Project Update — September 2013

My apologies for the lack of blog updates in recent months, but a bereavement and a birth in my family, has kept me distracted from updating the blog.

Yes – the Ryde goes to War Project is still progressing – our latest update:

In our database we currently have 2,075 names of Service people with a connection to the Ryde district. These have been collected from various Honour rolls, War memorials, embarkations rolls, local newspapers, etc. Most just list a family name with an initial or two. When these rolls, memorials and reports were created a hundred years ago, the Ryde community would have known exactly who they were honouring, but today many are unknown or forgotten. We want to identify these men and the few women and at the least find their full names and service numbers and their connection to the district. Many on our list were born in the area, educated or worked in the area; others are proving harder to find the connection for.

So far we have been able to identify,

 with full names and service numbers, 1,349.  

726 are still to be identified.

304 of them never returned home, and we currently have photos of 105 of their headstones or memorials.

We have also made contact with the families of 78 service people from our list

 and have found photos of 114 of them.

The number of Nurses, Sisters, or Matrons found on our list is currently at 11or 12 (depending if Nurse N. Hall, turns out to be the same person as Nurse Marion Hall...

What our team has been up to……

• In August we got together to discuss our project with many of our team of researchers. We have more than 20 working on the project including one joining us when possible from Victoria! Each has been focusing on a specific letter and working on their group of surnames; some have completed their groups and we are starting to collate the data, while others are still hunting!
• We also have representatives on the Ryde Anzac Centenary Committee Ryde Council’s WWI Centenary taskforce and are working with them to ensure the data we collect will be accessible into the future.
• We had planned a transcription and photographing day at one of our local cemeteries, Field of Mars, in June, but it was rained out.  The sun shone on our July date and we were able to tackle various sections to hunt out any headstones that included war service information or memorials. A few of our team are following up on this and more details will follow.

A Gallipoli story - David Chestnut a “local hero” before and after WWI :

In August 1915, Ryde local paper, The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers’ Advocate printed : 'Private David Chestnut of Ryde is now officially reported to be “missing”. '

David was already a local hero prior to his enlistment. Described as an all-round athlete, he had captained the Ryde Football Club in the previous year and he had also rescued a boy from drowning in the Parramatta River, for which he had been honoured with a life-saving certificate. David Chestnut’s story is but one of the many we are searching to uncover in the Ryde goes to War Project.

Private David Chestnut
born 1890, Ryde

When David enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces on 7 September 1914, he was 24 years old. The son of William & Lizzie Chestnut, fruitgrowers from Regent Street, Ryde, he was working as a carpenter. He left Australia in board the Transport A38 Ulysses on 22 December 1914, as part of the 13th Battalion. From Alexandra he departed for the Gallipoli peninsula.

After surviving the Gallipoli landing, it was during one of the following nights that David went missing. He was reported as leaving his dugout on Pope’s Hill to fill water bottles and never returned. He was formally listed as missing in action on 2 May 1915, but it was not until after a Court of Inquiry held at Serapeum, Egypt in April 1916 that David was officially listed as Killed in Action on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

David’s personal effects which included a Housewife (mending kit), 3 brushes, prayer book and postage stamps were subsequently returned to his mother, Lizzie in Ryde.

David’s contribution was remembered on 4 different war memorials within the Municipality of Ryde:

·         The Ryde Public School Honour Board

·         Ryde Wesley Uniting Church Honour Roll (at the time of WWI- it  was the local Wesleyan Methodist Church),

·         Ryde Town Hall Honour Rolls,

·         Ryde Civic Centre Memorial Book.