Remembrance Day 2012

 

On this 2012 Remembrance Day

 the members of the Ryde Goes to War Project team 

remember all our Australian service men and women,

especially those with a connection to

the Ryde Municipality.

WWI Nurses with a connection to Ryde District

In our research to-date we have found eight Nurses, Sisters or Matrons on our lists for the Ryde Municipality.

Much has been written about Matron (Mary Anne) Bessie Pocock, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/pocock-mary-anne-bessie-8069 
who was born in Queensland and grew up in the Grafton area of New South Wales. Pocock did her general nursing training at Sydney Hospital from November 1890 and continued on the staff as a sister until  she joined the New South Wales Army Nursing Service Reserve in 1899 and enlisted for service in the South African War. She returned to Sydney Hospital in June 1903 until she was appointed matron of hospitals for the insane at Newcastle in 1907-11 and at Gladesville in 1911-14.
In September 1914 Sister Pocock enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force and took up duty as senior sister of the 2nd Australian General Hospital, Cairo, Egypt, she then served as matron at the temporary hospital for the wounded at Ismailia, on the Hospital Ship Assaye and in France & Belgium, the Australian convalescent hospital, Cobham Hall, Kent, England and the 3rd Australian Auxiliary Hospital, Dartford, England before returning to Sydney on 30 October 1919. After the war she resumed her position as matron at Gladesville Hospital.
Bessie Pocock was awarded the Royal Red Cross, 2nd class.

While there are numerous photos of, and lots of published material dealing with Matron Pocock's WWI service, very little is known of the other seven women who served and to-date we haven't found any photos of them.

If you have any information that would add to our research project we would love to hear from you.

FOLLINGTON	Emily
HALL	Marion
HILL	Nellie Frances
HYDE	Charlotte Louisa
MURRELL	Elizabeth Ellen
MURRELL	Emmeline Anne
POCOCK	Mary Anne Bessie
REID	Evelyn Maud

Project Up-date October 2012:

We currently have 20 helpers working on different letters of the alphabet to identifying the combined list of names we have collected from various Honour rolls, war memorials, embarkations rolls, local newspapers, etc.  that have been found to have a connection to the Ryde district before or during World War I.

The current total number of names is 1842 Service people ; and so far we have been able to identify with full names and service numbers 1044  ; with 798  still to be identified.

 

The number who didn't come home is currently 341 and we have photos of 107 of their headstones or memorials.

 

We have also made contact with the families of 38 service people from our list and have found photos for 125 of them.

The number of Nurses, Sisters, or Matrons found on our list is currently at 8.  

Ryde's Conference Trading Table.

Between September 14 -16, six members of the Ryde District Historical Society & Family History Group attended the 2012 NSW & ACT Association of Family History Societies Annual State Conference at Gymea, NSW.

There, we were able to meet other Societies and share our Ryde goes to War Project and to find out what other groups are doing across the State.





In the past month we had also found that by using the ADFA search site http://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/search
we could tick the next of kin's address option and the results gave us whole new list of names, many we had already found by other means but at this stage there appears to be a lot more soldiers and a few nurses who have a connection to the Ryde district during WWI.



Marg & Kim cross checking lists!

Marg & Kim took some time out during Friday's Conference Expo (not just to put their feet up and enjoy the Tradies Members Lounge!) but to cross-check our soldiers lists -- instead of eliminating duplicate names - we have found a whole lot more to add!

We have also added a 'My Blog List' to the left hand column of this blog and are adding other WWI Blog projects we find.




Private John Forrest - a Ryde soldier among those recently identified at Pheasant Wood, Fromelles, France.

 In July 2012  nine Australian World War One soldiers were given final honour on 96th anniversary of the Battle of Fromelles at a headstone dedication ceremony .

One of those nine, Scottish born, John  Robertson Forrest (3064) was living in the Sydney suburb of North Ryde when he enlisted. He was 'Killed in Action' on 19 July 1916. We had already identified him as one of our 'Ryde goes to War' soldiers because his name is listed on the Eastwood War Memorial, the memorial in St Anne's Anglican Church Ryde and the Ryde Council Memorial Book (located in the Ryde Civic Centre). We only recently discovered that he was among those recently identified at Pheasant Wood and finally given a headstone.

The dedication ceremony, Fromelles, France.

Photo: Kim Phillips, July 2012.

Name	Unit	Address at Enlistment	Occupation at Enlistment	Place of Enlistment	Date of Enlistment	Age at Embarkation	Marital Status	Comments
PTE John Forrest	54th Battalion	North Ryde, Sydney NSW	Carter	Liverpool NSW	2 Jul 15	24	Single	Born in Scotland Previous service in 6th Gordon Highlanders, British Army

 
 Further details:
http://www.minister.defence.gov.au/2012/07/20/parliamentary-secretary-for-defence-australian-soldiers-given-final-honour-on-96th-anniversary-of-the-battle-of-fromelles/


John Forrest, joins another 'Ryde goes to War' soldier already identified with a headstone Pheasant Wood, Fromelles, France. Laurence Harriott (4509), also a member of the 54th Battalion was also  'Killed in Action' on 19 July 1916.  A photo of Laurence is available on the Australian War Memorial Website. http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/H06405

Laurence Harriott headstone
at Pheasant Wood, Fromelles, France.
Photo: Kim Phillips, July 2012.

PROJECT UP-DATE: July 2012

 No we haven't gone to sleep or stopped here - all our volunteer research team have been busy for the last month or two trying to identify all the names we have found and trying to turn them into a serviceperson, who can be identified with a connection to the Ryde Municipality.

We will meet together in August to discuss all the finds --- so keep checking for further updates on the project!

Project up-date - May 2012:

By the end of April 2012 we have added more names to our list with a possible connection to the Ryde District prior to WWI.

To date:

• We have found a total of 1819 names ( but many are still just a surnames and initials)
• We have identified 992 by finding their full names and/or service numbers - that's 54.5% found!
• It leaves 827 names still to be identified.
• From the total - we have also found 339 (- that's 18.6%) were killed in action or died of wounds.

But just identifying them isn't enough, our volunteer team have divide the list and started looking for any more information they can find to connect them to the Ryde district.

We have started a points system for the information we find - each connection to the District we find gives them more points!
 - so far the leading lad is David Chestnut (see - A Gallipoli story ... the previous Anzac week blog)