At this
point our project’s main focus is on those men and women who have any
connection to the Ryde Municipality before or during WWI. The connection might
be like that of David Chestnut (in our first blog story), a lad who was born
and educated locally, with strong family ties to the district that left his
name recorded on 4 different war memorials within the Municipality.
Others, like Henry Oscar Nelson, were born in New Zealand and only
moved to Ryde in the years before the war. Some names that have made our lists
contain only a brief connection to the district with the only connection being
found to be their birthplace, or the address of their next of kin. There are
still a number of others that remain for us to puzzle out what their connection
could be.
What we have found is that many can be claimed by more than just the
Ryde district, also having connections to other regions, both before and after
the war. Two of our more famous names fall into this category.
Matron Bessie Pocock, was born in 1863 at Dalby, Queensland. By 1876,
her family had settled to a small acreage at The Punchbowl, near Grafton, NSW. She
first joined the New
South Wales Army Nursing Service Reserve in 1899 and enlisted for service in
the South African War. Later in life she became the Matron of Gladesville
Hospital between 1911-14. After the war she resumed her position as matron at
Gladesville until 1924 when she established a convalescent hospital at
Chatswood. While the Ryde district is not her place of birth or death, her
connection to our district is remembered by her listing on the Gladesville
Hospital Honour Board, Ryde Town Hall Honour Rolls and on Christ Church Memorial
Gates at Gladesville.
Another
example is the poet, Andrew Barton (Banjo) Paterson, who was born in Orange, NSW, in 1864. He spent much of his school
years with his widowed grandmother, poet Emily Barton, at her home, Rockend Cottage in Gladesville.
Banjo’s connection to
our district is also remembered on the Ryde Town Hall Honour Rolls. His connection to the Orange District has
also been made with a recent post on their “Centenary of World War One in
Orange” site:
Where we find any similar WWI projects, we will add them to
our blog watch list or list the links.
Everyone on our list has a story to tell, some are just local, others
national, we mightn’t get to them all but in the coming years we hope to find
and share many of their stories.
