Valentine William Kelly — a slim, dark-haired draper from Victoria — was 25 when he signed up for the Australian Imperial Force (A.I.F.) in July 1915. His parents James and Emily Kelly lived in Mosman at a house named “Alda” in Calypso Avenue.

Local philatelist Andrew Brockett recently came across some poignant postal covers that tell something of his story.

Many Mosmanites were “doing their bit” closer to home as members of the military, voluntary workers, entertainers and fund raisers.

One of the most prominent of these was Annie Alethea Evans who was widely known and referred to as simply Miss Evans. She was active in a number of voluntary capacities and as Commandant of the No 8 Mosman Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD), established and ran the Anzac Buffet from late 1915.

When it comes to tagging Mosman service men and women in Trove’s historical newspaper database, John Bryan is well in advance of all other parties.

More than 1,500 is his score.

Two years ago, Tim Sherratt suggested the tag mosman1418-person. With so many articles tagged, we now have a useful filter when searching Mosman names:

Search only newspaper articles tagged mosman1418-person →

The tag even features in Trove’s top 100.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the dedication of the HMAS Sydney Memorial Mast at Bradleys Head, Mosman. The ceremony took place on 24 November 1934, attended by thousands who watched from land and sea.

Original plans for the seating and positioning of guests, dignitaries and members of the public for the HMAS Sydney Memorial Mast ceremony at Bradley’s Head have been rediscovered and photographed in high resolution and are now available online.