ancestors - Week 14 - Maiden Aunt

My great aunt, Eleanora Ruby Hutton (Nora) played a dominant role in the lives of members of our family. 

Nora 1941

Nora was was born at Parkes in New South Wales on 28 May 1892 where her parents, George Hutton and Annie Wilson Hardwick Weston, and her two and a half year old brother, William Clifton Weston Hutton, lived on a sheep station named The Troffs. 

Tragedy struck the family on 13 January 1893. When travelling to Sydney, the family stopped at a property at Nelungaloo and while they were there young William wandered from the house. His body was discovered shortly afterwards in the creek. Family stories recount that William was a very active little boy and had a habit of disappearing despite all attempts to restrict such activity. This incident was a great shock to his family. Nora remained the only child until her sister, Nancy Hazel Hutton, was born on 1 September 1899. By this time Nora was seven years old.

The Hutton family continued to live at The Troffs until 1903 when Annie returned to Sydney with the two girls. Nora was now eleven and Nancy was four. There had been a severe drought, known as the Federation Drought, in the region around Parkes from 1895 to 1902. George tried to keep the property for as long as he could but finally had to sell The Troffs. He decided to remain in Parkes and took on the role of a Rabbit Inspector for the local council.

Meanwhile, in Sydney, family members allowed Annie the use of a house which she ran as a boarding house until 1916. The girls now had the opportunity to attend school and Nancy developed an interest in art. They no doubt helped their mother to some extent with the boarding house. When Nora left school she may have worked in an office for a time.

The year 1916 was a momentous year as Annie decided that she and Nora (now 24) should journey to the 'home country' to help with the war effort. Much to her disgust Nancy was left in Sydney to stay with family. Nora and her mother were in England for three years. Initially Annie worked in a munitions factory supervising other women. She was later in charge of a canteen but we do not know where. Apparently Nora worked in a government department but I have no information as to where this was or what she did. The information about their time in England is very sketchy and, according to my mother, was rarely discussed. Nora and Annie returned to Australia in 1919.

Nora, like many women during World War I, never married. My mother mentioned that Nora may have been engaged to an older man during her time in England but  it was broken off. Once again the information is sketchy.

There are so many gaps in this story. Unfortunately when I knew enough to ask questions, those who could have provided the answers were no longer around.

However we do know that in the 1930s Nora was living in Sydney and working part-time in an office (possibly from 10 am to 4 pm).  The electoral rolls show that she was living in a flat at Coonong Flats, Ocean Street Darlinghurst in 1930. In 1930 she had moved to Edgecliff  while in 1936 she a flat at Darling Point. The next move was to a flat, part of a property named Kooyong at Rose Bay.

Around 1936 Nora and Nancy inherited money from a relative and decided to go on a cruise to Japan and to Singapore. Apparently Nora had already been to Japan on another occasion. They returned with many Japanese items including camphor chests, kimonos and some china.

Rosemary Lord with Nora Hutton 1941

As my grandparents lived on their property in south west Queensland, my mother, in 1939, moved to Sydney to attend school and lived with Nora for the next seven years. She was not the only young person that Nora looked after. From the end of the 1920s Nora became guardian of David Guy Lord when his parents died. David's mother was Nora's cousin while his father was my grandfather's brother. David and my mother's brother, Michael, attended boarding school in Sydney but at weekends they sometimes stayed with Nora. Consequently it was not unusual to have three young people about the house.

In 1947 my grandparents sold their property, Metavale, in south west Queensland and purchased Berily, near Toogoolawah. Nora, now 55, relocated to live with them and my uncle. In 1954 she moved with the family to their new property, Rosemount, near Kilcoy. By the mid 1960s my grandparents and Nora had retired and were living at Nandina, a house at Buderim Gardens Village. She was now 75. Nora lived at Buderim for many years before spending her final years in a nursing home at Nambour where she died in August 1990, aged 98 years.

During the Christmas holidays each year my family would travel to Queensland to visit my grandparents and great aunt. So what are my memories of  Nora? To start with she was never Aunt Nora to me or my sister and brother. Apparently I had trouble pronouncing 'Aunt Nora' so I named her Lortie which was the name that stuck among my side of the family.

At Rosemount my bed was on the verandah near Lortie's bedroom. I used to enjoy going into her bedroom which had a special charm. A special feature was the beautiful wooden dressing table and mirror. Lace doilies were on the dressing table as was a collection of items which we are now used to seeing on television programs such as 'Antiques Roadshow' or 'Bargain Hunt'. There was a set of hairbrush, mirror and clothes brush, all with elaborately patterned silver handles and / or backs. There were also glass perfume bottles with silver lids and an atomiser. As a young girl I was most impressed.

Lortie at Rosemount in early 1960s

Lortie was in charge of ensuring that there were always fresh cut flowers from the garden in the lounge and dining area. In the morning she would often check the flowers in the garden to find new flowers for the arrangements.

She was also involved with many of the chores to be done around the farm including feeding the poultry and gathering eggs. Each afternoon we would go for a walk with Gran and Lortie to ensure that the sheep returned to the safety of the barn for the night. Lortie played an important part in my memories of holidays at Rosemount.

As a girl whose early life was spent on a sheep station, Lortie adjusted to the busy lifestyle of Sydney where she lived for more than forty years before returning to live on smaller properties in south east Queensland. As well as working in Sydney, Lortie also looked after my mother for many years as well as being on call for Michael and David. She also experienced life in England during the First World War as well as life in Sydney during the Second World War, including the shelling of Rose Bay. Lortie also managed to take time for a cruise around part of Asia in the 1930s. 

This quiet and dignified lady had obviously led an active and eventful life.

Kambala

Kambala school for girls began at Fernbank, a house in Edgecliff Road Edgecliffe. In 1887 Miss Louisa Jane Guerney started a school with 12 girls in the house. As the number of pupils increased the school moved to a larger property named Kambala in 1891.The new property consisted of 13 acres. By this time Mademoiselle Augustine Soubeiran was co-principal with Miss Guerney.

In 1913 the school had grown to almost 50 pupils so it once again relocated, this time to Tivoli, its present home in Rose Bay. The school brought the name, Kambala, to the new location. A building has been on this site since 1842 when Captain William Dumaresq built a cottage and later a house. The Dumaresq family lived on the site until 1881 when Morrice Alexander Black purchased the property. He then had the house rebuilt. Further estensions and alterations have been made to Tivoli since it became a school. It is currently the boarding house for year 7 - 10 students.

Tivoli (1941)

Additional buildings have been built on the site as well as sports grounds.

Senior House building (1941)

In 1926 Kambala became a Church of England (Anglican) Foundation School.

My mother, Rosemary Lord, was a pupil at Kambala from 1939-1942. Consequently she was at the school during part of the Second World War. The post in this blog, Shelling of Rose Bay, provides information about Rosemary's memories of her school days at Kambala during the war.

Rosemary started the school in first form (year 7 now). Rosemary's life at school during this time can be viewed via some of the photographs in a family album.

Group of friends outside the Tivoli building (1939)

Miss Fifi Hawthorne was headmistress of the school when Rosemary attended Kambala. Miss Chadwick was the House Mistress during Rosemary's first year at the school.

Miss Chadwick (1939)

In a family history interview in 1994 Rosemary described one of her interests at school:

I used to take part in the drama class at school. The first year I got the runners up prize and the second year I won the prize for playing a hunter in some crazy thing. We used to spend lunch time sometimes fooling around in plays and things. One girl was really funny. She had invented a skit on The Three Bears. There was much giggling and what have you. She later became a doctor.

Friends (Rosemary second from left in group)

Relaxing in the school grounds

Shirley, Judy, Helen, Myra, Jill, Rosemary, Jocelyn, Ruth (1941)

Rosemary's favourite sport at school was tennis. In the 1994 interview she described her interest in sport: "I played tennis and I was captain of the B team. I played basketball (netball) but I played in the B team."

Ready for a game of tennis.

Kambala is in a beautiful location as the image below, from Wikipedia, indicates.

Click on the image for a better view

As Rosemary noted: "The school was in a beautiful position overlooking the harbour by the flying boat base. For a couple of years I was in classrooms that overlooked the base and it was hard to concentrate."

Although Australia was at war it did not directly impact upon Sydney until 1942. However the girls would have had family members - brothers, cousins - who had enlisted and in some cases were serving overseas. Rosemary's cousin, David, enlisted in July 1940 and was sent to Malaya. Her brother, Michael, enlisted in December 1941. There must have been discussion among the students regarding events overseas.

When the girls returned to school in 1942 air raid shelters had been constructed during the holidays and air raid practice implemented. Then in June 1942 a Japanese submarine shelled sections of Rose Bay, not far from the school.

Rosemary observed: "The air raid came in the middle of the night. We didn’t realise at the time how serious it was. Part of Rose Bay was shelled including the beach. At New South Head Road some flats were hit, not badly but windows were broken."

Rosemary also noticed one change in the neighbourhood after the shelling in 1942:  "Across the road from us there was a house which was let to the Americans who used to come there on R & R leave. Of course I was young and innocent and did not take notice particularly but I presume they had their girlfriends there."

The shelling of Rose Bay would have alerted the students at Kambala, especially the senior students to the seriousness of war. A number of them, including Rosemary and her friend Jill, volunteered to do community work with war related organisations. (More about that in a future post).  However, in the meantime the students completed their studies before embarking on the next stage of their life.

Further information and references:

Shelling of Rose Bay - Family Connections

For the love of old buildings - a post in the blog Lilyfield Life

Kambala School - Wikipedia

Kambala Girls' School - Local History Fast Facts - Woollahra City Council (useful information about other sites in Woollahra)

History - Kambala - School website

Shelling of Rose Bay

This was the final essay in the Oral History unit (my final subject) for the University of Tasmania Family History Diploma. The essay was restricted to 800 words (give or take 10%) and ended up being 819 words. Working to a word limit restricts providing some of the information on the topic but I will be linking additional posts to this one providing additional information on on the Flying Boat Base at Rose Bay and the presence of the Japanese off the coast plus incursions into the harbour. Photos not in original.]

Shortly after midnight, the residents of Rose Bay, a Sydney suburb, awoke to the sound of shells soaring over their homes. It was 8 June 1942. The previous week midget submarines had shelled targets in parts of Sydney Harbour, but now war had come to their suburb. [1]

1939 was a year of change for Rosemary as she moved from the family sheep station in south-western Queensland to Rose Bay to live with her aunt and attend secondary school. Her new home was Kooyong, a brick house on the corner of Hamilton Street and Carlisle Street. Rosemary described Kooyong’s location: “It was built up on a bit of a rise … and we looked down towards the Rose Bay Golf Club. We couldn’t see the harbour, but if you walked up to the next corner, and turned around the next street, you had a lovely view.” Rosemary also noted, “It was walking distance to school.”[2] 

Kooyong 1940s

School was Kambala in nearby Vaucluse. School days were happy days. Rosemary enjoyed playing sport, particularly tennis and netball and her favourite subject was drama. Her best friend, Jill, lived a few streets away. Rosemary described the school as being “in a beautiful position overlooking the harbour by the flying boat base.” She added, “For a couple of years I was in classrooms that overlooked the base and it was hard to concentrate.”

The flying boat base at Rose Bay opened in 1938 and was used by Qantas to take mail and passengers to England, plus other countries closer to Australia.[3] It was a busy centre with planes frequently arriving or leaving the base. However, by 1942, the RAAF had requisitioned most of the flying boats. The Rose Bay base then closed until the end of the war.

On 3 September, 1939, when Mr Menzies announced that Australia was at war with Germany, [4] Rosemary was holidaying with her mother and aunt in the Blue Mountains. They listened to the declaration of war on the radio. Almost three years later, shells from a Japanese submarine landed near her home. [5]

Initially war seemed far from Australia but fear of Japanese aggression grew, particularly in 1941. Japanese troops advanced towards Malaya and Singapore and then, in December, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour. [6]

At the beginning of the 1942 school year, students discovered air raid shelters built during the holidays. Rosemary described the precautions taken at Kambala: “At school we had air raid shelters which were a couple of classrooms strengthened up with beams and sandbags.” Students also learned what to do in the event of an air raid warning. “We used to have air raid practice, racing across and trying to remember what to do.” Rosemary added, “I hate to think what would have happened if there had been a raid.”

Precautions were not just restricted to schools. At night all buildings, including houses, observed blackout conditions. “At Rose Bay we had to blackout all the windows. We weren’t allowed to show any lights of course,” said Rosemary.

Owners of private houses also constructed air raid shelters for protection should enemy planes approach. Rosemary described how precautions were made at Kooyong. “We had our air raid shelter under Aunt’s room. There was a trapdoor that led down to the room though we could get to it from the outside as well. That was our shelter and we kept provisions there.”

When the Japanese submarine attacked, the sleepy residents of Kooyong hurriedly tried to follow their instructions: “…we had to rush to turn off the gas, fill the bath with water and make sure we had water below.” Rosemary then added, “I am afraid that if it had really been serious we would have been dead before we got ourselves organised.”

The shells that landed on Rose Bay came from the Japanese submarine, I-24, located fourteen kilometres out to sea.[7] Residents wondered what was happening. “We didn’t realise at the time how serious it was” Rosemary observed. “Part of Rose Bay was shelled including the beach. At New South Head Road some flats were hit, not badly but windows were broken.”

Few shells exploded though there was damage to a number of buildings, including houses, and roads.[8] Fortunately no-one was seriously injured. Two shells also landed on the golf course, located near the flying boat base.[9] Accounts of the shelling appeared in the newspapers.[10] Rosemary and her friends later visited some of the sites.

It is now believed that the Japanese attack on June 8 was planned to scare the population, rather than to create significant damage.[11] Not surprisingly some panic and uncertainty occurred after the attack. There was also a fall in house and rental prices in coastal areas and some families relocated to the safety of the country.[12] However most residents, including Rosemary (the girl from the country) and her aunt, remained in Rose Bay and continued their normal routine for the duration of the war.

Click image for a clearer view or use this link

The above image is from the website of Artius Real Estate and provides a view of Rose Bay overlooking the harbour taken in 2011. Kambala is to the left and the golf courses are to the right. Catalina Restaurant is built on the site of the buildings used by the sea plane base.

References:
[1] David Jenkins, Battle Surface! Japan’s Submarine War Against Australia 1942-1944, Sydney, Random House, 1992, pp. 201-237; Bob Wurth, 1942: Australia’s Greatest Peril, Sydney, Pan Macmillan Australia, 2008, pp. 221-255
[2] In 1994 Rosemary Moses recalled memories of living in Rose Bay during the Second World War. [3] Kim Hanna, ‘Rose Bay Airport’, Dictionary of Sydney, 2014. https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/rose_bay_airport accessed 1 December 2017
[4] Michael McKernan, Australians at Home: World War II, Scoresby, Victoria, Five Mile Press, 2014, p. 3; Bob Wurth, The Battle for Australia: A Nation and its Leader Under Siege, Sydney, Pan Macmillan Australia, 2013, p. 18.
[5] On the same night the Japanese submarine, I-21, shelled parts of Newcastle.
[6] McKernan, Australians at home, p. 96.
[7]Jenkins, Battle Surface!  pp. 247-251; Wurth, 1942l,  p. 261.
[8] Terry Jones and Steven Carruthers, A Parting Shot: Shelling of Australia by Japanese Submarines 1942, Narabeen, NSW, Casper Publications, 2013, pp. 44-53; Wurth, The Battle for Australia, p. 308. [9] Jones and Carruthers, A Parting Shot, pp. 87-97.
[10] ‘Sea Raiders Shell Sydney and Newcastle’, Sydney Morning Herald, 8 June 1942, p. 5.
[11] Jones and Carruthers, A Parting Shot, pp. 257-259.
[12] Jones and Carruthers, A Parting Shot, pp. 275-276.

Bibliography:
Dean, Peter J (editor), Australia 1942: In the Shadow of War, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2013.
Hanna, Kim, ‘Rose Bay Airport’, Dictionary of Sydney, https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/rose_bay_airport accessed 1 December 2017
Jenkins, David, Battle Surface! Japan’s Submarine War against Australia 1942-1944, Sydney, Random House, 1992.
Jones, Terry and Carruthers, Steven, A Parting Shot: Shelling of Australia by Japanese Submarines 1942, Narabeen, NSW, Casper Publications, 2013.
McKernan, Michael, Australians at Home: World War II, Scoresby, Victoria, Five Mile Press, 2014.
Moses, Rosemary, Interview by author, Audiotape recording, Melbourne, Australia, 10 May, 1994, in author’s possession.
Sydney Morning Herald.
Wurth, Bob, 1942: Australia’s Greatest Peril, Sydney, Pan Macmillan Australia, 2008.
Wurth, Bob, The Battle for Australia: A Nation and its Leader under Siege, Sydney, Pan Macmillan Australia, 2013.

For more information about the above books see my blog, Reading and Other Pursuits, for the post Sydney during the Second World War.

The post, Japanese submarines off Sydney contains a brief summary of events at the beginning of June.

Additional information about Kambala and Rosemary's experience of school in Sydney during the war can be found in another post in this blog - Kambala.
The post Rose Bay Flying Boat Base provides additional information about the flying boats.

52 Ancestors #52 Kenneth Campbell Moses

Ken aged 5 - Future journalist

Kenneth Campbell Moses was born in Sydney, New South Wales on 4 September 1918. He was the younger son of Henry John (Reginald) Moses (1889-1936) and Agnes Campbell Thom (1891-1974).

The family lived at a number of locations including Turramuarra, Milsons Point and Killara before moving to 69 Wood Street, Manly, in 1933. Ken attended Chatswood Intermediate High School. The move to Manly no doubt suited the teenager who joined the Manly Lifesaving Club. As well as swimming and surfing he also played rugby and supported the Manly Rugby League club. Ken's interest in sport is shown in the following paragraph in the Referee 18 January 1934.

KEN MOSES 'The Little Boy from Manly,' aged 15, 5ft 10 in in height, and 12st 5lb in weight, has been vacillating in his choice of golf or swimming as a sport on which to give his serious attention. Maybe, swimming will win, for he won the 220 yards swimming handicap at the Manly carnival on Saturday, beating a big field of youngsters who never saw his heels for spray. A disinterested outsider, however, might suggest that in view of his bulk wrestling would be more in his line.

Ken left school when he was 16 and initially worked as a junior at an advertising agency, O'Brien Publicity Company, earning 15/- a week. However Ken wanted to go bush and twelve months after leaving school he was on the train for the two day trip to Morven in south west Queensland to work on a property owned by  R J (Dick) Boyer. Dick Boyer and Ken's father had been friends from their time together at the University of Sydney. A paragraph in the Australian Women's Weekly 30 November 1935 page 4 confirmed that Ken was working on a property in western Queensland at that time.  He was employed as a jackaroo on Durella and worked there for about three years. Before he left Sydney his father arranged for Ken to meet a literary acquaintance - Banjo Patterson - so he could receive advice about what it was really like living in the bush.

What happened after Ken left Durella is a little confusing. I have a photograph, dated 1938, of Ken at the Manly Life Saving Club Ball held in the Hotel Manly Ballroom. A note on the back of the photograph states that he 'had travelled from Thurloo Downs, 220 miles west of Bourke, leaving Thursday morning, arriving Sydney Saturday morning having travelled 720 miles for Ball Saturday night, left for Forbes 240 miles following night for Uah shearing.' Unfortunately I do not know when in 1938 the Ball was held however I have been able to locate the two properties mentioned via a Google search. An article about Ken in the Chadstone Progress (28 October 1981)  states that when war broke out 'he was working on 1.25 million acres 200 miles west of Bourke'. This was probably Thurloo Downs. We also know that sometime between leaving Durella and enlisting in the Army  Ken worked as a wool scouer at the Bourke Wool Scour.

Once again it is through sport that we can confirm that he was in the Bourke region for a time. Ken was a member of the Bourke Amateur Swimming Club and the Western Herald 24 November 1939 reported that he would be a member of a relay team at the next carnival. He must have been in the Bourke area prior to March as the Western Herald 10 March 1939 reported that Ken was participating in aquatic events in Bourke.

At the Carnival last Sunday Mr. Bill Cowderoy introduced "Mergathroyd Physizalwhacker" who won all the diving events at "the Olympic Games in 1066." This distinguished person (Ken Moses) amused the vast audience with a series of fancy diving never before seen in Bourke — or any where. His turn met with great applause, and his fancy dress was "something out of the box". Congratulations Ken!

I suspect that much of the employment on stations was seasonal and that men went from one property to another as required, hence the reference to leaving 'for Forbes 240 miles following night for Uah shearing.'

Ken with his mother

 Shortly after war broke our in September 1939 Ken, now 21, applied to enlist in the Air Force but as there was a long waiting list he joined the Army instead. He was 21 when he and a mate travelled to Sydney to enlist in the Army. His Attestation Form and Service and Casualty Form show that Ken passed the medical examination for the Army at Victoria Barracks on 2 January 1940 and from 3 January he was stationed at the Army Camp at Ingleburn as part of the 2/4th Battalion. The following day, in full uniform, the soldiers marched through the streets of Sydney. There was little time to say goodbye to family and friends for on 10 January, only a week after joining the Army, members of the 2/4th Battalion were aboard the Strathnaver on their way to Palestine where they arrived on 13 February 1940.

The next nine months were spent training. The 2/4th was an Infantry Battalion but the soldiers also had training with an anti-aircraft regiment. On 9 November 1940 members of the 2/4th Battalion were transferred to Egypt and were initially stationed at a camp near Alexandria before moving to Mersa Matuh. In January 1941 they fought against the Italian soldiers at Bardia before moving on to Tobruk and later to Benghazi arriving as the Italian soldiers surrendered the city.

Ken did not go to Greece on 1 April 1941 with the rest of the 2/4th Battalion as he was in hospital with bronchitis. However later that month when the decision was made to evacuate the troops from Greece, Ken was aboard the Costa Rica, one of the evacuation ships. Loaded with troops, the Costa Rica was one of four Allied ships that were bombed and sank during the evacuation. The men from the Costa Rica managed to board other ships and were taken to Crete. When the Germans began bombing Crete the soldiers were evacuated from the island aboard a number of ships. Ken was aboard the Dido which although bombed by the Germans managed to reach port safely. The 2/4th Battalion then returned to camps in Palestine and Syria where they experienced a white Christmas.

In Palestine on 12 January 1942 members of the 2/4th Battalion embarked on the ship, Rajula, to return to Australia arriving in Adelaide on 27 March. After a period of leave the members of the battalion were sent to Darwin and from there to New Guinea, however the war was over for Ken as his health had deteriorated - he now had chronic asthma - and on 22 June he received a medical certificate stating that he was unfit for service in the army and was officially discharged on 16 September 1942.

Back in Australia, Ken returned to Bourke for a time before working as an overseer on another property in the Morven area, Victoria Downs. It was there that he met his future wife. However working in the outback affected his health and the decision was made (reluctantly) to return to Sydney and have a career change.

In 1944, Ken was offered a position as a trainee journalist on the Daily Telegraph. His first by-line was covering a story in the Blue Mountains where, as the picture on the left shows, his bush experience was an advantage. In 1945 he then spent a year in Canberra working at Parliament House in the Press Gallery. In 1946 he moved to Melbourne to work on the Sun News Pictorial as a sports writer. In 1948 he went to London to cover the Olympic Games and in 1950 he was in Auckland covering the Empire (now Commonwealth) Games.

Ken joined the staff of The Argus newspaper in May 1950 and was a sports writer and columnist on the paper until its closure in January 1957. Although he was interested in all sport, Ken wrote primarily about athletics, swimming, cycling and tennis. He also wrote a column, Why Keep it Quiet, in which he was renowned for expressing his opinion about the management of sport. Many of his articles were picked up by Australian Associated Press. In 1956 Ken was a member of the Press and Publicity Sub-committee for the organision of the Olympic Games in Melbourne.

When The Argus closed life changed again with Ken working in a variety of jobs, all related to journalism. These included twelve months at The Sporting Globe, Victorian manager of Rodney H Evans Advertising Agency, public relations manager for AMF ten pin bowling (when 10 pin bowling was introduced into Victoria), deputy news editor of Channel O -now Channel 10 - (when Channel O first opened) and editor of the short lived revival of Smith's Weekly. When Sunday newspapers began in Melbourne Ken worked on the Weekender and then the Sunday Observer. He also worked as a free-lance journalist for a time, worked on the journal of the Institution of Engineers Australia then finally worked at the Department of Trade. Ken was an active member of the Victorian branch of the Australian Journalist Association and was on the committee for a number of years. He also helped write books including White over Green which is the history of the 2/4th Battalion and My World on Wheels, the autobiography of Russell Mockeridge. Ken was assisting Max Rowley write the book, The Rowleys: golden years of cycling, when he died. When the book was published in 1990 it was dedicated to Bert and Eileen Rowley, Keith Rowley and Ken Moses.

At St Phillip's Church in Sydney on 11 February 1946, Ken married Rosemary Ann Lord. After a two week holiday on Phillip Island, staying at the Phillip Island Hotel at Cowes, they then moved to Melbourne to live. They had two daughters and one son. Initially they lived in rented accommodation until purchasing, with the aid of War Service Home Loan, a newly built house in East Bentleigh. The family moved to East Bentleigh in May 1955. With family in Queensland and New South Wales, the summer holidays were spent visiting those states.

Ken loved Australia, especially its history. He loved to travel and saw much of the country when working or on holiday. Many of the pieces that he wrote for the weekend newspapers featured places he had visited in Australia. In later years he also spent time working on the family tree. He was so pleased when he discovered that the convict, Uriah Moses, was his great grandfather. After Ken died we discovered another seven convicts on his family tree. He would have been so pleased with this discovery, especially as one of the convicts, William Roberts, was a First Fleet convict.

When visiting family in Queensland, Ken became ill and died in Brisbane on 16 September 1984.

Being a New South Welshman through and through, Ken always said that he felt much better once he had crossed the Murray River and was back in New South Wales. However when he was in hospital in Brisbane all he wanted was to return home to Melbourne. The funeral service was held in Brisbane and being far from home most of Ken's many friends were unable to attend. However, as he was an ex-serviceman, the RSL arranged for members of a local RSL to attend the funeral and the Last Post was played. This was greatly appreciated by Ken's family. Ken's ashes were returned home and interred at the Springvale Cemetery in Victoria.

Ken Moses was my father.

52 Ancestors #50 Nancy Hazel Hutton

Nancy Hazel Hutton was born on 1 September 1899 at Parkes, New South Wales. She was the second daughter of George Hutton and Annie Wilson Hardwick Weston. Eleonora Ruby Hutton had been born in 1892 and died in 1990. There was also an older brother, William Clifton Weston Hutton who was born in 1889 and died in 1893. George and his family owned a sheep station near Parkes called The Troffs and lived there until a prolonged drought forced George to sell the property in the early years of the twentieth century. George remained in the Parkes area working as a rabbit inspector but Annie decided to return to Sydney taking the girls with her. George visited them in Sydney when he could.

The Sands and Kenny Directories for 1903-1907 list Annie as living at 47 McLaren Street, North Sydney. This house probably belonged to Percy Weston, Annie's brother, who allowed the family to live in the house provided other family members could stay there when they visited Sydney. From 1910 to 1915 the directories show that Annie was living at Wyalla, at 46 Upper Pitt Street, North Sydney, which she ran as a boarding house.

Nancy therefore grew up in inner Sydney and would have attended school there. Wyalla was sold in 1916 when Annie and her eldest daughter decided to travel to England to help with the war effort. Nancy, who would have been 16 when they left was sent to stay with relatives. Apparently she was not impressed with this arrangement and the trip to England was never discussed in later years by the family.

View of Sydney Harbour

Nancy was an artist and enjoyed painting watercolours. The family has a number of examples of her work. Unfortunately she did not continue with her art. However many years later, on one of our family holidays to Queensland, I do remember her trying to teach me how to draw the trees growing on a hill on the other side of the creek. I did learn about perspective from her and to attempt to draw what I actually saw rather than what I expected to see, but unfortunately my artistic talents were limited.

On 1 February 1922 Nancy married Arthur Brougham Lord at St John's Church in Darlinghurst. Arthur and Nancy purchased a sheep station, Metavale, 39 kilometres south of Cunnamulla in south western Queensland and Nancy would have found life very different from her previous life in Sydney.

Metavale consisted of 55,000 acres. Cunnamulla is 200 kilometres miles from the major town in the area, Charleville. The nearest neighbours were at Waihora, 16 kilometres away. The property relied on bore water. Tank water was used for drinking. There was also a dam near the house. My mother remembers swimming in the dam and diving from the landing. The climate was hot and dry with only small clumps of vegetation near the house. Nancy planted a garden near the house and my mother remembers the flowers in winter and spring. There was also a bougainvillea growing on a trellis at the front of the house, a saltbush hedge and some oleanders. Arthur also planted a vegetable garden. As well as all the sheep, a few cows were kept for milk and there were lots of chooks plus ducks and turkeys. There were also lots of sheep dogs plus other dogs that were family pets. Bread and the mail were delivered once a week initially - later it was twice a week. Groceries and other ordered supplies would also arrive on the mail truck. The driver would continue on to other properties and then call in once more on his way back to collect any answers to mail delivered earlier in the day.

Nancy and Arthur had two children - Michael Arthur Balcombe Lord (1923-2010) and Rosemary Ann Lord born in 1926. The children initially had a governess until they were old enough to go to school in Brisbane or Sydney.

When the opportunity arose Nancy enjoyed entertaining friends from neighbouring properties. On one occasion Nancy organised a fancy dress party for her daughter and all the guests came dressed as nursery rhyme characters. Pink flowers and white blossom, made from crepe paper, decorated the garden. There would have been lots of food. I can remember parties held at Rosemount many years later where the day was spent cooking special food for the evening entertainment.Christmas was also a special occasion with a large Christmas tree decorated with special decorations.

Nancy and Arthur were at Metavale during the Depression and also a number of droughts and times were hard financially for many of these years. When a cousin offered to give Nancy the furniture that had belonged to her parents at The Troffs, she refused the offer as she could not afford the transportation costs and did not want to tell them of her financial difficulties.

However in 1936  Nancy and her sister, Eleonora, travelled together to Singapore and Japan for a holiday. They had received a bequest from a family member and the money was used for the holiday. They brought back camphor chests, kimonos and other souvenirs. The camphor chests were on the verandah at Rosemount many years later and contained clothes that my sister and I were allowed to use for dress-ups. The smell when a camphor chest was opened was always rather special. The camphor chests also stored pieces of fabric. I was allowed to keep a piece of cream lace which I incorporated into the design of my wedding dress many years later. I also have a beautiful beaded top from the 1920s that was stored in one of the camphor chests.

Eventually trying to survive in the outback became too difficult so in 1947 Arthur and Nancy sold Metavale and purchased a new property, Beriley, near Toogoolawah where they grew vegetables. In 1954 they moved to a dairy farm, Rosemount, between Kilcoy and Woodford. In the mid 1960s they sold Rosemount and retired to Buderim on the Sunshine Coast.

Nancy was very proud of her family history and my brother and sister and I have memories of being cornered so she could tell us stories about the Hutton family in India and the family items lost in a shipwreck on the journey from England to Australia. Now there are questions that I would like to ask but when we were children we were not really interested. I did however remember some of the stories and have since been able to piece together much of the Hutton and Mackillop story via other sources.

Nancy Hutton spent her final years in a nursing home in Toowoomba where she died on 5 September 1997. She was 98.

Nancy Hutton was my grandmother.