Progenitor , journal of the Genealogical Society of the Northern Territory (GSNT) , Darwin, has produced another interesting issue.
GSNT Secretary and Public Officer , June Tomlinson, contributed much of the content , including the great detective research job she carried out on a wayward uncle of hers , Clarrie Thomas , said to have been shot dead in a Pitt Street , Sydney, gun battle . In actual fact , he was shot by Richard Reilly, floor manager at the Ginger Jar Cabaret . Reilly claimed Clarrie , who had just bashed his brother, went for a gun , so he drew his own gat and shot him . Reilly was found not guilty of murder.
Clarrie , of Irish descent , born October 8, 1901 , became a wild boyo, involved in the Sydney underworld ; June discovered an article which said he had been the youngest person , 14 years and seven months , to join up for WWl . However, he was discharged 14 days later because he was declared "unlikely to become an efficient soldier . "
In May 1916 he again unsuccessfully tried to enlist, claiming he was l8 years and two month old ; he wrongly stated his mother and father were dead. His height was 5ft 4 inches , weighed 101 pounds and had a chest measurement a little over 30 inches. Later in the year , occupation carter, he did enlist by putting up his age by ll months since his last application . His " dead" mother was next of kin , father "dead ".
His service record revealed he was in frequent trouble -in Egypt it included failing to return to ship and in 1919 stealing with violence from an inhabitant of that country . Court martialled , he was returned to Australia and served 18 months in Long Bay Prison , Sydney .
Clarrie's marks and special features included a large nose , a ship , heart and ribbon with Mother thereon above Egypt outside right upper arm , head of Indian girl outside right forearm , scar inside right forearm .
A 1937 newspaper report discovered by June Tomlinson carried the surprising information he had been allowed out of Long Bay to marry Gertrude Pearl Dawson in the Parramatta Methodist Church . Following his release , he was charged with consorting with known criminals .
GUIDE TO IRISH CONVICTS AND IMMIGRANTS
This is the heading on another article by June Tomlinson in the latest issue of Progenitor.It includes invaluable information from conferences she attended in Ireland and research she carried out herself . In it she refers to the Evelyn Conlon novel on the lives of famine orphan girls, taken from workhouses and shipped to Australia from Ireland 1848 to l850.
Sources of information for researchers include state libraries , the Dead Persons Society of Western Australia , the Female Factory at Parramatta , a list of helpful books .
CALL TO END WARS
An article by family historian the late Dr Leila Valerie Asche (AM) ,entitled ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO, commenced with the background to the League of Nations in a bid to prevent wars , US President Woodrow Wilson in l917 putting forward 14 points for a suggested Global Parliament , eventually leading to the United Nations .
Dr. Asche included a photo of a Mizpah brooch (above ) her kind aunt, Emma Wilson,had given her in 1947 . She explained that in Hebrew mitzpah had come to mean an emotional bond between people separated either physically or by death. She (Asche) was ill in Royal Melbourne Hospital with TB when her aunt gave her the brooch."I still puzzle about the mizpah brooch and think it might have been a gift to me when I was so ill, rather than a bond between her and a soldier as he went to WWl."
Uncle Everett , shot in the waist at Gallipoli , was eventually killed by "friendly fire " in France .The neglected part played by nurses in WWl is mentioned . The thinking being that women should not be near battle zones , should not be married and although given officer status were only paid about half the male equivalent . They were not recognised with honours - even trees in avenues of honour , pensions and return service status , until l943, she wrote . The Darwin nurse ,Janie Mason , AM, had founded and supervised the Charles Darwin University Nursing Museum and written a book about the medical and nursing support for the Gallipoli campaign .
